Kazakhstan
Legal and administrative obstacles for foreign parents with precarious status
Before 2019 children of undocumented migrants and stateless persons in Kazakhstan could not be registered at birth. This particularly impacted children born outside medical institutions to undocumented mothers.
Promising Practices and Updates
Kazakhstan amended its Marriage and Family Code to ensure birth registration for children of parents with precarious status. Following a CEDAW (2019) recommendation, in 2019 amendments were introduced to ensure the registration of all children born in Kazakhstan as well as the issuance of a birth certificate, regardless of the legal status of the parents. In 2025 Kazakhstan once again amended its Marriage and Family Code to allow the registration of children born outside medical institutions to undocumented mothers, ensuring their right to a birth certificate and legal identity. The new law enables registration with a birth attendant’s certificate, even if the mother lacks ID, as long as she seeks care within 5 days.
