Fingerprint Database Glitches Cause Delays for Foreign Residents in Kazakhstan

For more than a week, the fingerprint database for foreigners in Kazakhstan was not operating properly, Orda.kz reports.

Background

The system, overseen by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, was said to be restored this week, but queues remain long and functionality uneven.

Mandatory fingerprinting was introduced in 2024 for anyone applying for residence or temporary permits. At the end of August 2025, however, the database stopped working.

Foreigners stood in lines at police service centers, but staff repeatedly told them: “The database is not working.”

A Quick Fix?

On September 3, Interior Minister Yerzhan Sadenov acknowledged the “technical problems” and promised a quick fix. 

There is such a question. There are technical problems. But we have now taken measures for citizens with the Government. We are solving these issues technically. People who are trying to stay for a long time come for a temporary residence permit. We register them, take their addresses, but so that the law is not violated, we fingerprint them later, during setup. We will do it later. I think it will be hours or the near future, that is, a day. We will do it quickly.

In practice, the outage lasted several more days.

On September 9, when the system briefly came back online, centers gave priority to applicants from earlier “yesterday’s lists.” Those arriving on the scheduled day often had to leave without completing the procedure.

Crowds included students from China, India, and Turkmenistan, migrant workers from Uzbekistan, and Russian nationals. Some waited hours only to be told their fingerprints had not been saved in the system and would need to be resubmitted. Joking aside, the stop-start operation led to frustration.

Guidance Issued

On September 11, the Ministry of Internal Affairs issued guidance that foreigners whose visas or permits are close to expiring may apply for extensions without fingerprinting. 

Still, even when the system runs, the process is slowed by another bottleneck: issuing certificates of fingerprinting, which require separate reference numbers from the database, a number our own journalist has yet to receive.

The Ministry has not clarified when the database will be fully stable.

Original Author: Igor Ulitin