Foreigners in Nepal Board

For foreign nationals living in Nepal. Paperwork experience, housing leads, and honest accounts of what an office or a process was actually like - which is the information that is hardest to find and changes most often.

What this board is good for

• Recent experience of an office. Which counter, what they asked for, how long it took, what was refused. Published requirements and practice are not always the same thing.
• Housing leads, including from people leaving who want a good tenant to follow them.
• Who to use for authentication, translation, a lawyer, a school.
• Honest accounts of insurance claims, hospital bills and what a permit really cost.

The standing caveat

Visa and permit rules change, and an answer that was right last year may not be right now. Confirm anything consequential with the Department of Immigration or the relevant department rather than acting on a post.

Two things in particular are worth never taking from a board: whether you may work on your current status, and anything about owning property. Foreign nationals cannot own land in Nepal, no structure gets around it, and arrangements that claim to are unenforceable. Housing and legal and government cover both.

The written reference

Foreigners in Nepal covers visas, residence, work, healthcare and insurance in full, and start life in Nepal walks the arrival sequence in order. Worth reading before posting - it may already be answered.

What changes fastest

Useful to know which answers go stale soonest, because that decides what is worth posting and what is worth checking.

Fast-moving: visa fees and extension requirements, what a particular office is asking for this month, which hospital an insurer is directing people to, and rents in the areas foreign residents favour.

Slow-moving: the property ownership restriction, the structure of work permits, how the health system is organised, and the document authentication chain.

So a post about a counter last week is gold, and a post about ownership rules from two years ago is probably still right.