1. Citizenship Law
a. Jus Sanguinis and Jus Soli Provisions
The citizenship law of Kazakhstan is fundamentally based on the principle of jus sanguinis, establishing nationality primarily through parentage and bloodline. [1] However, it incorporates limited and conditional jus soli characteristics strictly as safety nets, specifically to prevent childhood statelessness for foundlings and children born to stateless parents permanently residing in the country.[2]
The Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Citizenship (Law No 1017‑XII of 20 December 1991) has also been amended twice in recent years, first by Law No 82‑VIII of 16 May 2024 and subsequently by Law No 203‑VIII of 30 June 2025. [3] Article 11 of the Law outlines that a child born to two Kazakhstani citizens will be granted citizenship by descent regardless of their place of birth.[4] Likewise, Article 3 provides that any person born on Kazakhstani territory who does not hold the citizenship of another state is a citizen of Kazakhstan, thereby establishing a limited jus soli rule that confers citizenship at birth, specifically on children who would otherwise be stateless. [5]Children born inside the territory of Kazakhstan will have citizenship if they have at least one parent who is a citizen of Kazakhstan according to Article 12 of the Law. [6] However, Article 11(1) states that a child born to two parents of foreign citizenship will not have citizenship regardless of their birthplace. [7]
Permanent residency is an additional condition of citizenship in Kazakhstan which narrows the scope of protection from statelessness under the Law. [8] If a child is born outside of the territory, the child will have citizenship only if the parents are both citizens, or if at least one parent was a citizen of Kazakhstan and had permanent residence in Kazakhstan at the time of birth.[9] Article 12 also stipulates that citizenship is determined upon written consent from the parents for children born to at least one parent who is a citizen but both parents permanently reside outside of Kazakhstan.[10]
Kazakhstan’s Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Kazakhstan also includes provisions specifically for people affected by statelessness. [11] Law No 203‑VIII introduced a new provision, Article 2‑1, which defines the overall aims, objectives and guiding principles of the legislation. [12] Under Article 2‑1(2)(4), one of the law’s explicit objectives is to regulate the legal status of stateless persons. Article 2‑1(3)(4) further requires that decisions affecting children’s citizenship must take account of the child’s best interests. Finally, Article 2‑1(3)(5) codifies the prevention and reduction of statelessness as an express principle underpinning the law. [13] Kazakhstan introduced a national statelessness determination procedure in 2020, which determines the legal status of persons residing in Kazakhstan who do not have Kazakh citizenship or proof of citizenship elsewhere and can facilitate legalization of stateless persons’ stay in Kazakhstan. [14]This sits alongside a broader UNHCR-supported national campaign (running since 2014, intensified from 2020) to identify and register undocumented or stateless persons. [15] Even though a 2020 Order from the Minister of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan stipulates that any non-citizen residing within the territory who does not have proof of citizenship elsewhere “shall be recognized as stateless persons”, one is often not granted stateless status due to inability to confirm their residence. [16] Further, the requirement of showing documentation of absence or termination of citizenship in another state in order to obtain stateless status through the SDP presents a major barrier as states often do not administer such documents. [17] If administered, state bodies of Kazakhstan also often do not accept many forms of such a document. [18] This legislation leaves the burden of proof to stateless people, which can leave some in limbo as they are unable to acquire the required documents for the SDP. [19] While the introduction of the statelessness determination procedure (SDP) is a significant achievement for Kazakhstan, UNHCR has noted that important safeguards in the SDP framework remain incomplete in practice. In particular, access to the procedure can be limited for individuals who cannot produce documents proving permanent residence, and although the 2020 Rules provide for a hearing and an appeal process, applicants may face practical barriers in effectively exercising these rights. [20] [21]Kazakhstan’s legislation currently does not protect the right to an interview, free legal aid, and the right to appeal first-instance negative decisions. [22] For example, those whose citizenship applications have been rejected have the opportunity to appeal the decision, but the process to appeal is often drawn out. [23]The general administrative-appeal procedure was reformed by a December 2025 law amending the Administrative Procedural Code and Civil Procedure Code, whereby authorities must now specify appeal procedures and the reviewing body directly in decisions, and case-file access during proceedings was expanded. [24] However, there is limited information on how much this impacts Statelessness appeal procedures. The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons provides that stateless persons’ access to the courts shall be equal to citizens of the state. [25] UNHCR recommends that Kazakhstan ratify the 1954 Convention and adequately provide legal safeguards and equal access to the courts for stateless persons in Kazakhstan. [26]
Currently, the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Citizenship of the Republic of Kazakhstan defines a stateless person as any person who is not a citizen of Kazakhstan and does not have proof of citizenship elsewhere, placing the burden of proof on the stateless person. [27]Kazakhstan could further improve its legislation by bringing its definition of a stateless person in line with the definition provided by the 1954 Convention, which determines status of a potential stateless person by referring to national legislation on citizenship of the country the person has or had ties with. [28]
b. Naturalized Citizenship
In Kazakhstan, stateless individuals are eligible for naturalized citizenship on the same basis as foreigners. [29] Article 32 of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons requires States to facilitate and expedite the naturalisation of stateless persons. In Kazakhstan, some stateless persons may benefit from the simplified (registration) procedure under Article 16‑1 of the Citizenship Law, including ethnic Kazakhs, victims of political repression and their descendants, and those covered by international treaties, but stateless persons as such do not constitute a separate, automatically expedited category under domestic law. [30] [31] Naturalization can be achieved by stateless persons and foreigners alike by legally residing in Kazakhstan for a period of 5 years or being married to a citizen of Kazakhstan for three years. [32] Article 17 of Kazakhstan’s Citizenship Law introduces a new ground for refusing naturalisation: an applicant may be denied if they do not possess at least elementary proficiency in the state language, or lack basic knowledge of the Constitution and history of Kazakhstan as defined by the authorised body in science and higher education. [33] Exemptions from these requirements are limited to minors, persons lacking legal capacity, individuals recognised for special merit or belonging to specified professions, ethnic Kazakhs (oralman/kandasy), and those eligible for simplified acquisition under ratified international treaties; stateless persons, as a class, are not exempt. [34] It also provides that citizenship may be refused where, in the five years preceding the application, the applicant has committed repeated breaches of Kazakhstan’s population migration legislation, thereby establishing a distinct administrative-recidivism ground focused on immigration compliance rather than ordinary criminal convictions. In practice, this captures patterns such as multiple overstays, repeated failures to register or notify arrival, unauthorised work or mismatched visa purposes, and other documented violations that trigger fines, deportation orders, or re-entry bans under the migration and administrative-offences framework. Because the provision is framed as “repeated” violations within a rolling five-year window, even non-criminal administrative infractions can cumulatively disqualify an applicant, and the rule applies to stateless persons unless they fall within the narrow exempt classes (minors, incapacitated, ethnic Kazakhs, special-merit or treaty-based simplified acquisition cases). [35] Part of the registration process for naturalization requires providing a criminal record, documentation regarding termination or absence of citizenship in a different state, as well as proof of permanent residency in Kazakhstan for the required period. [36] A stateless person can only begin accumulating the years of residency required for naturalization after they have successfully completed the Statelessness Determination Procedures (SDPs), and are formally recognised as stateless. [37]Difficulties accessing the SDP for some stateless persons can present a barrier to stateless persons’ naturalization in Kazakhstan. [38]
c. Dual Citizenship
Dual citizenship is not permitted in Kazakhstan’s citizenship laws, with Article 3 stating that the Republic of Kazakhstan does not recognize the citizenship of another state for its citizens. [39]Article 21 further states that gaining citizenship of a different state will result in the loss of citizenship of Kazakhstan. The Law does not provide details on the process of renunciation of prior citizenship upon application for citizenship of Kazakhstan. [40] Article 21(5-1) further provides that citizenship may be revoked where, after acquiring citizenship of the Republic of Kazakhstan, an individual uses documents that establish their citizenship of another state. It also states that citizenship will be lost in case of using documents confirming citizenship of another state after acquiring citizenship of the Republic of Kazakhstan. [41] The Law does not provide details on the process of renunciation of prior citizenship upon application for citizenship of Kazakhstan.
2. Treaty Ratification Status
| Country | Stateless 1 | Stateless 2 | Refugee | ICCPR | ICESCR | ICERD | CRC | CEDAW |
| Kazakhstan | ⛔ | ⛔ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Article 2 of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Citizenship of the Republic of Kazakhstan states that the rules of any ratified international treaties take precedence over the rules included in the Law.
Aside from the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, Kazakhstan has ratified all relevant international treaties, which include the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, the ICCPR, ICESCR, ICERD, CRC, and CEDAW. There were no notable reservations from Kazakhstan on these ratifications.
Under CEDAW, Kazakhstan is required to ensure gender equality in nationality laws. [43] In Kazakhstan’s recent concluding observations by the CEDAW Committee, it was identified that reacquisition of nationality after loss of nationality through marriage is not always possible and, therefore, legislation should be reviewed to ensure that women can re-acquire nationality in cases of dissolution or non-occurrence of marriage. [44] More pertinently, the 2024 amendment to the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Kazakhstan introduced an explicit safeguard that a Kazakh citizen’s marriage to a non‑citizen, and the dissolution of such a marriage, shall not entail a change in that person’s citizenship. [45] This provision, now set out in Article 7 of the Citizenship Law, corresponds to CEDAW’s concern that women’s nationality must not be automatically altered by marriage to a foreigner, and forms part of Kazakhstan’s broader 2024–2025 reform trajectory on statelessness and migration. [46] In the same period, Kazakhstan adopted the Ashgabat Declaration on Ending Statelessness in Central Asia (2024) and implemented voluntary pledges made at the 2023 Global Refugee Forum, including commitments to improve legal pathways, documentation and procedural safeguards for refugees and stateless persons. [47] It was also recommended that Kazakhstan ensure the right to appeal to protect against arbitrary deprivation of nationality. [48] The concluding observations by the CERD Committee in 2014 also included recommendations for Kazakhstan to improve data collection on the number of stateless persons in the territory. [49] In 2025, the Human Rights Committee expressed concerns that, despite Article 10 of the Law on Refugees permitting asylum applications without valid ID, the procedure is not consistently implemented in practice and lacks adequate accommodations for persons with specific needs, such as persons with disabilities and unaccompanied children.[50] The Committee also expresses regret over reports of migrants being detained without access to legal representation, interpretation, or meaningful review of detention and deportation orders, and notes that, although non‑refoulement is formally recognised, significant protection gaps remain. [51]
Kazakhstan has also already committed to ensuring that every child’s birth is registered immediately by ratifying the ICCPR and the CRC. [52] Kazakhstan attempted to fulfill its 2019 pledge by amending the Code on Marriage (Matrimony) and Family, which guarantees birth certificates to all children born in medical facilities, regardless of parental identity documentation or residency status. [53] Continuous legal assistance drives carried out by UNHCR and the Ministry of Justice have resolved remaining historic cases of undocumented children. [54] This also relates to Kazakhstan’s obligations under the CRC which requires that signatory states leave no child to statelessness. [55] The CRC Committee in 2015 recommended that Kazakhstan ensure stateless children access to free education and health care services. [56] Following the CRC committee’s recommendations of 2025, Kazakhstan has taken significant steps to protect vulnerable children, such as granting legally recognized refugees and asylum seekers better access to healthcare and education. [57]
Kazakhstan’s Pledges to End Statelessness
Kazakhstan made two pledges at the 2023 Global Refugee Forum to “establish relevant legislative safeguards to reduce statelessness in Kazakhstan within 2024-2025” and “reducing the number of stateless persons through naturalization in 2024”. [58] At the High-Level Segment on Statelessness in 2019, Kazakhstan made a pledge to “improve access to birth registration procedures through amendment of the national legislation to ensure that every child is registered at birth”. [59] At the October 2024 regional consultations in Almaty, state officials confirmed active legislative drafting work aimed at fulfilling the 2024–2025 benchmark pledges to incorporate safeguards preventing childhood statelessness and simplifying naturalization procedures. [60]
