The department’s move comes amid an increasing trend of foreigners visiting Nepal on a tourist visa and staying back to work, involvement of foreigners in criminal activities, unemployment in the country and losses amounting to billions of rupees in income tax and work permit fees.

 

The DoL charges Rs 10,000 a year for a work permit from foreigners and Rs 5,000 from Indian nationals coming to Nepal for employment.

 

Previously, any non-diplomatic foreign worker in the country used to receive a work permit from the department after fulfilling the set criteria. “Even though foreign applicants have fulfilled the criteria, we have begun interviewing them rigorously to make sure that they deserve to work here and do not have any ill intentions,” said Krishna Hari Pushkar, director general at the department.

 

He added that every foreign national wishing to work in different offices 

and agencies in Nepal except for diplomatic agencies should go through the interview phase to receive a work permit. The department has set Mondays and Fridays for interviewing the applicants. Officials said that they had also arranged for volunteer interviewers according to the language or job nature of the interviewee.

 

Officials said the department had already interviewed more than two dozen foreigners since the provision was enforced some three weeks ago. After interviewing a number of applicants from the US, Germany, Italy, Korea, China and Bangladesh, the DoL has issued permits to only four individuals.

 

Earlier, the number of foreigners receiving work permits was higher. A high level official at the department said some 30-40 individuals used to receive work permits monthly from the department.

 

There are an estimated 50,000 foreigners working in Nepal illegally in different sectors such as NGOs, INGOs, diplomatic missions, hydropower, construction, banking, telecom, airlines, hospitality and educational institutions. The department estimates that the government is losing around Rs 4 billion annually in taxes from them.

 

“There are a significantly larger number of foreigners who have been staying in Nepal with expired work permits,” Pushkar added. According to him, most of the overstayers are from China, Bhutan, Korea, Europe, the US, Africa, Australia and Japan.

 

Department officials said that the interviewing process had been adopted as there has been a growing number of foreigners coming to Nepal for one purpose and stay here doing something else and occupying positions in different firms which Nepalis can handle themselves. As per the Labour Act 1992, any organisation in Nepal can hire foreign workers for a maximum period of five years. The term can be extended for up to seven years if the post requires technical skills and Nepalis are hard to find for the specific job.

 

Basing on the act, the DoL grants permission to employers to engage a non-Nepali at work for a maximum period of five years and in a specialised kind of skilled technical post, for a period of up to seven years, if Nepalis are hard to find for the specific job.