(KAZAKHSTAN) – President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced Kazakhstan’s new Gold Visa program and a shift to a data-centric model for artificial intelligence development at the second meeting of the Artificial Intelligence Development Council on May 4, 2026.

Tokayev presented the long-term residency program as part of a wider effort to draw foreign investors and specialists, pairing legal residence with tax relief and simplified administrative procedures. He linked that push to a broader economic plan centered on international capital, technology and business activity.

Foreign nationals qualify by investing $300,000 in either the authorized capital of domestic companies or local securities. The visa secures a residence permit valid for up to 10 years.

The program took effect on May 10, 2025, after Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced it on April 30, 2025. That placed the initiative on the books a year before Tokayev highlighted it again alongside the country’s AI plans.

Kazakhstan designed the Gold Visa for foreign investors and specialists, a pairing that reflects the government’s attempt to pull in money and expertise at the same time. Tokayev said immigration procedures are being simplified and fully digitized to make Kazakhstan “the most comfortable regional investment hub.”

Visa holders receive unrestricted access to Kazakhstan’s education and healthcare systems on terms aligned with benefits available to citizens. They also gain legal residency and the right to live and operate in the country for a decade.

Officials cast that package as an entry point into a frontier economy that is modernizing its infrastructure and investment climate. The application process is fully digitized and streamlined, fitting Tokayev’s emphasis on simpler immigration procedures.

The residency offer sits inside a wider economic transition that Tokayev tied to moving beyond oil and toward manufacturing and food production. Kazakhstan is using the program to attract international capital, technology and business activity as that shift gathers pace.

Alongside the Gold Visa announcement, Tokayev said Kazakhstan needs to transition to a data-centric model for AI development. He placed that change in the center of how the government intends to manage artificial intelligence policy and execution.

That approach builds on the Smart Data Ukimet platform, launched in 2017, which integrates more than 100 government databases. It also connects to the AI Silknet project, a national knowledge infrastructure meant to consolidate scientific, technological and socio-economic data into a unified digital ecosystem.

Kazakhstan has invested more than $100 million in the AI-Sana program to develop the National AI Platform. Tokayev framed that work as part of a drive to position Kazakhstan as a regional AI leader.

The pairing of the Gold Visa and the AI agenda shows how Kazakhstan is trying to align immigration policy with economic strategy. One arm seeks investors and specialists with a $300,000 threshold and residency of up to 10 years; the other leans on integrated public data, a unified digital ecosystem and state investment of more than $100 million to build out artificial intelligence capacity.

Tokayev’s remarks also tied digitization in immigration to digitization in state management. The same government that is simplifying and digitizing entry procedures for investors is also building AI systems around connected public databases, national platforms and structured data flows.

That makes the visa offer more than a residency measure. Kazakhstan is presenting it as part of a package in which investors and specialists can enter through a fully digitized process, gain access to education and healthcare, and operate inside an economy that the government says is modernizing while it builds a data-centric model for AI.

The emphasis on specialists matters as much as the emphasis on investors. Kazakhstan is not limiting the policy to passive capital; the structure described by Tokayev points to a government that wants technical talent, business operators and people able to work inside the country’s emerging digital and industrial priorities.

Smart Data Ukimet and AI Silknet show the administrative side of that ambition. One platform already links more than 100 government databases, while the other is meant to gather scientific, technological and socio-economic information into a single digital environment that can support AI development.

The government has now set out a model in which residency, capital attraction and digital state capacity move together. Kazakhstan’s Gold Visa gives foreign investors and specialists a route into the country for up to 10 years, while Tokayev’s call for a data-centric model signals how the government wants to organize the next phase of growth.