This article examines the resettlement of Uyghurs and Dungans in Zhetysu from 1877 to 1884 within the practice of Russian imperial border governance. It asks how the right to choose Russian subjecthood, established for residents of the Ili region by the 1881 Treaty of Saint Petersburg, was translated into population registration, allocation of land and water, creation of volosts, and tax registration. The study draws on records of the Central State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the published treaty, the 1897 census, and relevant scholarship. It combines historical-institutional, problem-chronological, comparative, and source-critical methods. The comparison shows that the emergency reception of Dungan refugees in 1877 and the organized migration of 1881-1884 differed in legal basis, administrative preparation, and access to resources. After the treaty, officials concentrated on household lists, selection of settlement sites, and incorporation of new communities into the regional administration. Land allocation reduced space used seasonally by Kazakh communities, while migrant households also had to rebuild their livelihoods with limited land, water, and property. The study's novelty lies in reconstructing the full administrative chain from treaty norm to volost and tax registration. Its practical significance is a source-critical model for comparing administrative records with later census data. Its contribution is to distinguish the emergency reception of 1877 from the organized migration of 1881-1884 as two connected but institutionally different regimes.