Passport form in Nepal: how to apply online, step by step

1. 1Open online.nepalpassport.gov.np, or the Nepal ePassport app on a phone. Fill it yourself if you can; if someone helps, check every detail yourself before you submit.
2. 2Choose the reason — first passport, renewal, lost or stolen, damaged, or correction. Which one you are is in the next section.
3. 3Choose 34 or 66 pages. Both are equally valid; 66 pages costs more and suits someone who travels often.
4. 4Choose where you will apply and book a date and time. In Nepal, that is the District or Area Administration Office that issued your citizenship, or the Department of Passports for fast track. From abroad, choose "Other" and your country of birth, and the embassy or consulate.
5. 5Fill each step and upload the documents it asks for, scanned from the originals, each 1 MB or smaller.
6. 6Check everything, then Apply. The form downloads as a PDF with a barcode and QR code. Print it, or keep the PDF on your phone — the Department says the PDF, not a screenshot.
7. 7Go at your appointment with the form and your documents. At the office your form is checked, you pay the fee, and your photo and fingerprints are taken there.
8. 8Wait for the SMS or email saying your passport is ready, and collect it from the same office.

• First Issuance – New: you have never had a machine-readable (MRP) or e-passport — including if you only ever had the old handwritten one.
• Passport Renewal: you have an MRP or e-passport and nothing in it needs to change. Your details carry over and the new passport gets a new expiry date.
• Replacement – Lost/Stolen: your passport is gone. See the lost passport section below first.
• Replacement – Damaged: torn, wet or otherwise unusable.
• Modification – Data Correction: something in your current passport has to change or was wrong — your name, date of birth, citizenship number — and the mistake was yours. If the mistake was the office's, choose whatever was chosen for the passport that came out wrong; the Department replaces it free.

The Department's lists for applying in Nepal and abroad. Bring the originals; the online form asks for scans of some of them.

• Date of birth in your SLC/SEE certificate differs from your citizenship and you want the certificate's date: bring the SLC/SEE or higher certificate.
• An Indian, British or Singapore pension (discharge) certificate with a different date of birth: bring it, with a letter from your District Administration Office about it.
• Married, and adding your husband's surname: your marriage registration certificate and your husband's citizenship.
• Divorced, and going back to the surname in your citizenship: your divorce certificate.
• Moved and your address has changed: your migration (बसाइँसराइ) certificate. A married woman using her address after marriage brings her marriage registration.

What you pay depends on where you apply. A District or Area Administration Office — the district office, below — charges the regular fee; the Department of Passports in Tripureshwor does fast track only and charges more for it. Renewal costs the same as a new passport.

• At a district office, a lost or damaged passport costs Rs 5,000 more, and a child under 10 pays half — Rs 2,500 for 34 pages — under Schedule 4 of the Passport Rules. Ask the office for the 66-page figure for a child.
• At a Nepali embassy or consulate, for a 34-page passport: US$150 in North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong; €80 in Russia and Cyprus; €120 elsewhere in Europe; US$50 in Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Syria and Yemen; US$80 everywhere else.
• Abroad, a lost or damaged passport costs double, and a child under 10 pays half. The 66-page price and how to pay vary by mission, so check with yours.

In Nepal you apply at the district office that issued your citizenship, or at the Department for fast track. The Department's own pages give district offices 10–30 days in one place and 15–45 in another — distance from Kathmandu decides — so plan on two to six weeks.

Renewal is the same form and the same appointment, with Passport Renewal chosen and your old passport brought along. It costs the same as a new one.

Your new passport has a new number. The old number is printed in it, so a visa still valid in your old passport is usually accepted if you travel with both — but that is the destination country's rule, so check with its embassy.

How long it lasts: an ordinary passport is valid for 10 years, or 5 years for a child under 10 (Passport Rules 2077, rule 17).

• A child applies with a minor identity card (नाबालक परिचयपत्र) from the District Administration Office, in place of a citizenship certificate.
• Applying at the Department for the first time: bring the minor identity card verified by the district office that issued it, both parents' citizenship certificates and their marriage registration certificate.
• A parent collects it, the mother or the father.
• Born abroad to Nepali parents? There is no minor identity card yet, so the embassy gives a birth registration or temporary number to write in place of the citizenship number. For that it asks for copies of both parents' citizenship and passports, their marriage registration, the child's original birth registration and two recent passport-size photos. The next passport needs a minor identity card, so get one from the district office once you are in Nepal.

1. 1Have the lost passport cancelled at the nearest application centre, with your identification, so no one else can use it.
2. 2Apply again with Replacement – Lost/Stolen, the whole process as for a new passport. The fee is higher — see the fee table.
3. 3No copy of the old passport? The Department or the application centre can give you its details.

Use the Nepal ePassport app, or the status check on nepalpassport.gov.np, with your citizenship number, date of birth, place of birth and surname. The Department does not give status by phone.

If your application is rejected, you get an SMS and an email. Contact the office where you applied: it resubmits the application, usually without a new photo, so you may not need to go in person.

Bring the application form, your citizenship, the fee receipt and your old passport (unless this is your first, or it was lost). It takes 10–15 minutes.

Collect it yourself; for a child, the mother or father. If you cannot go, a relative can, with your written authorisation and their own passport or citizenship.

• Names: letters only, no Dr., Mr. or Ms. Write every surname you have (Poudel Kshetri), and drop the dots (G.C. becomes GC).
• Citizenship number: the field holds 14 digits. If yours is longer, keep the last 14 counting from the right — 072-312-13792/432796 becomes 31213792432796.
• Date of birth: the form wants it in AD as well as BS, converted from your citizenship. The Nepali date converter does it; check the result.
• Uploads over 1 MB fail. The photo resizer brings a scan under a set size, and compress PDF does the same for a PDF, both on your own device.
• A screenshot of the form is not accepted. Bring the printed form or the PDF itself.
• The photo: small everyday jewellery is fine if it does not shine or cover your eyes, mouth or eyebrows; take off party jewellery, and leave the tika off. A permanent tattoo or mark is fine; with a fresh injury, the Department suggests waiting until it heals if you can.

Department of Passports, Tripureshwor, Kathmandu: hotline 01-5970330, email info@nepalpassport.gov.np, open Monday to Friday, 9 am–5 pm.

Going abroad for work? The passport is the first paper of several: the police report comes next, then the labour permit (shram swikriti), and for Korea the EPS-TOPIK exam. A Gulf CV or Europass CV is free to make here.