Nepal Visa Extension: Department of Immigration Guide

If you're spending more than 90 days in Nepal — or your original visa was a short 15-day arrival visa — you'll end up at the Department of Immigration office in Kathmandu sooner or later. The process looks bureaucratic from the outside, but for most travellers it's a 30–60 minute job that can be slotted into a single morning.

This is the plain-English guide to extending your Nepali tourist visa in 2026. Where the office is, what to bring, what it costs, the online application step nobody mentions, and the small mistakes that cost an extra trip.

What can be extended (and what can't)

The Tourist Visa is what most foreigners arrive on — either as a Visa on Arrival at Tribhuvan International Airport (KTM) or pre-arranged from a Nepali embassy abroad.

You can extend:

• A Tourist Visa, up to a maximum total stay of 150 days in a single calendar year
• The extension is granted in 15-day blocks (minimum), in 15-day increments thereafter

You cannot extend at the Immigration office:

• Business visas (handled by your sponsor)
• Study visas (handled by the institution)
• Diplomatic / official visas

Hard limit: 150 days total in one calendar year (1 January to 31 December). Once you hit it, you must leave Nepal. India is the easiest border crossing for a re-entry; a quick weekend in Delhi or Kolkata works and you re-enter on a fresh Visa on Arrival.

2026 fees

These are the published Department of Immigration rates for foreign tourists:

• 15 days minimum: USD 45
• Per additional day after 15: USD 3
• Multiple-entry surcharge: additional USD 25 (lets you leave Nepal and come back during the same visa window)

So:

• 15-day extension = USD 45
• 30-day extension = USD 45 (first 15) + USD 45 (next 15 days × USD 3) = USD 90
• 90-day extension = USD 45 + USD 225 = USD 270

Multiple-entry adds a flat USD 25. Pay in USD cash or by card. NPR is accepted at the desk in some cases at the daily rate.

Where the office is

Department of Immigration Anamnagar, Kalikasthan, Kathmandu

This is east of central Kathmandu, about 3 km from our Putalisadak apartments (a 12-minute taxi via Pathao or InDriver). From Thamel it's 15 minutes by taxi.

If you're staying with us in Putalisadak, the office is a short ride. Many of our long-stay guests do it on a buffer day between Kathmandu and a trek or before flying to Pokhara.

Office hours:

• Sunday to Thursday: 09:30 to 16:00
• Friday: 09:30 to 13:00
• Closed Saturday and on public holidays

Apply in the morning. Afternoon queues regularly mean processing slips to the next day.

The online application step (do this first)

Since 2019, the Department of Immigration has moved to a hybrid system — you fill in the application online before walking in. Skipping this step adds at least an hour to the visit.

1. Go to https://www.immigration.gov.np/ and click "Online Visa Application" (the URL on the Department's site is the authoritative source; bookmark it from a Nepal-routed connection so you don't follow a phishing copy). 2. Choose "Tourist Visa Extension." 3. Fill in passport number, current visa expiry, number of additional days you want, contact details and your Kathmandu address (your apartment counts). 4. The system generates a Submission Number — write it down or screenshot it. You'll need it at the desk. 5. Save / print the application summary. Don't rely on the digital copy alone — some desks ask for the printout.

If the website is down (it does happen — usually Saturdays for maintenance), you can also fill the form on paper inside the building, but the queue is longer.

What to bring

Take everything in your daypack:

1. Passport — original, with at least 6 months' validity beyond your planned exit date 2. Photocopy of the passport bio page — two copies (one for the application, one as backup) 3. Photocopy of the current Nepal visa page — one copy 4. Photocopy of the entry stamp page — one copy 5. One passport-sized photo — current, head-and-shoulders, white background (a Kathmandu photo studio charges NPR 200 for a 4-photo strip — Thamel and Putalisadak both have several) 6. The Submission Number from the online application (or printed application summary) 7. Cash in USD — exact amounts where possible; ATMs near the office have NPR limits (NPR 35,000 per transaction) 8. A pen — useful but not essential

The process inside the building

1. Ground floor, Form check counter — present your application Submission Number or paper form; staff confirm everything is in order. 5-10 minutes if the queue is small. 2. Cashier counter — pay the visa extension fee in USD (or NPR at the day's rate). You receive a stamped receipt. 10 minutes. 3. First floor, Application processing counter — submit your passport + receipt + photo. They take your passport for stamping. 20-30 minutes. 4. Collection counter (same floor) — your name is called when the visa is stamped. Verify the new expiry date on the stamp before leaving. 15-20 minutes wait.

Total time, end to end: 60-90 minutes including queues. Faster mid-week and earlier in the morning.

Common mistakes (avoid these)

• Forgetting to fill the online form first. You'll be sent back out to do it. Adds 30+ minutes.
• Wrong photo background. Some desks reject non-white backgrounds. If yours has a coloured background, the photo studio across the road from the Immigration office will reprint for NPR 200 — but you'll lose 20 minutes.
• Not enough days requested. You can always extend again, but every visit costs the USD 45 minimum and a half-day of your trip. If you think you'll need 28 days, apply for 30.
• Confusing visa expiry vs entry stamp. The Visa on Arrival sticker has a "Valid Until" date that's separate from the entry stamp. Read both. The expiry to extend FROM is the Visa on Arrival sticker date.
• Skipping the photocopy step. The Immigration office has a small photocopy desk inside the building, but the queue can be 20 minutes. Photocopy at one of the Putalisadak / Bagh Bazaar print shops (NPR 5 per page) before you arrive.
• Hitting the 150-day annual limit. If you arrived on 1 January, you can stay until 30 May. After that you MUST leave Nepal — even for one night across the Indian border — and re-enter on a fresh Visa on Arrival.

Tips from long-stay travellers

• Pay in USD cash if you can. Card payment works but adds a small surcharge. USD cash is processed fastest.
• Combine the visit with permit pickup. If you're going trekking, you can pick up your TIMS / ACAP card at the Nepal Tourism Board (Bhrikutimandap) on the same morning — see our trekking permits guide. Both offices are open the same hours.
• Don't apply for fewer than 15 days at a time. Below the 15-day minimum the fee doesn't scale down — you still pay USD 45.
• Multi-entry is worth it for India hops. If you plan to nip across to Varanasi or Darjeeling, the USD 25 multi-entry surcharge saves a fresh Visa on Arrival fee on return (USD 30 for 15 days, USD 50 for 30, USD 125 for 90).
• Visa run alternatives. If you're on a long stay and want a fresh 90-day window mid-year, Kolkata (1.5h flight) or Delhi (2h flight) are the standard visa-run destinations.

Where this fits with Tiny Living

Visa-extension day is a classic buffer day for our long-stay guests at the Putalisadak apartments. The Immigration office is 12 minutes by Pathao taxi, you can be back by lunch, and use the afternoon for the things you actually came to Nepal for. Smart-lock self check-in means you can extend your stay with us by simply messaging the host on WhatsApp — no front desk paperwork, no awkward "we're full" surprise. Monthly rates apply automatically for stays over 28 nights.

For the wider long-stay picture see our cost-of-living in Kathmandu 2026 guide — what your visa extension actually buys you in terms of monthly budget. For connectivity while you handle paperwork the Nepal SIM card guide covers Ncell vs NTC, both of which work fine in the Anamnagar Immigration block.