On 23 August 2021, large queues formed at Kazakhstan's public-service centres, known as TsONs, after mandatory advance booking was lifted. Informburo photographed people waiting inside the Almalinsky district centre in Almaty and outside the Medeu district centre. The state service corporation asked residents to postpone non-urgent visits or use the eGov portal. Booked visitors still received priority, so digital appointments and the physical walk-in line now overlapped.
A one-stop centre is designed to put many government procedures in one convenient place. Yet the more services share one entrance, the more demand can gather there too. Digital access does not always erase a queue; sometimes it rearranges the order between people who can book ahead and those who arrive in person. That morning in Almaty showed that designing convenience also means designing who goes first.
Quality check: Informburo’s report of 23 August 2021 photographs queues inside and outside centres in two Almaty districts and confirms the end of mandatory booking as the trigger through operator testimony.