Power of attorney from abroad: an अधिकृत वारेसनामा at a Nepali embassy

A वारेसनामा is a written appointment of someone, your वारेस, to act for you. Nepal's Civil Procedure Code has two kinds.

A साधारण (ordinary) वारेसनामा is filed in a court case. It is the court's own form, signed by you before two witnesses and the person who wrote it (section 146), and the court checks it before registering it.

An अधिकृत वारेसनामा (authorised power of attorney) is one you sign before an official who certifies it: in Nepal a district court judge, outside Nepal a Nepali ambassador or consul general (section 153(2)). It is the one you need to sell, exchange or transfer land or a house: section 154 is what lets an attorney do that for you.

The Land Administration Directive, the rule book of the Land Revenue Offices, says an owner's share of tenanted land cannot be divided off on the word of an ordinary वारेस, only by the owner in person or through an अधिकृत वारेसनामा (section 296(7)). The Civil Code says the same of giving up or taking your share in a family partition (section 215(4)).

• In English, an अधिकृत वारेसनामा limited to one matter is what is usually called a special power of attorney.
• अख्तियारनामा is the word the law uses for the authority the deed gives, as in sections 154(5) of the Procedure Code and 427 of the Civil Code.

With a Nepali passport, the embassy is the route. For a general power, and for land through section 154(2), section 153(2) names who you sign before: a Nepali ambassador or consul general. The Directive repeats the rule for Land Revenue Offices (section 151(2)). A deed signed before a notary in the country you live in does not meet it.

With a foreign passport, the embassy will not certify one. A Ministry of Foreign Affairs circular of 30 April 2023 (2080/01/17), quoting the Law Ministry, told every mission that it cannot certify a foreign citizen's अधिकृत वारेसनामा, even if the person is of Nepali origin. Canberra links the circular, and Ottawa, Copenhagen and Washington say the same. An NRN card does not change it.

The notary route is for foreign citizens, and whether offices accept it is not settled. Washington tells US citizens of Nepali origin to write a special power of attorney in English, have it notarised, then authenticated by the state's Secretary of State and the US State Department, and then authenticated at the embassy. It adds that you should make sure the authority in Nepal will accept it. No official text read for this guide says a Land Revenue Office must, so ask the office named in the deed first.

1. 1Collect the details. Your own and your attorney's full names, fathers' and grandfathers' names, addresses and citizenship numbers, exactly as printed on the certificates. For land: district, municipality, ward, plot (कित्ता) number and area, exactly as on the लालपुर्जा. The power of attorney maker sets these out with the powers as numbered clauses, as a draft for the lawyer.
2. 2Have a lawyer in Nepal write the deed. Most missions want two originals typed by a registered lawyer (कानून व्यवसायी) on Nepali paper (नेपाली कागज), with the lawyer's name and licence number, and an application addressed to the embassy.
3. 3Your attorney and two witnesses sign in Nepal. Photos of both of you are fixed on the deed. Tokyo, Seoul and Doha want the attorney's thumbprint and signature on it before it leaves Nepal, and the witnesses sign in the margin (किनारा).
4. 4Send the embassy a photo first, if it offers that. Kuala Lumpur and Abu Dhabi check a WhatsApp photo of the deed before the originals are couriered out of Nepal. Ottawa wants scans by email before it gives you an appointment.
5. 5Book an appointment. Only the ambassador, or the chargé d'affaires in their absence, may sign. Kuala Lumpur stopped the service for three days in August 2025 while its ambassador was away, and Abu Dhabi does it on Tuesdays and Fridays only.
6. 6Go in person with the originals. Your valid Nepali passport and citizenship certificate, the attorney's citizenship copy (often notarised in Nepal), the photos, your visa or residence card, and for land the लालपुर्जा and this year's land revenue (तिरो) receipt. You sign and thumbprint in front of the official.
7. 7Pay, collect and send it home. London, Kuwait and the missions in Doha and Abu Dhabi hand it back the same day; Tokyo takes three working days.

Every mission asks for the same core: the deed in two originals, the application, your Nepali passport and citizenship certificate with copies, the attorney's citizenship copy, recent photos, and for land the ownership certificate and the current year's revenue receipt. The table gives what each mission adds, and its fee.

The lower fee is for a court case, a general power or a transfer within three generations of the family; the higher one is for selling or giving up property to anyone else. They are the code's Rs 500 and Rs 5,000 (sections 153(4) and 154(5)) in local money, so a figure far from those is worth questioning. None of the pages is dated and fees change: check the mission's own page before you go.

No Sydney consulate. Canberra lists one honorary consul in Australia, in Perth, and no page read says an honorary consul can certify a power of attorney. Plan on Canberra. No embassy where you live? The code accepts any Nepali ambassador or consul general, and Copenhagen says that when its ambassador visits one of the countries it covers, the deed can be signed there. Ask the mission for your country whether a visit is planned.

• Why you cannot attend. For land, section 154(1) asks for a reasonable cause for not being present yourself: that you live and work in Qatar, for instance.
• The office and the exact property. District, municipality, ward, plot (कित्ता) number and area for every plot, copied from the लालपुर्जा. A Land Revenue Office will not pass a deed when the land, the owner or the attorney's citizenship number differs from its record or is unclear (Directive section 154).
• The powers, one by one. To sign the sale deed (राजीनामा), pay the fees and taxes, receive the price, collect the new certificate. The office may do only what the deed names (Directive section 152(7)), so "all my affairs in Nepal" is turned away.
• What it cannot be used for. An attorney cannot make a gift that takes effect after your death, a शेषपछिको बकसपत्र (code section 154(4)). Nor can the attorney buy the land: the Directive bars passing a deed in which the attorney is the buyer (sections 118(झ) and 152(4)).
• Three generations of names. London asks for both people's तीन पुस्ते details: your father's and grandfather's names, and the attorney's. The relationship also decides which fee you pay.
• How long it lasts. A date, or "until the work is complete". It ends when that task or period does (code section 155(1)(क)).
• Names exactly as on the citizenship certificate, and the mission's exact name. Kuala Lumpur asks for क्वालालम्पुरस्थित नेपाली राजदूतावास, and Abu Dhabi for "युनाइटेड अरब इमिरेट्स, अबुधाबीस्थित नेपाली राजदूतावास", not Dubai.

The order most deeds follow, to check a lawyer's draft against. It is an outline, not a deed to sign: the words in [brackets] are what you supply.

Once the embassy hands it back, the original goes to the office named in it. No official text read for this guide asks for a further stamp in Kathmandu on a deed an embassy has certified: the code makes the mission's certificate the step. If the office tells you otherwise, follow the office.

1. 1Post the original, by a tracked courier, and keep a scan. The office will not act on a copy: if the original is lost, no transaction may be made from its copy (Directive section 154), and London and Copenhagen make you start again and pay the fee again.
2. 2Your attorney takes it to the office named in it, with their own citizenship certificate, the लालपुर्जा, the latest revenue receipt and whatever the transaction itself needs. A sale is usually preceded by an advance agreement: see the land sale agreement (बैना) and बैना कसरी लेख्ने.
3. 3The office checks it against its record. The plot, the owner and the attorney's citizenship number must match, and the office may confirm the deed with the embassy that certified it (section 152(5)).
4. 4The deed is passed. Your attorney signs for you, and the office marks each plot used in red on the power of attorney (section 118(घ)), so the same paper cannot be used for that plot again. The attorney's details are entered in the office's land information system (section 152(6)).

Under section 155(1) of the Civil Procedure Code it ends by itself when the task, purpose or period it names is complete; when the event it was tied to happens; when either of you dies before the work is done; when you transfer the property yourself, in person; when a court case arises between the two of you, or over that property with the attorney or the attorney's household; or when the attorney declines in writing and returns the original.

1. 1Publish a notice cancelling it in two national daily newspapers. That is how the code says the person who gave it cancels it (section 155(1)(ग)). Keep the cuttings.
2. 2Tell the office where it would be used, as soon as you can, in writing, in person or electronically. The Directive says that if you do not, and land is transferred on it, the office is not responsible (section 153(2)).
3. 3Ask the attorney for the original back, and make a new deed, through the embassy again, if someone else is to act for you.

• Vague powers. "To look after my property" names no task. The office acts only on what the deed names (Directive section 152(7)).
• Details that do not match. A name, father's name or citizenship number spelt differently from the certificate, or a plot number from an old certificate after re-survey, and the deed is not passed (Directive section 154). Copy from the documents, not from memory.
• An expired passport. Washington serves only people with a valid Nepali passport, and every mission asks for the original. Renew it first: passport form and renewal.
• A foreign passport. Since April 2023 no mission certifies one for a foreign citizen, Nepali origin or not.
• Arriving without an appointment. Only the ambassador, or the chargé d'affaires standing in, can sign. Copenhagen warns that if the signer is busy, on leave or away, the deed is not signed that day.
• Couriering the deed abroad unchecked. Kuala Lumpur and Abu Dhabi will look at a photo first; a wrong mission name or a missing witness means another round trip to Nepal.
• The attorney as buyer. The Directive bars a deed in which the attorney is the buyer, so a relative who is both cannot use it to buy from you.
• Relationship not shown. The lower fee depends on it, and Doha and Kuwait ask for proof. The ward issues the नाता प्रमाणित; if you also need it in English, use the relationship certificate in English.