Most passports can buy a Nepal visa at the airport, and the Department of Immigration publishes the fees, an online form and a card-payment route. Three things to read before you fly: the passports that cannot get one on arrival, the 150-day yearly cap, and the old fees still shown on older pages, including the Nepal Tourism Board’s.
What it costs
The department’s visa information page, read on 7 October 2026, gives the tourist visa on arrival as:
| Stay | Fee |
|---|---|
| 15 days | USD 30 |
| 30 days | USD 50 |
| 90 days | USD 125 |
The Nepal Tourism Board’s visa page still lists USD 25, 40 and 100 for the same three tiers. Treat that as stale. The department is the issuing authority, and its own pages agree with each other on 30, 50 and 125.
Visas issued at an entry point are all tourist visas, and the department’s FAQ says they all carry multiple entry. Children below 10 pay no fee.
Who can and cannot get one on arrival
Most passport holders can. The department’s online visa page lists these nationalities as unable to get a visa on arrival: Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Cameroon, Somalia, Liberia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and Syria. They must apply in advance through a Nepali embassy or the online mission portal. The Tourism Board’s older list has eleven names and leaves out Syria, so use the department’s twelve.
Indian citizens do not need a visa. By air they show an Indian passport or a voter ID card, according to the department’s FAQ (published in Nepali).
The online form, and what to print
The department describes three steps:
- Fill in the arrival card and the online tourist visa form, on its website before you fly or on the kiosk machines at Tribhuvan. Print the submission receipt with the barcode, which is valid for 15 days.
- Pay the fee at the bank counter.
- Take the form, the payment receipt and your passport to the immigration desk, where the officer issues the visa.
The form asks for your name as printed in your passport, passport number and expiry, the visa length you want, your address in Nepal and your arrival date. The department warns that errors can cause rejection.
Use only the department’s own domains, which end in .gov.np. Its payment guide says not to pay through third-party websites, apps or agents.
Paying: counter, or card before you fly
At the counter, the department says: “Multiple payment modes accepted. Carrying some cash is advised.” It does not list which modes, so bring US dollars as a fallback. The Tourism Board’s older page says cash only, in euros, Swiss francs, pounds, US, Australian, Canadian, Hong Kong and Singapore dollars or yen, and no credit cards, Indian rupees or Nepali rupees. That page predates the online route below, so it may no longer describe the counter.
You can also pay by card before arrival through the department’s payment guide. The form gives you a submission ID, you pay on the connectIPS gateway, and a successful payment produces a receipt to print. The convenience fee is 3.5% of the amount or the Nepali rupee equivalent of 1 USD, whichever is higher. Payment is non-refundable, so pay once per submission ID. The guide says the sticker is still handled at the desk: “Visa sticker is issued only at the immigration desk”.
Applying fully online instead
The department also runs an Electronic Travel Authorization (eVisa) on the same Nepaliport system. You upload a passport scan and a recent photo with a white background, pay USD 30, 50 or 125 by card, and the approved visa is emailed. Print it and carry it. It must be used within six months of issue, and it cannot be withdrawn or refunded once issued.
The department’s pages disagree on speed: one calls processing instant, another says verification may take longer. No turnaround is published, so do not apply the night before you fly.
Passport and photo
The eVisa page says your passport must be valid for at least six months. The on-arrival page states no number, so plan on six months. The Tourism Board says to bring one passport photo with a light background and notes that the department has not set a size.
Where it is issued
The department says Tribhuvan International Airport offers visa on arrival, and that the visa can also come from a Nepali mission abroad. It also refers to “other designated entry points” without naming them. The Tourism Board’s page names land crossings at Kakarbhitta, Birgunj, Bhairahawa, Nepalgunj and Gaddachowki on the Indian border and Kodari on the Chinese border. That page is old, so confirm a crossing before you rely on it.
Pokhara is the one to check. The department’s FAQ says the Pokhara immigration office does not issue visas on arrival. It handles extensions and trekking permits for restricted areas. None of the official pages I read names Pokhara International Airport or the Bhairahawa airport as a place that issues visas, so if you are landing there, get the eVisa first.
Extensions and the 150-day cap
A tourist can stay at most 150 days in a visa year, which is the calendar year, 1 January to 31 December. That ceiling covers the entry visa and every extension together.
The department’s citizen charter prices an extension at USD 45 for the first 15 days, then USD 3 a day, so the smallest extension is USD 45. It lists two hours’ processing, and an online application receipt and your passport as the documents. The eVisa page names the Kathmandu office at Kalikasthan and the Pokhara office, and says to bring a passport photo.
At the published rates:
- 15 days on arrival plus a 15-day extension costs USD 75 for 30 days. The 30-day visa costs USD 50.
- 30 days plus a 15-day extension costs USD 95 for 45 days. Buying 90 days costs USD 125.
- 90 days plus 60 days of extension reaches the 150-day cap and costs USD 305.
Choosing the right tier at the start is almost always cheaper. The charter also lists a multiple re-entry charge of USD 25 against the extension without explaining when it applies.
Free visas
The department’s gratis list covers children below 10, SAARC citizens other than Afghans for up to 30 days on a first visit in a visa year, Afghan citizens on the department’s recommendation, NRN card holders, Chinese nationals, and officials from China, Brazil, Russia and Thailand. The Tourism Board names Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka for the SAARC group. The eVisa page qualifies the children’s rule: it says the gratis visa covers all nationalities except US citizens, for up to 30 days, with normal fees on 90 day visas. The visa information page states no such limit. Free visas still need the online application.
Overstaying
The department publishes a USD 5 a day late fine, charged on top of the extension cost. Its FAQ also says the department can detain people for breaches of immigration law and bring them before a court. I found no published schedule of other penalties, so do not read the fine as the whole risk.
Other routes
- A visa from a Nepali mission: enter within six months of issue. Your stay is counted from the day you enter.
- Transit: limited to 24 hours and costs USD 5, with an air ticket as proof.
- US citizens: a five-year visa with 180 days a year costs USD 160 from the department, which asks for a bank statement of at least USD 10,000, health insurance and a police report.
Before you land, see what you can bring in at Nepal’s customs rules. If you want to live in Nepal rather than visit, a tourist visa is where it starts, and Nepal’s residential visa for retirees sets out the money test and fee.