Kathmandu, 31 Oct: The government has scrapped the six-point standard related to visit visas. Acting on the proposal of the Department of Immigration, Home Minister Om Prakash Aryal on Thursday annulled the previous six-point provision and introduced a new guideline. Under the new rule, travelers can now go abroad on a visit visa with just a passport valid for at least six months, a destination country visa, a two-way air ticket, and a self-declaration confirming that the travel is voluntary.
Previously, the six-point guideline required a two-way air ticket, hotel booking, a document revealing a three-generation family relationship if staying with relatives, a valid passport with at least six months’ validity, and a valid visa. It also included a provision requiring a self-declaration for travelers heading to the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Saudi Arabia.
The previous rules had faced criticism from various sectors for being “discriminatory” and “impractical.”
According to a Home Ministry official, the revised provisions have been simplified to only require a valid passport/visa, a two-way ticket, and a self-declaration. The requirements of carrying USD 500, having hotel bookings, or presenting relationship documents when staying with relatives have been removed to make the travel process easier. Officials said the change will also help curb the exploitation of travelers by criminal groups who used to charge large sums of money to process visit visas.
Former Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand had introduced a controversial 17-point guideline in February 2022, requiring visit visa applicants to have an annual taxable income of Rs 500,000, half of which had to be deposited in a bank. The applicant also had to have traveled twice to Gulf countries or once to other destinations, passed Grade 12, and be able to communicate in English. Additionally, if sponsored or invited by a relative abroad, relationship documents or sponsor details had to be submitted.
Following this, during the tenure of Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha, the 17-point rule was revised into a six-point standard, which still imposed strict conditions for those traveling on visit visas. Now, the new four-point system replaces those discriminatory provisions with more relaxed requirements.
The Home Ministry had faced growing demands to abolish the previous strict guidelines, especially for visit visa applicants traveling to countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Investigations by the police and the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had revealed that organized groups were extorting up to Rs 300,000 from people seeking visit visas to Europe and between Rs 30,000 and Rs 50,000 for other countries.
Recently, Tribhuvan International Airport’s immigration chief, Tirtha Raj Bhattarai, was also implicated in visit-visa-related smuggling and is currently under investigation by the CIAA.
Following the rise in visit-visa-related trafficking, Nepal Police conducted a special operation at the airport’s immigration section in December 2023. During the operation, police seized passports of 66 people who were being sent abroad through travel agencies under such illegal schemes, which led to the exposure of a widespread racket involving immigration officials and intermediaries.
After a series of such incidents, the Department of Immigration, in coordination with concerned agencies, held discussions over the past few months, which ultimately led to the cancellation of the old six-point standard.
