Astana Times is reporting that anybody seeking permanent residence in Kazakhstan, including ethnic Kazakhs returning to their homeland and foreign citizens wishing to remain here, will have to undergo testing to prove they have basic knowledge of the Kazakh language.
According to the article:
The test focuses on understanding Kazakh in everyday situations and on whether applicants can comprehend spoken and written information needed for daily life and adaptation.
The pilot scheme has been in place since 16 February 2026 and is set to run until the end of the year. After this, a decision will be made as to how KAZTEST will finally be implemented.
The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population intends to take into account the experience of running the test, as well as listen to the concerns of those ethnic Kazakhs who were born and raised in other countries (Kandas) and who may not have had the necessary access to the language to prepare them fully for its demands.
60 multiple-choice questions across two sections (Listening and Reading) are included, with, as of now, no Speaking and Writing sections involved.
Not fully in the know as to the level of this test and what the 70% pass mark will require of candidates, I am not able to offer any informed opinion about the probability that foreign residents of the country will score highly enough to succeed.
Having been here for almost two decades, I have met but one other Western foreigner fluent in Kazakh and no more than perhaps two others who had reached even the levels that the Ministry claims are necessary to pass this test.
The purpose of the test is not to push candidates to the limit, and absolute fluency will not be necessary; rather, it will enable authorities to ascertain if the individual applicant has the basic ability to adapt to daily life here and can ‘get by’ in the language to the extent that they can integrate and communicate with local people.
Those in favour of KAZTEST argue that anybody who desires to reside permanently in Kazakhstan would, ideally, have no objection to learning the local language, even those who accept that Russian is also very widely used, and that expat communities tend to stick with English.
The critical point here is not whether returning ethnic Kazakhs are likely to perform well, because even in spite of minor concerns, help will be made available and the challenge of the test is not likely to prove insurmountable to the vast majority. They are also likely to be keen to learn and will make the effort to do so.
What may become interesting over the coming months and years is the willingness of English native-speaking foreigners to learn Kazakh and the extent to which they display enthusiasm for KAZTEST and the requirement to grasp the basics of Kazakh before they, too, make their applications for residence.
Expats from Western countries very often make a commitment to living long-term in Kazakhstan, and this decision is never difficult to justify, not when it involves staying put in one of the most exciting places to be right now.
What can often be observed, however, is how few of them know even a single word in Kazakh – people who claim 20 years in Almaty or the same in Astana, who perhaps don’t know Russian either, and are still heavily dependent on translators or friends to get simple things done.
The English-speaking world knows that its language is in greater demand overall, and that people in any receiving country are learning it for their own purposes and their own gain. For this reason, people feel that they deliver economic value to a country without learning its language, and there is a certain amount of truth in that.
As to whether Westerners will come to agree with me that a basic level of ability in the language spoken in the country in which you live is a matter of respect, as well as personally enriching and of practical use, remains to be seen.
They could do a lot worse, though, after all: Қазақ тілі әдемі.
