Nepal Visa Extension 2026: Online Portal, Fees & Limits

If your Nepal trip is running longer than planned, a Nepal visa extension is usually a quick, low-cost fix — but only if you handle it before your current visa expires and stay inside the country's annual day limit. Since 2025 you can start the paperwork on an official online portal, which trims time at the counter without removing the in-person step entirely.

This is a complementary, decision-focused guide. For the full walk-through of the in-person queue, office locations, hours, and what to bring on the day, see our companion post on extending your Nepal tourist visa. Here we focus on the 2026 online workflow, the math behind the fees, and how to decide whether to extend at all.

Key takeaways

• A Nepal tourist visa can be extended up to a cumulative 150 days per calendar year — that cap is hard, and it counts every day you have already spent in-country that year.
• As of June 2026, the extension fee is USD 45 for the first 15 days, then USD 3 per additional day, paid in Nepali rupees at the office.
• You can complete the application form and pay through the official Nepaliport portal, but you must still appear in person before your visa expires.
• Always extend before expiry. Overstaying triggers a daily late fine (commonly reported around USD 5/day) that you clear before flying out.
• If you need more than 150 days in a year, extending will not help — plan a border exit and a fresh visa instead.

Start online first: the Nepaliport portal

Nepal's Department of Immigration now runs an online services portal, Nepaliport (nepaliport.immigration.gov.np), where you fill in your visa-extension form and can make the payment electronically before you ever set foot in the office. The point is to cut the time you spend standing at a counter, not to remove the visit entirely.

What the portal does — and does not — do

The portal handles the data entry and the fee. What it does not do is finalize the extension: according to the immigration guidance, you still have to appear in person at an authorized immigration office, with your passport, to complete the process — and you must do this while your visa is still valid. Think of the online step as pre-filling the form and skipping the cashier queue, not as a fully remote service.

What you need to apply online

To submit a clean application you generally want:

• A valid passport in hand (for the data page and current-visa details).
• A recent digital passport photo sized about 1.5 x 1.5 inches, ready on your device to upload.
• Your arrival details and current visa information.

Once you submit, the system emails you a receipt. Print it and keep it with you — you present it to the immigration officer when you go in. Treat the printout as essential; a screenshot on a phone with a dying battery is not a plan.

How much a Nepal visa extension costs in 2026

The fee structure is simple at the base and then linear. The table below reflects the published structure as of June 2026.

| Extension you want | Fee (USD equivalent) | |---|---| | 15 days (the minimum) | USD 45 | | 16-30 days | USD 45 + USD 3 per day over 15 | | 31+ days | USD 3 per additional day, continued |

A few things that catch travelers out:

• The 15-day minimum is a floor, not an average. If you only need three more days, you still pay the USD 45 minimum. Short top-ups are poor value per day.
• Payment is made in Nepali rupees at the office, even though the fee is quoted in US dollars. Bring more NPR than you think you need; making change can be slow.
• Some travelers report a small additional service/processing charge appearing on the bill. Budget a little buffer and do not be surprised by a modest add-on.

Worked example

Say your 30-day visa-on-arrival is about to end and you want 20 more days. That is 15 days at USD 45, plus 5 extra days at USD 3 each (USD 15), for USD 60 equivalent. If instead you took the full 150-day allowance via extensions, you would be looking at roughly USD 405 equivalent across the year in extension fees alone — useful to know before you commit to a very long stay.

The 150-day rule, explained properly

The single most important number for any extension decision is 150. A tourist may stay in Nepal for a maximum of 150 days in one calendar year, and that ceiling holds no matter how you stack entries and extensions.

It is cumulative, not per-visa

This trips up repeat visitors. The 150 days are counted across the whole year, not reset by each new entry. If you spent 60 days trekking the Annapurna Circuit in spring and come back in autumn, you have 90 days left, not a fresh 150. Plan multi-trip years against that running total.

When the clock resets

The allowance is tied to the calendar year. So a January-to-March stay and a fresh visa the following January are two separate 150-day buckets. This is why long-stay travelers who want continuous months in the region often straddle a year boundary or take a longer break abroad.

Extend, border-run, or leave? A decision guide

Extending is the default, but it is not always the smartest move. Here is how to choose.

Extend when

• You are inside the 150-day cap and only need more days, not a reset.
• Your visa has not yet expired (this is non-negotiable for a clean extension).
• You would rather stay put than spend two days on a border trip.

Consider a border run when

• You were already curious about visiting India and can fold the exit into your itinerary.
• A long extension would cost more than a short cross-border trip you wanted anyway.

A common route is a bus toward the Sunauli/Bhairahawa crossing near Lumbini, an overnight in India, then a return. Remember that re-entering still uses a tourist visa, so the 150-day annual total keeps counting — a border run does not buy you bonus days within the same calendar year.

Plan a full reset (new year) when

• You have used, or are about to use, your 150 days. No extension can push past it.
• You want a long continuous stretch in the Himalaya across seasons; in that case, time your trips around the year boundary.

Timing: when to actually go in

Bureaucratic timing matters as much as the fee.

• Apply with a buffer. Aim to extend with at least 3-5 working days left on your visa so an administrative hiccup does not turn into an overstay.
• In peak trekking seasons — roughly March to May and September to November, which line up with the best windows in our best season to trek in Nepal guide — offices are busiest. Give yourself 7-10 days of margin and start the online form early.
• Mornings and mid-week are calmer than Friday afternoons. The companion in-person guide covers the queue tactics in detail.

Overstaying: the cost of cutting it close

If your visa lapses before you extend, you are overstaying, and the friendly extension process turns into a fine.

What you pay

Overstay is handled as a daily late fine on top of the normal extension fee for the overstay period. The figure most commonly cited for tourist overstays is around USD 5 per day, though sources vary and the Department of Immigration applies penalties case by case; longer overstays can escalate to larger fixed fines determined by officials. Either way, it is always more expensive and more stressful than extending on time.

Where you pay

Overstay fines are typically settled before you fly out, often at the airport. That is a bad moment to discover you are short on cash with a flight boarding. The clean play is simple: never let the visa expire.

Quick reference table

| Item | 2026 detail (as of June 2026) | |---|---| | Annual stay limit | 150 days per calendar year (cumulative) | | Minimum extension | 15 days at USD 45 | | Each extra day | USD 3 | | Where to extend | Department of Immigration (Kathmandu) or Immigration Office (Pokhara) | | Online step | Form + payment via Nepaliport portal; in-person visit still required | | Payment at office | Nepali rupees | | Overstay fine | Commonly around USD 5/day, plus the extension fee; varies by case | | Apply by | 3-5 working days before expiry (7-10 in peak season) |

A few Nepali phrases for the counter

A little Nepali goes a long way in a government office. These pair well with our phrasebook and the broader scenarios section on administrative interactions.

• Visa extend garna chahanchu — "I want to extend my visa."
• Kati paisa lagchha? — "How much does it cost?"
• Kati din? — "How many days?"
• Dhanyabaad — "Thank you."

Putting it together

For most travelers the Nepal visa extension is genuinely routine: pre-fill the form on Nepaliport, print the receipt, walk into the Department of Immigration in Kathmandu or the office in Pokhara a few days before your visa runs out, pay in rupees, and leave with extra days. The two ways people turn it into a problem are letting the visa expire first or forgetting that 150 days is the hard annual ceiling. Get those two right and the rest is paperwork.

For the full step-by-step of the in-person visit — exact office logistics, queue timing, and the document checklist — read the companion guide on extending your Nepal tourist visa. If you have not entered the country yet, our Nepal visa on arrival guide covers the entry side.

Sources

• Department of Immigration, Nepal — Tourist Visa
• Department of Immigration, Nepal — Visa on Arrival
• Immigration Office, Pokhara — Tourist Visa Extension
• Nepaliport — Online Services portal
• Department of Immigration — Important Information to Foreign Nationals Holding Nepalese Visa