The immigration office at Tribhuvan Airport has tightened the visit visa again without a new policy decision. Immigration has sent back 408 people with visit visas from the airport in the last four days. At least one crore rupees have been lost due to their tickets alone.

Immigration has started offloading those who meet the criteria according to the procedure issued on January 9. Immigration has offloaded 55 people on May 30, 62 on 31, 237 on 32 and 54 on June 1 (Saturday) morning.

On January 8, the then Home Minister Narayankaji Shrestha made a flexible policy saying that the government's policy regarding visit visas was colluding with illegal transactions in immigration. On 26 Chait 26, 2078, he overruled the decision of the secretary level and decided to allow Nepalese travelers to depart abroad on a visit visa based on 6 more points in addition to section 3.1 (2) of the Immigration Procedure 2065. In the

procedure, a passport with a validity period of 6 months, entry permit visa or on-arrival visa is not required if the destination country receives a visa, two-way air ticket, hotel booking, if staying with relatives, citizenship certificate or any other certificate showing the relationship within three generations of the same household, the entire tour An invitation letter from a governmental or non-governmental organization to cover the expenses, or proof of at least 500 dollars in cash equivalent, has been arranged to go abroad on a visit visa. It is mentioned that self-declaration is required when visiting United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia on a visit visa.

Immigration has started offloading those who go on voluntary visit visa while the same policy is being implemented. "We have a verbal order from the head of the immigration office to offload at least 60 people daily. It is our duty to implement the order,” an immigration officer told Kantipur.

Chief Administrative Officer of Immigration, Suresh Panthi, said that the 6-point criteria for visit visas are being used 'as a trick'. "We have not offloaded those who go under normal conditions. It has been seen that the middleman has started sending domestic workers to the restricted countries including the Gulf by using it wrongly, he said, "It does not mean that anyone can go if the criteria related to 6 points are fulfilled. The immigration officer has the right to make discretionary decisions based on the situation.'  According to

Panthi, a new procedure regarding visit visa is in the process of coming. In a few days, a new procedure will also come. For this, the immigration department has already submitted to the ministry," he said. On February 26, 2078, a procedure related to visit visa was issued by the Home Secretary level decision to regulate the use of visit visa. The procedure was prepared based on the recommendations made by the 7-member high-level working group formed under the coordination of the then Home Joint Secretary Phanindramani Pokharel.  According to the

procedure, people who have a record of traveling abroad at least once outside the Gulf countries and twice in the case of the Gulf countries, and people who can be proven by the record of having spent at least 2 years in a foreign country can travel through a visit visa. Educational qualification was also prescribed in the procedure. A minimum annual taxable income of 5 lakh rupees and at least half of that amount should have been saved in the bank account.

However, after the implementation of the procedure of 2078, instead of stopping the abuse of visit visas, smuggling and smuggling increased. According to the Immigration Department, the number of Nepalis who went to UAE on visit visa from January 1, 2023 to December 2023 is 81 thousand 295. During this period, there are 179 thousand 252 people who go to the UAE with a work permit. Prior to that, in 2022, 79,020 people went to the UAE on a visit visa. There were 149 thousand 892 who went on labor visa. In 2021, 79,452 people went to the UAE on a visit visa and 84,746 people went to the UAE on a work visa.