Overall4/10Harder visas than about 75% of cities
Good to know
Good to Know
- Don't assume Nepal is 'visa-free' — for the vast majority of nomads (US, UK, EU, Canada, Australia, etc.) it's a paid Visa on Arrival, typically $50 for 30 days or $125 for 90 days.
- Visa fees are officially quoted and charged in USD cash at the airport bank counter, not in Nepalese Rupees — bring clean, undamaged USD bills, as banks can reject torn or heavily worn notes.
- Pokhara has its own Immigration Office that can process tourist visa extensions, so nomads based in Pokhara don't need to travel to Kathmandu for this.
- The 150-day annual cap applies per calendar year (Jan–Dec), not per 12-month period from your entry date — plan long stays with this in mind.
- Filling out the online 'Tourist Visa' form on the Nepaliport portal in advance (valid for 15 days) can meaningfully cut queue time at the arrival visa desk.
- Nepal's digital nomad visa has been publicly confirmed by the government but is not open for applications as of July 2026 — check the official Department of Immigration site (immigration.gov.np) before making plans around it.
- Right now, the practical route for nomads is the tourist visa: 15/30/90-day entry, extendable up to a total of 150 days per calendar year, after which you must leave Nepal.
- Visa and extension fees must be paid in USD or another convertible foreign currency (not Nepalese rupees or credit card in many cases), so carry cash in USD when heading to the immigration office.
- Pokhara has its own Immigration Office at Damside (inside the Nepal Tourism Board building), so visa extensions can be handled locally without traveling to Kathmandu.
- If the digital nomad visa launches as proposed, the income bar (USD 1,500/month or USD 20,000 in savings) is unusually low compared to most countries' nomad visas, which typically require USD 2,500–3,500/month.
Default Baseline Most Nomads
- Status
- Paid Visa on Arrival (multiple-entry tourist visa) — not visa-free
- Process
- Visa on Arrival is available at Tribhuvan International Airport (Kathmandu), Pokhara International Airport, Gautam Buddha International Airport (Lumbini), and land border entry points. Travelers fill an arrival card plus an online/kiosk tourist visa form, pay the fee in cash (USD preferred) at a bank counter, then present the receipt and passport at the visa desk.
- Eligible For
- Most nationalities including the US, UK, EU member states, Canada, Australia and most of Asia/Latin America
- Extension Fee
- $45
minimum 15-day extension, plus roughly $3/day for each additional day beyond that
- Extension Process
- Extensions are done online via the Department of Immigration's 'Nepaliport' portal followed by an in-person visit to an Immigration Office — Pokhara has its own Immigration Office where tourist visa extensions can be processed
- Passport Requirement
- Passport valid for at least 6 months from date of entry, with at least one blank visa page
- Max Stay Per Calendar Year
- 150 days total (via extensions), January–December visa year
Fees By Duration
- Visa fee
- $30
- Duration Days
- 15
- Visa fee
- $50
- Duration Days
- 30
- Visa fee
- $125
- Duration Days
- 90
Genuinely Free Or Visa Exempt Categories
Indian Nationals
- Detail
- Under the 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Indian citizens do not need a visa to enter Nepal but must carry a valid passport or Election Commission Voter ID card (Aadhaar is generally not accepted for air entry).
- Status
- fully exempt — no visa needed at all
SAARC Nationals (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka)
- Detail
- SAARC citizens (other than Afghanistan) get a free 30-day visa on arrival for their first visit in a given visa year (Jan–Dec); a second visit in the same year is charged the standard fee. Afghan citizens are only eligible for a gratis visa on arrival with prior recommendation from the Department of Immigration.
- Status
- free (gratis) Visa on Arrival, limited
Chinese Nationals
- Detail
- Chinese passport holders are currently exempt from the visa fee, though sources differ on whether the free period is 30 days or longer — verify current duration with the Department of Immigration before travel.
- Status
- gratis (free) tourist visa on arrival
Children Under 10
- Detail
- Children under 10 years old are issued visas for free regardless of nationality.
- Status
- free of charge, all nationalities (except noted exceptions for some sources)
Proposed Digital Nomad Visa
- Caveat
- None of this is live yet — treat all figures above as proposed policy, not a functioning application process.
- Confirmed By
- High-Level Economic Reform Recommendation Commission, incorporated into the government's Economic Reform Implementing Work Plan 2025, endorsed by the Office of the Prime Minister
- Renewal Path
- Proposed as annual renewal of a residence permit within the overall five-year visa validity period; exact renewal procedure has not yet been published.
- Visa Structure
- Five-year multiple-entry visa allowing one-year renewable stays within that five-year window, modeled loosely on Thailand's Destination Thailand Visa.
- Additional Proposed Perks
- Ability to open a local Nepali bank account, register a vehicle and use a foreign driving licence, and withdraw full account balances if the visa lapses without renewal.
Documents Expected
- Proof of remote employment/freelance income or business ownership tied to entities outside Nepal
- Bank statements (commonly cited as ~6 months)
- International health insurance with at least USD 100,000 coverage valid in Nepali hospitals
- Clean criminal record / background check (expected but not yet formally published)
- Documents translated into English if not already in English
Income Requirement
- Savings Alternative
- NPR 3,044,000
- Monthly Income Threshold
- NPR 228,300
- Description
- Applicants must show at least USD 1,500/month in remote income from outside Nepal, OR hold USD 20,000 in savings, as an alternative.
Current De Facto Path For Nomads
- Visa Used
- Tourist visa (on arrival at Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, or via the online eVisa portal; also obtainable at Pokhara's regional immigration office for extensions)
- Annual Cap
- Extendable, but total tourist-visa days (initial stay plus extensions) cannot exceed 150 days within one calendar (visa) year.
- Limitation
- A tourist visa is not a work permit and is not designed for indefinite long-term residency — once the 150-day annual cap is reached, a nomad must leave Nepal to reset, since unused days do carry forward but the visa is not intended for continuous residence.
- Extension Process
- Must apply online via the immigration portal, then appear in person before the visa expires at the Department of Immigration (Kathmandu) or the Pokhara Immigration Office at Damside (inside the Nepal Tourism Board building).
- Initial Durations
- 15, 30, or 90 days, multiple-entry
- Other Long Stay Categories
- Business, student, and marital (spouse of a Nepali citizen) visas exist as longer-term alternatives but require distinct qualifying conditions (e.g. marriage to a Nepali citizen, enrolled study, or registered local business/investment) rather than a general remote-income pathway.
Extension Fees Pokhara Office
- Late Fine
- NPR 761
Per day, applied if you apply for extension after your visa has already expired but within 150 days; converted for reference, actually charged in USD.
- Additional Days
- NPR 456
Per additional day beyond the 15-day minimum, converted for reference; actually charged in USD.
- Minimum Extension
- NPR 6,849
Fee is set and charged in USD (minimum 15-day extension); NPR figure is a converted estimate for reference — Nepal's own visa rules require payment in USD or another convertible foreign currency, not NPR.
Nepal does not offer true visa-free entry to most nomads. The default baseline for the large majority of nationalities (USA, UK, EU, Canada, Australia, and most of the rest of the world) is a PAID 'Visa on Arrival' (VOA), not a free entry. Genuinely visa-free/free-of-charge entry is limited to Indian nationals, first-time-in-year SAARC nationals, and (per most current sources) Chinese nationals.
Official Sources
Overstay Penalty
USD 5 per day fine for overstaying beyond the visa's validity (and beyond the 150-day/year cap), payable at the immigration counter before departure is permitted
Cannot Get Visa On Arrival
- Detail
- Citizens of these countries must obtain a visa in advance from a Nepali embassy or diplomatic mission before flying; they are not eligible for the on-arrival facility.
- Status
- illegal to attempt VOA — must pre-arrange
- Countries
- Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Eswatini (Swaziland), Cameroon, Somalia, Liberia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria, and refugees traveling on refugee travel documents
Tax Notes
- Current Situation
- Nepal does not currently have a dedicated digital-nomad tax regime — that only exists on paper as part of the still-unlaunched digital nomad visa proposal.
- Day Count Discrepancy
- Some secondary sources describe the trigger threshold as 186 days rather than 183 days — this has not been finalized in an official published tax law, since the visa itself has not launched.
- Proposed Tax Treatment Under DNV
- As proposed, income tax would be waived for a digital nomad's first 183 days in Nepal, with a concessional flat 5% tax applying to foreign-sourced income for time spent beyond that threshold within the year.
- Practical Note
- Because the digital nomad visa is not yet operational, nomads currently in Nepal on tourist visas are not covered by this proposed regime one way or the other; general Nepali tax residency rules for foreign remote income earners on tourist status were not independently verified for this entry and should be confirmed with a local tax advisor before any extended stay.
Status Summary
Nepal does not yet have an operational digital nomad visa as of July 2026. A five-year, multiple-entry digital nomad visa has been formally proposed by Nepal's government and is expected to launch sometime in 2026, but the application module, final legal text, and fee schedule are not yet published. Until it launches, nomads in Pokhara live on the standard tourist visa.
Visa Ease Tier
low
Visa Ease Tier Rationale
No operational digital nomad visa exists yet (only a proposed 2026 program), and the only current legal option — the tourist visa — caps total stay at 150 days per calendar year with mandatory in-person extensions and cash/USD-only fees, forcing visa runs for anyone wanting to base in Pokhara long-term.
AI-generated estimateData refreshed July 2026
Sources cited for this category
These are the sources cited in this visas research for this city. Individual figures may not each trace to one of them.
More About Pokhara
Data last updated July 2026 · Verify anything important.