Nakonec… bez ocheredi
Finally someone has come up with it. Cash permitting, you no longer have to waste time in queues in Kazakhstan. All thanks to the smart Ruslan Akkuzhin and his colleague of the first queue-service-provider in Kazakhstan.
A new company in Kazakhstan charges customers to take their places in the country’s notorious queues.
For a small hourly fee, it provides people to stand in line for clients and then phone them when they are nearly at the front.
Some of the worst queues I’ve seen in Kazakhstan are at the OVIR, where people go to get their passports, their registration certificate (if they’re foreigners) and quite a lot of other things they might need from their always polite immigration police.
It’s a great idea to start such a business, but it would be an equally good idea to get rid of some of the queues and move to a more efficient system in many of the public institutions.
The Kazakhs might want to look to the UK, where, obviously, queuing is state sport and has also given birth to creative businesses such as Lonsto:
In an environment which is already pressurised by ever increasing visitor numbers, the demand for the streamlining of services within local authorities has never been greater.
Well, now that there’s Mr. Akkuzhin’s company, Lonsto might find Kazakhstan a difficult market to penetrate.
on January 30th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Nice business idea! Prague, for instance, is famous (among foreigners) for queues to the Immigration Police, where every foreigner has to register. People come at 5-6 in the morning and stand outside the building before the office opens at 8. So, some companies hire students to queue for them.
on February 1st, 2007 at 11:20 am
Queues in Kazakhstan… It has taken me 9 months, dozens of queues and three posts (http://ru.kazakhstan.neweurasia.net/?p=93) to get my ID and stay permit ready. The worst thing about it is that it’s not the end…
on February 2nd, 2007 at 1:15 pm
So are they in Almaty? Astana? Who do I call? Most importantly will they wait at offices an hour before they open just to get a good place in line?
on February 2nd, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Good questions KZBlog… We should definitely find out more about these guys
I’m sure you can have them wait in front of closed doors as long as you like, although I wonder how much they charge.
on February 3rd, 2007 at 12:52 am
Why have been at OVIR yourself,
usually the inviting organization is in charge of the registration on behalf of the foreign visitor.
on February 3rd, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Good question YN. I got my visa through an agency in Berlin - so no one was responsible for my registration in KZ. I could have done it via any travel agency, but somehow, I wanted to experience it myself. I came to regret it.
on February 4th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
YN; However, the inviting organization occasionally says “Here’s the document you need, you play football at OVIR. If you don’t want to do it, go home or get arrested.”
on February 5th, 2007 at 11:12 am
YN: Quite often officers of the migration police (OVIR) want a foreigner come to them personally. An the iniviting organization can do nothing about it.
on February 6th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
I’m not sure where you are based, or when you last needed to register, but as of August ‘06 , here in Astana, foreigners haven’t been requested to attend.
We’ve had 3 sets of visitors from the UK, who all were able to pass their paperwork to a friend of ours, who very kindly got everything stamped/processed on their behalf… A VERY pleasant change from how it used to be for us.
Re. the queues, the civic ‘one stop shop’ here in Astana has the right approach, you take a number, like in Western food counters etc, and although all those ahead of you in the queue may not be immediately in sight, you at least have an idea of how many more people need to be seen before it is your turn.
I included a v.small section on queues here - http://www.chrismerriman.com/index.php/archives/3