Kathmandu, 3 Aug: Director General of the Department of Immigration, Ram Chandra Tiwari, stated that irregularities involving visit visas should not be classified as human trafficking. Speaking at a press conference organized by the department on Sunday, he said that while issues related to visit visas are indeed problems of misgovernance and irregularities, they should not be defined under the category of organized crimes like human trafficking.
“We are calling this (the visit visa issue) human trafficking. But I see that human trafficking and the irregularities in visit visas are being lumped together,” said Director General Tiwari. “The irregularities or misgovernance related to visit visas do exist, but that is not human trafficking. The law defines them differently,” he added.
He pointed out that there is a double standard in the way society and the state view citizens who travel abroad on visit visas. According to him, those who find success abroad are considered national assets and a source of pride, while those who face difficulties are met with disdain. This social mindset, he noted, hinders the formulation of sound and effective policies.
Director General of the Department of Immigration, Ram Chandra Tiwari, stated that society and the state often apply double standards when evaluating citizens who travel abroad on visit visas. At a press conference, he said, “If someone goes abroad on a visit visa and rises to a high position in an NRN (Non-Resident Nepali) association, becomes capable of giving us gifts when we visit, we consider them a national asset. But if someone goes abroad and struggles due to lack of work, we view them with disdain.”
Tiwari emphasized that both citizens who succeed and those who suffer abroad should be viewed equally. “Every citizen abroad—successful or not—is the state’s responsibility. Assisting those in distress is a matter of social justice,” he added.
He stressed that the focus of immigration reform should be the system, not individuals. “Replacing Ram with Shyam will not solve the problem. Good governance is not achieved by finding the right person but by building a better system,” Tiwari said. He pledged that during his tenure, he would not engage in human trafficking or large-scale corruption and expressed commitment to creating a system based on objective standards that limits unchecked discretion and reduces the possibility of “setting” and corruption.
Calling for an end to decades-long confusion surrounding visit visas, he said, “For the past 20 years, the problem with visit visas has remained unchanged. Sometimes we block people, sometimes we let them go. We’re criticized either way. Now, I want a permanent solution so this issue doesn’t repeat.”
To this end, Tiwari proposed data-driven policy development based on in-depth analysis of rising numbers of Nepalis going abroad on visit visas, their destinations, and the consequences that follow.
“Our focus has only been on departures”
Tiwari noted that for two decades, immigration-related stakeholders have focused solely on the departure of Nepali citizens. “We constantly judge whether Nepalis traveling on visit visas are capable, whether they’ll stay illegally or not. But we’ve paid little attention to why foreign nationals are coming to Nepal and what they do once here,” he said.
He called for prioritizing the management of arrivals and national security, saying, “We’ve become obsessed with evaluating our citizens’ intentions, but we’ve failed to monitor which foreigners are meeting whom inside homes and what plans they are making.”
To address this, the department is planning to modernize immigration with technologies like:
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Advance Passenger Information (API)
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Biometric Verification
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Smart Border
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Risk Profiling
These measures aim to regulate the activities of foreign nationals entering Nepal more effectively.
Tiwari also called for collaboration with media, policymakers, and civil society in the campaign for immigration reform. He urged stakeholders to move beyond surface-level criticism and offer evidence-based policy suggestions.
“In this journey of reform, we need everyone’s support. We want to build an immigration system that does more than just control borders — it should safeguard national security and serve as a guardian for every citizen,” he concluded.
