Kazakhstan does not require permission for ordinary money to arrive. Its Law on Currency Regulation and Currency Control states as a principle the absence of restrictions on foreign exchange transactions, provided the established procedures are observed. Those procedures are reporting rather than approval: above a threshold in the National Bank rules the recipient gives the bank a currency transaction code, and money arriving under a contract subject to the account-number requirement is returned if it cannot be identified within 180 calendar days.
Nobody in Kazakhstan applies for permission before ordinary money arrives. The currency law puts the absence of restrictions among its stated principles, provided the established procedures are followed. Those procedures are questions and deadlines, and some fall on the person receiving the money rather than the bank.
Key Takeaways
- The Law on Currency Regulation and Currency Control makes the absence of restrictions a principle, subject to following the procedures.
- Most reporting is done by the bank, which the Law makes an agent of currency control.
- The recipient's own duties turn on the amount and on whether the payment sits under a currency contract.
- Money the bank cannot match to a named contract is held rather than credited, and returned if it stays unidentified for 180 calendar days.
- Money under a large capital movement contract needs a registration number obtained before it lands, not after.
Is any approval needed before the money comes?
No, and the Law says so as a principle. Article 4 lists the principles of currency regulation and control, and the last is the absence of restrictions on foreign exchange transactions, provided the procedures established by the legislation are observed. Article 6 confirms transactions between residents and non-residents may be in the national currency or a foreign one.
The currency transaction code is worth naming, because it is the one piece of the reporting the recipient supplies rather than the bank. It is a classifier for what the money is for, chosen from the National Bank's own list, and the bank checks it against the contract and corrects it where the client has picked wrongly. It is not a reference number and it is not an account identifier.
Article 7 adds a routing rule rather than a permission. Payments on currency transactions run through accounts at authorised banks, meaning banks licensed in Kazakhstan, with exceptions. One covers individuals, who may send and receive money without opening or using an account, within a limit the National Bank sets. The Rules for currency transactions, approved by resolution No. 40 of 30 March 2019, put that limit at the equivalent of ten thousand US dollars.
Which duties belong to the person, and which to the bank
The split matters: most of what is written about currency control here describes work the recipient never sees.
| Duty | Who holds it | Where it is set |
|---|---|---|
| Report currency transactions to the National Bank | The bank, monthly | Rules No. 40, para 8-1 |
| Supply the currency transaction code and country data | The client | Law Article 15; Rules No. 40, paras 14 and 15 |
| Check the code and correct it | The bank, as currency control agent | Rules No. 40, para 16 |
| Present an identity document | The individual | Rules No. 40, para 10 |
| Present the currency contract | The individual, above the exemption | Rules No. 40, para 10 |
| Obtain a registration number for a capital movement contract | The resident party | Law Article 14; Rules No. 64, paras 9 and 12 |
| Report an account at a foreign bank | Resident legal entities only, never individuals | Law Article 16 |
The bank's monthly report runs silently. Under paragraph 8-1 it covers transactions of individuals at or above the equivalent of ten thousand US dollars, plus non-cash purchases and sales of foreign currency for a customer at or above one thousand US dollars. For legal entities the figure is fifty thousand US dollars, and every non-cash currency purchase or sale whatever its size.
What the bank asks for when the money lands
Paragraph 10 sets the document list. An individual presents an identity document, or is identified through the state digital document service; a foreigner or stateless person with permanent residence presents the document proving it. Beside it sits the currency contract, or a copy, where the payment rests on one.
There are exemptions from producing the contract, and the one that looks most useful to a sender in Australia does not cover this corridor. The free-of-charge exemption covers a transfer between resident individuals, or between non-resident individuals, within Kazakhstan. A gift sent from Australia to someone in Kazakhstan is not inside it. The exemption that does reach this corridor is the threshold one. It covers a payment not exceeding the equivalent of ten thousand US dollars, where the sender or the beneficiary is a client of the authorised bank and is an individual. It does not cover a payment made under a contract that needs a registration number.
Where a contract is required and the individual cannot produce it, paragraph 12 gives the bank a way through. It may make the payment on a record made or confirmed by that individual on three points: consent to pass the details to law enforcement or the National Bank, confirmation that the payment does not sit under a contract needing a registration number, and confirmation that it is unconnected to the financing of terrorism or extremism.
The clock on money that cannot be identified
This is the recipient duty with real consequences, and it starts before the money is sent.
Read the scope first, because it is narrower than the section reads. All of this runs on money arriving under a currency contract that is subject to the account-number requirement. One word of warning on that phrase: the Law calls the identifier a registration number and the National Bank's Rules call the same thing an account number, so a reader moving between the two instruments meets one concept under two names. That is not every contract, and it is not the same set as the capital-movement contracts in the section below, which are one part of it. What it is not at all is an ordinary personal transfer: a gift or a maintenance payment carries no such contract, so the sender instruction account and the 180-day return are not the risk on one.
Paragraph 5 obliges the resident to tell the non-resident what to write. Where a payment falls under a currency contract subject to the account-number requirement, the resident must ask the sender to put the contract details and the account number into the payment document, so the amount can be identified on arrival.
If that does not happen, the money does not simply appear in the account. Where the document names the contract wrongly or not at all, crediting proceeds on a written confirmation from the resident. Where it carries nothing to account for the money, the bank credits it to a sender instruction account, notifies the resident in writing, and waits for them to say what it is.
Paragraph 6 sets the outside limit. If within 180 calendar days the money has not been identified by the details of the currency contract or by its account number, and the resident has not taken the other steps the rules require, the bank returns the instruction unexecuted to the sender.
Money above the capital movement threshold
A separate regime covers contracts that move capital rather than pay for goods or services, and its timing rule is the one most easily missed.
The Rules for monitoring currency transactions, approved by resolution No. 64 of 10 April 2019, apply registration to a capital movement contract providing for receipt of property or money in Kazakhstan above the equivalent of five hundred thousand US dollars. Paragraph 12 says when the resident must apply: before any party begins to perform, and where the non-resident performs first by sending money, before the resident takes it into their possession. Article 14 of the Law carries both triggers itself, requiring the application before the property or money passes into the resident's possession and before the credited funds are deposited into their account at an authorised bank. Paragraph 14 gives the National Bank's territorial branch five working days to assign the number, running from the date the resident submits the required documents and information in full rather than from a first attempt.
Where the obligation reaches a resident by assignment, gift, inheritance or a court ruling, the deadline is sixty calendar days from the date the claim arises, and still before either party performs.
Article 14 makes the number a precondition rather than a formality: for contracts subject to registration, currency control agents act only where the number exists.
Where to look next
Who maintains the codes on a transfer covers the identifiers a payment document carries, which is what these rules read. Kazakhstani tenge to Australian dollars is the same corridor seen from the recipient's side. How international transfers work sets out the mechanics behind it. For live figures, see the Australian dollar to Kazakhstani tenge page.
Sources
- Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan of 2 July 2018 No. 167-VI, on currency regulation and currency control - the Article 4 principle, the Article 7 routing rule, the Article 15 information the client supplies, the Article 14 precondition and the Article 16 exemption. Articles 6, 7, 14, 15 and 16 are read in the wording given by the Law of 16 January 2026 No. 259-VIII, and the Article 4 principle list in the wording given by the Law of 30 June 2025 No. 205-VIII
- Rules for currency transactions in the Republic of Kazakhstan, National Bank resolution No. 40 of 30 March 2019 - the account-free limit, the reporting thresholds in paragraph 8-1, the document list in paragraph 10 and its exemptions, the substitute record in paragraph 12, the duty to notify the sender, and the 180-day return
- The same Rules, Russian text - the English consolidation of paragraph 10 is behind the Russian on the exemptions from presenting a currency contract. The condition that the sender or beneficiary be a client of the authorised bank, and the carve-out for a contract requiring a registration number, are read from the Russian
- Rules for monitoring currency transactions in the Republic of Kazakhstan, National Bank resolution No. 64 of 10 April 2019 - the registration threshold, the timing rules in paragraph 12, the sixty-day deadline for a claim arising by assignment or inheritance, and the five working days for the number
General information about sending money to Kazakhstan and about the currency control duties that apply to a recipient there. Not financial advice, and not a recommendation of any product or institution. Reviewed by the Tradergy editorial team, September 2026.
Common questions
Does someone in Kazakhstan need permission to receive money from abroad?
No. Article 4 of the Law on Currency Regulation and Currency Control lists among its principles the absence of restrictions on foreign exchange transactions, provided the procedures established by law are observed. The regime rests on reporting and identification rather than approval.
What does the recipient have to tell the bank?
For a payment at or above the threshold the National Bank sets, Article 15 of the Law requires the client to give the bank the country of registration of sender and beneficiary where those differ from the payment document, a marker for an intra-corporate transfer, and the currency transaction code. A resident also gives the contract details and its registration number where one exists.
What happens if the payment does not say what it is for?
It waits, and only where the money arrives under a currency contract subject to the account-number requirement. Under the Rules for currency transactions, where a payment document lacks the data needed to account for such money, the bank credits it to a sender instruction account and notifies the resident in writing to identify it. If it is still unidentified after 180 calendar days, the bank returns the instruction unexecuted to the sender. An ordinary personal transfer carries no such contract.
Is there a threshold below which nothing is asked?
There are several, set in the National Bank rules rather than the Law, and they are narrower than they look. An individual may receive a transfer without opening or using a bank account up to the equivalent of ten thousand US dollars. Separately, no currency contract need be presented for a payment not exceeding that same figure. Two conditions attach. The sender or the beneficiary must be a client of the authorised bank and an individual. And the payment must not fall under a contract needing a registration number. Bank reporting of an individual transaction begins at the same figure.
Does a resident individual have to report a foreign bank account?
No. Article 16 of the Law states that resident individuals do not submit information to the National Bank about accounts in foreign banks or international financial organisations. Where an individual moves money to or from such an account, the bank performing the transfer reports it instead.