Experience letter request: the email to HR, the निवेदन, and what to do if the letter never comes

Write to the person who can sign the letter, or to the office that keeps the staff files. Put it in writing even if you also ask in person. Under the Labour Act the employer’s duty starts when you ask, so the date of your request matters, and an email or a stamped copy of your application proves it.

When: during your notice period, and no later than your last day. Send the request as soon as your resignation is accepted, so the letter can be signed along with your clearance. Asking months later still works, but the people who knew your work may have moved on.

HR has to find your file, check it and write the letter. Give everything it needs in one message, and you save a week of back and forth.

• Your full name exactly as on your citizenship certificate, and as on your passport if the letter is going abroad. A spelling that differs from your passport is a mismatch every verifier notices.
• Your post, and every post if you were promoted, with the date of each.
• Your joining date and your last working day, as on your appointment letter and the acceptance of your resignation.
• Your employee ID, department and branch, so HR pulls the right file.
• The purpose: a new job, a visa, a bank loan, study abroad, a skills assessment or a council licence. It decides the language and whether your duties must be listed.
• Anything extra the reader needs: your main duties, full-time or contract, hours a week. If the body you are applying to publishes a list, attach it.
• The language and the number of copies (English for anything going abroad), and whether you will collect the original or need it posted.

Send it from your personal email, not your work account, which is usually closed when you leave. Copy your line manager. Every name and number below is invented.

In a school or a campus, ask with a निवेदन, the same kind of application you would hand in for leave. Give it in at the office, have it registered (दर्ता), and keep the दर्ता number or a copy stamped as received.

A hospital letter is often for a licence or registration abroad, and those bodies usually want more than dates. Give your council registration number, and attach the licensing body’s own list of what the letter must say, so the hospital writes it once.

Yes, you can get an experience letter after you resign. Section 150 of the Labour Act 2074 is written for exactly that worker: when a worker whose employment has ended asks for an experience certificate, the employer must issue one stating the period of employment and the post. There is no exception for people who resigned, and no time limit on asking.

Two things the section does not say. It names only the period of employment and the post, so duties, the basis of employment and a conduct line are up to the employer: ask for them and most will agree, but you cannot insist on them under section 150. And it sets no deadline for issuing the letter. While you are still on the payroll, a letter (usually called a working certificate) is a courtesy, not a right under that section.

Here is the rest of what the Act and its Rules set for the end of a job, all from the Law Commission’s current text, amended to 2082:

Start polite and in writing, and go only as far as you need to. Most letters arrive after the first reminder. If they do not, the Labour Act gives a worker’s claim a route of its own, with time limits at each step.

1. 1A week or ten days after asking, send a reminder (below). Reply to your first email, so its date shows, and copy your former manager.
2. 2Write to the head of the organisation: the managing director, the principal or the director, with copies of both emails. Most delays end here.
3. 3Make a written claim to the employer (section 113). Hand in a dated application asking for the certificate under section 150. The employer must give you a receipt (निस्सा) and settle it with you within 15 days. Hand it in yourself, and have your copy signed or stamped as received.
4. 4Apply to the Labour and Employment Office (section 114). You can go if the employer does not call you to discuss it within seven days, or if you have not agreed after fifteen. The office must try to settle it between you within 21 days. If that fails, it decides on the evidence within 15 days more (section 115).
5. 5Do not wait. Section 162 gives six months from the act for a complaint about anything done against the Act, and the employer need keep pay and attendance records for only five years (rule 81).
6. 6Appeal if you must. Anyone unhappy with the office’s decision can appeal to the Labour Court within 35 days (section 165).

Section 150 binds an employer, and a company that has been wound up cannot sign anything. Try the people first. Then build the proof from records that never depended on the company staying open.

• The former owner or a director. Ask them to sign a letter in their own name, stating your post and dates and that the company has closed. It carries less weight than a company letter, but it names a person who can be called.
• The company that took it over, if it merged or was bought. The new owner usually holds the old staff files, so ask its HR.
• Your appointment letter or contract. Every employer must give one: the Department of Labour can fine an employer Rs 10,000 for each worker taken on without one, up to Rs 5 lakh (section 163). It fixes your start date and post.
• Salary slips and a bank statement showing your salary arriving from the employer every month. Ask your bank for a stamped statement covering the whole period.
• Your Social Security Fund record. If your employer paid into the SSF, the contributor portal’s dashboard shows each month deposited, and Reports → Contributor Statement shows the amounts. SSF Nepal explains how to log in.
• A tax record. A tax clearance certificate in your PAN is the government’s own record of the tax you paid in each fiscal year.
• Everything else with a date on it: the acceptance of your resignation, a relieving letter, your staff ID card, training certificates and work emails.

A wrong date is easy to fix on the day you collect the letter, and hard once the signer has left. Read it at the desk:

• Your name, spelt exactly as on your citizenship certificate and passport.
• Every post you held, with the date of each change.
• Your joining and leaving dates, matching the appointment letter and the acceptance of your resignation. For a letter going abroad, ask for AD dates, or both BS and AD.
• Full-time, part-time or contract, and your duties, if the reader needs them.
• The letterhead, a reference number and the date of issue.
• The signature, with the signer’s name and designation, and the seal.
• A phone number or email that answers, so the next employer or an embassy can check it.
• The language: English for anything going abroad, Nepali for use at home.