travlr67

Is it fairly easy to get the Visa for Nepal at the Kathmandu Airport? I'm debating whether I should get it before I arrive by sending my passport to the US Embassy or just get it on arrival. I'm arriving to KTM around 10pm, should I expect any visa problem if I choose to get it on arrival?

Kathie

We got our visas on arrival in Kathmandu - it was very easy. Yes, you'll stand in line, but it wasn't that bad. We printed out the visa appplications ahead of time and had them all filled out. Do have correct change for your visa purchase, preferably in US$

sam67

Anyone had recent experiences of this please? We are flying to mumbai and then directly on to Kathmandu?

rkkwan

Saw the counter when arriving KTM last Sept at around 10pm. We didn't use it, but the line was around 7-10 persons. Doesn't look too bad, but it'll definitely cost you a little bit of time.

LancasterLad

Got VOA last March.
Do what Kathie recommends, it's v.straightforward.
Change a bit of money in the airport too, just enough until you can get to one of the many moneychangers.

Dreamhimalaya

You can get tourist visa upon arrival in TIA. But, my suggestion is obtain visa in the embassy of Nepal in your country, if you really don’t want to wait another 30-60 minutes in a queue at TIA, Kathmandu. Alternatively you can queue; it’s really not that bad. Please find the cost below;
-US $ 25 for 15 days Visa
-US$ 40 for 30 days Visa
-US$ 100 for 90 days Visa
If you want to get visa upon arrival, please bring passport size photo and change dollar for visa.

LancasterLad

@Dreamhimalaya<<<You can get tourist visa upon arrival in TIA. But, my suggestion is obtain visa in the embassy of Nepal in your country, if you really don’t want to wait another 30-60 minutes in a queue at TIA, Kathmandu. Alternatively you can queue; it’s really not that bad.>>>

There's a lot more personal time and effort involved in getting your visa beforehand!

Print-off the form online, complete it before arrival, have a photo, and the correct US$ when you get into the Arrival terminal, join the right visa queue for the right duration of visa, and it's a cinch.

25 minutes after hitting the tarmac we'd cleared immigration, changed a small amount of money, and collected our bags.

Frances

We queued for over an hour to get our visa on arrival in November.We hadn't expected this as what we read before departure suggested it would be fast but it wasn't . We arrived on the Etihad flight from Abu Dhabi which got in at about 5.30pm.
With what I now know I have advised others to get the visa before they arrive.

LancasterLad

Frances, we flew in on the afternoon Etihad flight from Abu Dhabi too, but obviously on a different day.

What was the problem with the time it took to get your VOA? Queue too long? Did you get in the wrong queue? Had you filled in the Visa Application, got your photo and US$ ready? Too few staff on duty?

I've read the thread you started about Etihad. We had a nightmare with them a few years ago at Abu Dhabi airport. Hate the place and the useless Etihad ground staff.

Frances

For Lancasterlad-
In order to put this into context I need to tell you that we bid in the Etihad lottery for an upgrade on the sector from Abu Dhabi to Kathmandu and we were successful. Apart from the obvious advatages, when we arrived at Kathmandu and they opened the doors I was still gathering together all my possessions when the stewardess called me forward to disembark ahead of the queue of Nepalese men who had come from Economy and were trying to get off the plane. I was a little embarrassed by this and said that it was fine I was in no hurry. However she said that there was a special bus for Business Class which was waiting for me. So off I went. I got down the steps to find an old bus ( think India) with rigid seats repaired with sticky tape and climbed in. As we drove the 10metres (!) to the terminal I saw that the Economy passengers were boarding on to a modern low slung airport bus!
Anyway the point of this ( apart from giving you a laugh) is to show how we got to the visa queue earlier than everyone from Economy on our plane.
There were several queues, all long. Yes we had filled in the form , brought the photos and dollars. The only thing I can point to is that all the staff from time to time got up from their desks and walked away. I've no idea where they went.
Obviously several planes had come in at once. By the time we finished it was dark.
We had asked the hotel to collect us and were pleased to find that they were still waitng when we finally got outside.

LancasterLad

Frances.

Thanks.

Sounds like you had a completely different experience to us, and ditto the experience and advice of regulars on TA too.