New Work Permit Issue Rules

In line with Michael Wilson & Partners' practice of keeping you up to date with important legal developments which may influence your business, we would like to draw your attention to the new changes in the employment legislation of Kazakhstan.

On 27 June 2016, the Acting Minister of Health and Social Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan approved a Rules and Conditions for the Issuance and (or) Prolongation of Permits to Foreign Workers for Employment, as well as Intra-Corporate Transfer (the "Rules"). The Rules will come into force on 1 January 2017.

There following key changes are introduced by the Rules:

Work permits are to be issued under "general regime"

The Rules do not contain a list of exemptions as opposed to the current work permit issue rules, which provide that, inter alia, heads (directors) of branches and representative offices of foreign legal entities shall be exempt from the requirement of obtaining work permits. Accordingly, the requirement of obtaining work permit will apply to all foreign workers, including heads (directors) of branches and representative offices of foreign legal entities. The employer will be obliged to pay the state fee for issue and (or) prolongation of work permit obtained. Such state fee will range from 137 MCI (KZT310,853) to 225 MCI (KZT510,525)1, and the amount of fee will depend on type of the employer's activity and category of the foreign employee2. The decision on issue of the work permit will now have to be made within a shorter timeline of seven (7) business days from the documents' submission date. The employer will not be obliged to submit a document guaranteeing departure of the foreign employee from Kazakhstan at the termination of work permit. Duration of various work permits will be changed as follows: Work permit for the 1st category employees to be issued for a period of twelve (12) months with a possibility of annual prolongation for twelve (12) months; Work permits for the 2nd and 3rd categories employees to be issued for a period of twelve (12) months with a possibility to apply no more than three (3) times for a prolongation for twelve (12) months each time; and Work permit for the 4th...