The head of the Immigration Department and the Tribhuvan International Airport Immigration Office have said that the time has come to reform the immigration administration.

While investigations into the involvement of immigration staff in the case of visit visa smuggling are ongoing, Director General of the Department Ramchandra Tiwari and Head of Airport Immigration Narahari Ghimire have said that it is necessary to move forward by making policy, structural and legal structures effective to improve the overall immigration administration.

During the discussion and review program on the action plans and ongoing operations of the Immigration Department, the Director General of the Department, Tiwari, said that since the issue of visit visa is only one part of the immigration administration, an integrated initiative of the related ministries and agencies is necessary for the overall improvement. Tiwari also clarified that it is not necessary to keep the 'patke criteria' introduced in the past for going abroad on a visit visa.

During the time of the then Home Minister Balkrishna Khan, a standard was brought to tighten the visiting visa by putting as many as one and a half dozen points . Based on this, from the immigration officials to the middlemen, they took illegal benefits . After that, during the time of another then Home Minister, Narayankaji Shrestha, 6-point criteria were issued . It also includes provisions that those who go on a visit visa must follow the strict conditions of the government. Now, by removing both the previous criteria, the immigration department is about to introduce a loose policy so that visas and passports with a valid period can be obtained.

'If someone wants to go abroad with a passport with a specified period of validity and a visa issued by the relevant country, there is no reason for us to stop them at the airport', Tiwari said. He said,  'On the one hand, we are proud that the remittances sent by those who go abroad for foreign employment or other means have increased, on the other hand, how did the people who sent the remittances go? Why did you go ? We treat this matter as a 'crime' because we have taken the work permit or not. There is no consensus on this. Rather, the government process for going abroad should be simplified, no one paid attention to it.

Head of Immigration Tiwari clarified that there is a need for effective coordination between the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Labor to make the immigration administration agile, efficient and conducive to the interests of the country. He said that the tendency to tarnish the image of the entire staff or the country by the wrong decision or crime committed by one employee is also wrong. "Anyone involved in the crime should be held accountable, but it is wrong to blame the organization for the mistake of one employee." He said that a person departs from the airport only after crossing 7/8 checkpoints to get a visit visa, and one checkpoint is the immigration administration and the rest are agents or mechanisms, so it is necessary to closely monitor it. For that, the department, the police and the national investigation mechanism are going to be activated for monitoring. 

Airport Immigration Chief Ghimire said that since the immigration administration is the face of the country, its operations should be in the interest of the country and they are active in that. Last time, Airport Immigration Chief Tirtharaj Bhattarai was sent to Joint Secretary Bishnu Prasad Koirala after he was caught by the Abuse of Authority Investigation Commission in the case of visit visa smuggling . He was also transferred within a few weeks and was transferred to Ghimire, who is the chief of Khotang, as the head of airport immigration. On the other hand, Gobind Rizal, the director general of the department, was transferred to the Ministry of Home Affairs and Tiwari of Home Affairs was made the director general of the department.