The U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan announced that great number of visas have been issued to Kazakh nationals since early 2014.
The US and Kazakhstan have agreed to a five-year visa regime on 1 August 2013, which eased the travel between the two nations. Moreover, the number of visa applications has reached a high level. The U.S. embassy said that around 21,000 visas were issued to Kazakh nationals over this year.
Yerzhan Ashikbaev, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan, stated that the five-year visa agreement between the two countries signifies the strategic partnership between the U.S and Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan has issued 11,500 visas approximately for the U.S. nationals, out of which most of them were tourist and business visas.
By considering their partnership and the active role of the US firms in the country, the Government of Kazakhstan has determined to incorporate the US in the list of 10 countries, which exempts the US nationals to hold a visa to visit Kazakhstan for a period of 15 days. This is an important initiative to reinforce the business relations between the two countries, Ashikbaev added.
John Ordway, In charge of the U.S. to Kazakhstan, stated that the number of visa applications has increased by 41% by executing this new policy.
The embassy said that Kazakhstan is the first nation in the Central Asia to take the advantage of the agreement concerned with five-year visa regime, although other major countries have such agreement. However, the US is the first nation in the world that signed a five-year visa regime with Kazakhstan.
