Technical article

Nepal: How Long a Visitor Could Stay, and What the Residential Visa Asks

How long could we stay without any special permit, and what comes after that?

By Neil Solomon · 3 min read

Picture a couple named Ray and Helen. Both are 66. They loved a trek in the Himalayan foothills and wonder about spending the cool months in Kathmandu or Pokhara. They ask a plain question. How long could we stay without any special permit, and what comes after that?

I read two official pages from Nepal's government, the visa pages of its embassies in Canberra and Muscat. Neither shows a date. The Department of Immigration site itself would not load to automated reading, and no other route around it was tried.

The tourist visa

The visa year runs January to December. A tourist visa comes in three lengths, and both pages list the same three.

These are fees at the embassy, in the local currency of that embassy. They are for multiple entry. The fee at the airport or in Nepal could differ, and the sources do not show it.

The 150-day limit

The Canberra page says a tourist visa "cannot be extended more than 150 days". The Muscat page says the same, "in a visa year".

Here is how the pages describe the steps. A tourist visa could be extended by up to 120 days at the Department of Immigration in Kathmandu or Pokhara. After that, a further 30 days could be added through the Department in Kathmandu. That gives 150 days in all. This is my reading of both pages together, and it is the same on each.

Staying past the date has a price. The Muscat page lists a late-filing penalty of US$2 a day for the first 30 days, US$3 a day for days 31 to 90, and US$5 a day after that.

Beyond 150 days

The Muscat page lists two other kinds of visa.

Non-tourist visa. It lasts "up to one year, however, it can be extended." The groups named are people in approved development work, staff of foreign institutions, journalists, company employees, people of Nepali origin with foreign passports, and spouses of Nepali citizens, among others. Retirees are not on the list I read.

Residential visa. The groups named include investors who put in at least US$100,000 at one time, and "foreigners wishing to settle without running a business". For that last group the page asks for a "bank balance or statement equivalent to US$ 20,000.00 per year". The fee is given only as "conditions apply". The Ministry of Home Affairs issues it, and the Department of Immigration handles renewals.

The Canberra page adds that the embassy issues only tourist, diplomatic and official visas. Other categories are applied for in Nepal.

What is left open

• How long a residential visa lasts, and how renewal works.
• Whether the Department is issuing it to retirees today.
• The fee.
• Whether the US$20,000 means a balance, a yearly income, or either. The page says "bank balance or statement".
• The current text on the Department of Immigration site.