Visa/job for partner

If you get the job, your company should be able to organise a visa for the duration of your employment, a spousal visa, multiple entry (M2 visa). Whether he would be allowed to work on this visa would be a little uncertain.

The time when casual foreign workers were welcomed here has long passed, now the government is cracking down on those working here without work permits/visas and have taken to relying on informers to find out who is working illegally. It may impact badly on both you and your partner as well as the company that employs you were he to be caught, at the least, you run the risk of being fined and or thrown out and blacklisted, or worse, gaol, blacklisted and then thrown out ...

You will need to provide documentation regarding your relationship and here in Kazakhstan, that would mean your marriage registration or certificate. If you are not married, or cannot produce some sort of certificate to show your relationship (they are very big on "traditional" relationships here as you will discover if you come), then the only other alternative is a series of 90 day tourist visas, the catch here being the need to exit the country every 30 days (or earlier). Generally, you can fly out to Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) and get a new visa in the Kazakh embassy there (drop application Monday, pick-up at 1800hrs Thursday).

For a 60 day visa, if you are from a list of 47 countries, you will be able to make the application without a letter of invitation (LOI), for a 90 day visa, you must have an LOI, there are plenty of agencies that offer this, if you wish, I'll send you the one I use by private message.

Kyrgyzstan does not require a visa for many nationalities such as Australians up to 60 days, you can see the full list of countries here ... http://caravanistan.com/visa/Kyrgyzstan

In theory, there should be no problems getting back into Kazakhstan with relatively sequential visas separated by a week or so (I've not yet experienced a problem, I have been doing this for some time now).

The old visa system (until June 2013) you were able to get about 10 months with the various visas with little problem, but now they have disposed of the old 1 year business visa, it is more difficult.

Flying Astana-Bishkek and return is more advisable than any other method, because you are then spared the drama of chasing up registration at the OVIR (migration police) in Astana (at the airport, they will give him 2 stamps on the "immigration card"). Also the border guards will not try for a "present" as they do at the land border at Kordai ... or any other place.

As mentioned above, he will also have to leave the country every 30 days however can re-enter almost immediately, for instance ALA-FRU-ALA KC109-KC110 for Air Astana, this is the system I use which means that you are returning on the same plane you arrived on ... the cabin crew are used to seeing the same faces on a return flight ... I'm unsure if it works that way on the Astana-Bishkek return flight (TSE-FRU-TSE).

Just quickly looking at the Air Astana site, it looks like you can do that short turnaround with KC151 TSE-FRU 0800-0945hrs then KC152 FRU-TSE 1050-1235hrs, you will need to be quick getting through Kyrgyzstan immigration, check-in, migration, security and back onto the 'plane, little time to do any duty-free shopping.

Current cost of that TSE-FRU-TSE trip is between 45 000 and 65 000 KZT (150-220 GBP) economy.

Just as an aside, you might want to make absolutely sure that you understand what you will be letting yourself in for coming to Kazakhstan, extreme cold, especially in Astana, dropping to -40C, capricious and intrusive bureaucracy and in Astana, a city that has only been in existence for around 15 years, a very "Potemkin village" feel ... not to mention milk in a plastic bag ...

Cheers, all the best ...