Foreign Ministry Gains New Powers: Fingerprinting and Citizenship Issues Abroad

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been assigned new responsibilities, Orda.kz reports.

Under government amendments to the resolution regulating the agency’s work, the ministry is now authorized to collect fingerprints from foreigners and handle citizenship matters through its missions abroad.

According to the updated document, a new clause has been added to the ministry’s powers: “implementation of fingerprint registration in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan.”

In addition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will develop and approve rules for the acceptance and consideration of applications submitted to Kazakhstan's foreign missions on issues of citizenship: receipt, loss, as well as confirmation or refutation of belonging to the citizenship of Kazakhstan, the text states.

Previously, fingerprinting has been carried out by Public Service Centers and the Migration Police. 

With the new mandate, the Foreign Ministry will also take part in the process to improve identification of foreigners, enhance security, and ensure better monitoring of border crossings.

Earlier, Orda.kz reported that a major technical failure in the Interior Ministry’s fingerprint database left foreigners unable to submit biometric data for more than a week, creating long queues and delays in document processing.

Original Author: Ruslan Loginov