GlobeQuest

Nepal visas and residency

Who can visit Nepal without a visa, and the 6 long-stay routes that let you actually live there.

Short stay

Visiting Nepal, by passport

How the 198 passports we track get in. A visitor entry is never permission to work, study or settle — that is what the routes further down are for.

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Long stay

How you actually move to Nepal

Work / sponsoredMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Non-Tourist Visa — Working (work category)

Foreign nationals employed in Nepal — including the very large development, humanitarian and INGO sector that dominates foreign employment in Kathmandu, plus private-sector specialists and technical staff.

What you need
  • A labour permit (shram swikriti) from the Department of Labour and Occupational Safety
  • A recommendation from the line ministry that regulates the employer's sector
  • A work agreement, in most cases approved through the Ministry of Home Affairs route the Department of Immigration specifies
  • Evidence that the role could not be filled by a Nepali candidate, normally through local advertisement
  • Passport, employment contract and the employer's registration documents
How long it lasts
Non-tourist visas are issued for up to one year at a time and renewed annually for as long as the labour permit and the line-ministry recommendation are maintained.
Path to permanent residence
None. Nepal has no employment-to-permanent-residence route and years on a non-tourist visa accumulate toward nothing. The Residential Visa is a separate, money-based category, not a reward for time served.
Cost
Non-tourist visa fees are published by the Department of Immigration and are charged per month of validity, with the labour permit fee separate. Both are modest compared with the employer's administrative burden.
Processing time
Governed by the labour permit and the ministry recommendation rather than by immigration. Employers who have done it before move in weeks; a first-time sponsor should assume months.
Worth knowing
  • Foreign employment is quota-constrained. Nepali practice limits the proportion of a company's workforce that may be foreign — commonly cited at around five per cent, with a small fixed allowance for foreign-invested companies. Verify your employer's headroom before accepting an offer, because a role can be genuine and still be unpermittable.
  • Three bodies, in order: Department of Labour, then the line ministry, then the Department of Immigration. Going to immigration first is the classic wasted trip.
  • Tourist-visa days are counted per calendar year and capped at 150. Working while on a tourist visa is not permitted, and the temptation to bridge a slow labour permit that way is exactly how people end up overstaying or being refused a subsequent extension.
  • Nepal has no digital nomad visa. If your income comes from outside Nepal and you have no Nepali employer, this route is closed to you and the tourist allowance is your ceiling.
  • Changing employer means a new labour permit and a new visa, not an amendment.
Sources:Department of Immigration — Work Permit Management SystemDepartment of Immigration, NepalDepartment of Immigration — tourist visa extension
InvestmentMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Business Visa — foreign investor under FITTA

Foreign investors who have made an approved investment in a Nepali company under the Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act 2075 (2019), plus their authorised representatives and dependants.

What you need
  • Foreign investment approval — from the Department of Industry, or from the Investment Board Nepal for the largest projects
  • An investment meeting the minimum foreign-investment threshold, set by ministerial notice at NPR 20 million and lifted entirely for the information technology sector in 2023
  • Company registration and evidence that the investment has been remitted into Nepal through banking channels
  • A visa recommendation to the Department of Immigration
How long it lasts
Issued for a minimum of one month and available for up to one year, or for five years at a time — the only Nepali non-tourist category routinely issued on a five-year basis. Renewable for as long as the investment is retained in Nepal.
Path to permanent residence
None directly. A sufficiently large investment can instead support a Residential Visa, which is the longer-horizon category — see that route.
Cost
The Department of Immigration's published business-visa fee scales inversely with investment size: higher fees for investments below NPR 10 million, materially lower fees above it, and no charge at all above NPR 100 million. Confirm the current schedule with the Department, as these figures are set by notice and revised.
Processing time
Dominated by the Department of Industry's approval, not by the visa. Budget in months for the investment approval and days for the visa that follows it.
Worth knowing
  • The IT-sector carve-out is the most consequential recent change and the most commonly missed: the minimum investment threshold was removed for information technology in 2023. A software venture that would have been impossible at NPR 20 million may now be viable. Confirm the current position with the Department of Industry — sector carve-outs of this kind are amended by notice.
  • Nepal maintains a negative list of sectors closed to foreign investment. Check it before designing a venture around this visa; retail and several service activities have historically been restricted.
  • Document the inward remittance through banking channels at the time. Nepal operates exchange controls, and the right to repatriate profits and capital later depends on the paperwork created when the money came in — not on the fact that it did.
  • A business visa does not confer the right to buy land. A company registered in Nepal can hold property for its own purposes within limits; you personally cannot.
  • Business and investment activity may not be conducted on a tourist visa. This is stated plainly and enforced.
Sources:Department of Immigration — visa servicesDepartment of Immigration, NepalDepartment of Immigration — visa processing portal
RetirementMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Residential Visa

Foreign nationals who want to live in Nepal on their own money rather than on an employer's sponsorship — substantial investors, and people with a documented external income who intend to spend it in Nepal. The nearest thing Nepal has to a settled long-stay status.

What you need
  • Either an investment of at least USD 100,000, or the convertible-currency equivalent, in a Nepali industrial enterprise — supported by a recommendation from the Department of Industry
  • Or a certified document evidencing a source of income of USD 20,000 a year, or convertible-currency equivalent, to be spent in Nepal
  • Approval from the Ministry of Home Affairs for the first year's grant, on which the Department of Immigration then issues the visa
  • Passport and supporting financial documentation
How long it lasts
Granted for a year at a time on Home Ministry approval for the first grant, and renewable thereafter.
Path to permanent residence
This is the endpoint rather than a step toward one. Nepal does not grant permanent residence or a settlement status to foreign nationals through this route, and naturalisation is narrow and discretionary.
Cost
Visa fees are published by the Department of Immigration. The qualifying investment or income is the substantive requirement.
Processing time
The Home Ministry approval for the first year is the slow step. Expect months rather than weeks.
Worth knowing
  • The two limbs are genuinely different products sharing a name. USD 100,000 invested in an industrial enterprise is a business decision routed through the Department of Industry; USD 20,000 a year of documented external income is a lifestyle decision routed through evidence of means. People assume the residential visa is only for investors and never look at the income limb.
  • Neither limb lets you buy land. A residential visa does not change the constitutional and Land Act position that foreign nationals cannot own land or immovable property in their personal capacity. Long leases are the practical answer — leasehold arrangements running to decades are common in Kathmandu and Pokhara — but a lease is not ownership and should be documented by a Nepali lawyer.
  • It carries no right to take employment with a Nepali employer. That requires the labour permit and working visa.
  • Confirm the current thresholds with the Department of Immigration before planning around them. Figures of this kind in Nepal are set by notice and have been revised.
Sources:Department of Immigration — visa processing portalDepartment of Immigration, NepalDepartment of Immigration — visa services
FamilyLow confidenceVerified August 2026

Non-Resident Nepali (NRN) identity card

Foreign citizens of Nepali origin, and Nepali citizens who have lived abroad for at least two consecutive years. Administered under the Non-Resident Nepali Act 2064 (2008) through Nepali missions and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

What you need
  • Nepali citizenship by birth or descent under Nepali citizenship law, for the foreign-citizen category
  • Not currently holding Nepali citizenship, and not having voluntarily renounced it within the preceding five years
  • At least eighteen years of age
  • Application through a Nepali mission abroad or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
How long it lasts
Issued as an identity card with a renewable term, supporting long-term visa facilities for entry and stay.
Path to permanent residence
The card is the status rather than a step toward citizenship. It confers privileges attached to Nepali origin; it does not restore or confer Nepali nationality.
Cost
Set by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the issuing mission.
Processing time
Mission-dependent.
Worth knowing
  • This is the one route that partially unlocks property. NRN card holders may acquire immovable property in Nepal — residential and commercial — excluding agricultural and forest land, on application to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and subject to limits. For anyone of Nepali descent, that is a materially different position from an ordinary foreign national's, and it is the most valuable thing on this page for that group.
  • The SAARC exclusion is categorical, not a matter of degree. The Act defines a foreign citizen of Nepali origin as someone who has acquired the citizenship of a country OTHER than a SAARC member state, and the parallel definition for Nepali citizens abroad excludes residence and work in the SAARC region. If your other nationality is Indian, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Pakistani, Afghan, Bhutanese or Maldivian, you are outside the definition — this is the most common reason an otherwise obvious applicant is refused.
  • The five-year bar after voluntary renunciation is real and catches people who gave up Nepali citizenship recently to naturalise elsewhere.
  • Property acquired under NRN provisions carries conditions and limits. Take Nepali legal advice on the specific ceiling and on what happens on resale — this is not equivalent to a citizen's unrestricted title.
Sources:Embassy of Nepal, Washington DC — Non-Resident Nepali (NRN) identity cardDepartment of Immigration, Nepal
StudentLow confidenceVerified August 2026

Non-Tourist Visa — Study

Foreign students and researchers at Nepali institutions, including the substantial intake into Nepali medical colleges and the researchers who come for Himalayan and development fieldwork.

What you need
  • Admission to a recognised Nepali institution
  • A recommendation from the Ministry of Education or the relevant regulator
  • Evidence of funds and fee payment
  • Passport
How long it lasts
Issued for the study period, month by month or for the academic year, and extended for the length of the programme.
Path to permanent residence
None. There is no post-study work route; staying on requires a labour permit and a working visa obtained from scratch.
Cost
The Department of Immigration charges study visas on a per-month basis, with the rate varying by programme and nationality. Confirm the current figure with the Department.
Processing time
Institution-led and gated by the ministry recommendation. Apply a term ahead.
Worth knowing
  • Researchers and volunteers are frequently the wrong classification for themselves. Nepal handles research and study through the non-tourist framework with a line-ministry recommendation, and a researcher who arrives on a tourist visa intending to sort it out later usually cannot.
  • A study visa does not permit employment.
  • The 150-day-per-calendar-year tourist cap is not a fallback while a study visa is pending, and using it that way burns the allowance you may need later in the same year.
Sources:Department of Immigration, NepalDepartment of Immigration — Work Permit Management System
FamilyLow confidenceVerified August 2026

Non-Tourist Visa — marital and dependant category

Foreign spouses of Nepali citizens, and dependants of foreign nationals holding a working, business or residential visa.

What you need
  • Marriage certificate or proof of the family relationship, with the Nepali spouse's citizenship certificate where applicable
  • The principal's visa and supporting documentation for dependants
  • Passport
How long it lasts
Issued for up to a year at a time on the marital basis and renewed; dependants track the principal's validity.
Path to permanent residence
A foreign spouse of a Nepali citizen may in principle apply for naturalised citizenship, but Nepal's provisions here are politically contested and have been the subject of repeated legislative argument. Do not plan around a fixed timetable, and take current Nepali advice rather than relying on any published summary including this one.
Cost
The Department of Immigration charges the marital category on a per-month basis at a low rate. Confirm the current figure.
Processing time
Faster than the employment route, since no labour permit is involved.
Worth knowing
  • A marital visa does not carry the right to work. A foreign spouse who wants employment still needs a labour permit and a working visa in their own right — this surprises people who assume marriage settles the question.
  • It does not confer the right to buy land either. A Nepali spouse can own property; the foreign spouse cannot, and joint purchase in both names is not available. Get this structured properly before money moves.
  • Nepal's citizenship provisions for foreign spouses have changed and been challenged more than once in recent years. Treat any account of the waiting period, including a confident one, as needing local verification.
Sources:Department of Immigration, NepalDepartment of Immigration — visa processing portalNepal Tourism Board — tourist visa information
On the ground

Where you'd land in Nepal

Kathmandu

The development sector's Himalayan capital — cheap, walkable in parts, and colder indoors than you expect.

Full Kathmandu guide

Nepal at a glance

Capital
Kathmandu
Population
29.6M
Languages
Nepali
Currency
NPR