Nepal to hike foreign tourist visa fee from July 17

Kathmandu: Nepal will raise visa fees for foreign tourists from July 17, authorities have said.

Citing the Department of Immigration (DoI), The Himalayan Times reported on late Friday that the decision to increase the foreign tourist visa fees was taken in May this year as the government here had not raised the charges for almost a decade.

However, the officials said that the change in visa fee structure was minor and the fee structure would be revised again after the completion of the Visit Nepal Year 2020.

"Change in the visa fee structure for foreign tourists is necessary to make the fee contextual," said Eshor Raj Poudel, director general at DoI.

However, Poudel mentioned that significant changes in the visa fee structure were not made in view of the tourism campaign next year. "We will rework on the visa fee structure following the completion of the Visit Nepal 2020 tourism campaign," added Poudel.

DoI hiked visa fee for tourists in a range between USD 5 and USD 35.

While the tourist visa fee for 15 days (multiple entries) has been raised by USD 5 to USD 30, the tourist visa fee for 30 days (multiple entries) has been raised to USD 50 from USD 40.

Similarly, the tourist visa fee for 90 days (multiple entries) has been raised by USD 35 to USD 125. DoI has also raised the visa extension fee for foreign tourists.

As per the department, the visa extension fee (within the valid visa period) has been raised to USD 3 per day from USD 2 per day. Similarly, visa extension fee (with multiple entries) has been raised to an additional USD 25 from an additional USD 20.

Likewise, the late fee on visa extension (after visa expiration) has been raised to USD 5 per day from USD 3 per day.