Foreigners in Nepal

This section is about the things that are different because you are not a citizen - what you may do, what you must file, and what is simply closed to you. It is procedural rather than descriptive.

For how the country itself works, which applies to everyone here, the companion section is Nepal. The split is deliberate: that one explains the system, this one explains your position inside it.

Two facts to absorb before anything else. Your visa governs what you may do, and a tourist visa permits no work of any kind. And foreign nationals cannot own land in Nepal - a restriction that is not waived by long residence, by a company, or by marriage.

Where to start

If you are	Start with
Arriving for the first time	Start life in Nepal
Working out your status	Visa and immigration, then residence
Looking for a place to live	Housing
Intending to work	Jobs or business
Here with a family	Education and family and marriage
Going into the mountains	Travel and insurance
Facing an emergency	Emergency

The status questions first

Almost everything else depends on these. Visa and immigration covers entry, extensions and the overstay rules. Residence covers the longer-term categories, including the business and marital routes, and the fact that Nepal has no general path to permanent residence or citizenship by residence.

Legal and government covers the document authentication chain that underpins every application, and it is the page to read early rather than when a deadline is already close.

Setting up

Housing covers renting, the deposit convention and the ownership restriction. Banking and finance covers opening an account and, more importantly, the rules on taking money out again. SIM and internet and transportation cover the rest of the first week.

Health, and the two pages that matter most

Healthcare covers the system, where to go and the blood replacement arrangement that catches people without a local network. Insurance covers what your policy probably excludes - and for anyone going to altitude, it is the most consequential page in this section. Read it before you book a trek, not afterwards.

Emergency covers the numbers, the lost-passport sequence and what a consulate can and cannot do.

Working, and earning

Jobs covers work permits and the sectors realistically open. Business covers company formation, the minimum investment and the sectors closed to foreign ownership. Both depend on the authentication chain above.

Living here, not just residing here

The pages that make the difference between a posting and a life. Nepali language is the single highest-return investment available to you. Culture and society covers the conventions worth knowing before the first invitation. Food and restaurants covers eating here with a dietary restriction, and foreign community covers who else is here and how to find them.

The folder you should build on day one

Nepali administration asks you to prove the same things repeatedly, to different offices, over years. The households and individuals who find this easy are the ones who assembled a folder early.

What goes in it, physical and scanned:

• Passport and current visa, with the data page photographed.
• A supply of passport photographs. More than you think, in the local specification.
• Your home-country documents, authenticated and translated - degree certificates, birth and marriage certificates, police checks - with spare certified copies.
• Your lease, and any utility bill in your name.
• Work permit, company registration or enrolment documents, as applicable.
• Insurance policy details, including the assistance line.
• Blood group, allergies and a medical summary.

The authentication chain starts in the country that issued the document and cannot be done from Kathmandu, which is why it is the single most common cause of a missed deadline here. Do it once, for several copies.

What you will pay more for

Not a complaint, just a budget. Foreign nationals pay more than Nepali citizens for national park and conservation area entry, trekking permits, heritage site admission and, in some cases, domestic flights. It is published policy rather than improvisation, and the differential at the major sites is substantial.

Beyond the tiered pricing, the things that cost a foreign resident disproportionately are private healthcare, international schooling, imported groceries and rent in the enclaves. Travel covers the permit pricing and education the school fees.

A standing caveat

Nepali rules on visas, permits, investment and ownership change, and practice sometimes differs from the published rule. Where a page gives a figure or a threshold it is indicative and dated; where the honest answer is to confirm locally, it says so.

Take advice before committing money or signing anything, particularly on property, company formation and anything involving a nominee arrangement. Legal and government covers finding it.

Where to go next

Start life in Nepal walks the arrival sequence in order, and Nepal covers how the country works underneath all of this.

The habits that make this easier

Four things that the people who do well here all seem to do.

Build the document folder on day one, with authenticated copies, and keep it current. Almost every friction in this section traces back to a document somebody did not have.

Start any process a month before you think you need to. Nepali administration is not slow so much as sequential, and each step reveals the next requirement.

Ask the office, not the internet. Published rules and counter practice differ, and the person at the counter is authoritative for what will actually be accepted today.

Learn some Nepali. It is the single largest determinant of how independent you are here, and it changes what you pay for everything.