As of May 2021, COVID-19 cases are surging in Nepal. States with high case counts have implemented lockdowns, and a stay-at-home order has been issued in the Kathmandu Valley. The outbreak in neighboring India is having a major impact, raising concern about spread across all of Nepal.

Current Situation Inside Nepal

Infection Status

Through March 2021, positive cases ran at around 100 per day. From April onward they rose, exceeding 1,000 per day on the 18th, and new infections surpassed 4,000 on the 29th. Public health experts are concerned that the India variant will spread into Nepal and are also calling for vigilance regarding infections among younger people.

Stay-at-home order → April 29–May 13 in the Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, and Lalitpur districts

Air and Land Border Entry and Exit

・Flight restrictions from May 5 for international flights and from May 3 for domestic flights, scheduled through May 14
・Of 35 India–Nepal border crossings, 22 are closed and the remaining 13 are open

Requirements for entry into and exit from Nepal are as follows.

Foreign nationals

・Mandatory 10-day quarantine after arrival in Nepal
・Submission of a negative PCR test result taken within 72 hours before departure
・Submission of proof of hotel reservation for the period of stay

Chinese and Indian nationals

Land border entry and exit is permitted only for Chinese and Indian nationals under the following conditions.

・Mandatory 10-day quarantine after arrival in Nepal
・Submission of proof of hotel reservation for the period of stay
・Submission of a negative PCR test result taken within 72 hours before departure

Nepali nationals

・Mandatory 10-day quarantine at a hotel or at home after arrival in Nepal
・Submission of a negative PCR test result taken within 72 hours before departure
・For land entry from India, PCR testing is waived and a 10-day quarantine is mandatory

Temporary Suspension of Visa Issuance

The Embassy of Japan in Nepal has suspended visa operations in connection with the stay-at-home order.
(Exceptions may apply for diplomatic and official purposes, spouses of Japanese nationals, and urgent cases only.)

Impact of the COVID-19 Surge in India

India has currently suspended international flights as a border control measure to prevent infection. As a result, large movements of Indian nationals crossing the India–Nepal border by land to enter Nepal have been in the news.

Indian travelers can enter Nepal by air and then move overland within Nepal to enter India. Rising COVID-19 infection rates linked to border crossings were already a problem during last year’s first wave, and questions have again been raised about border-crossing measures this time. From May 4, Nepal finally decided to suspend international flights, and a decline in this flow of Indian nationals is expected from that date.

COVID-19 Vaccination Status in Nepal

Manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (brand name: Covishield)

Vaccination has begun in Nepal with 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine (January) and 2 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine (February). Due to the outbreak inside India, exports of this vaccine are currently banned. Vaccination with 800,000 doses of the vaccine developed by China’s Sinopharm had also begun (March), but amid crowding at designated vaccination sites and to prevent the three Cs (closed spaces, crowded places, and close-contact settings), vaccination has been temporarily suspended under the stay-at-home order from April 29.

Specified Skilled Worker Dispatch from Nepal

At present, Specified Skilled Worker status of residence for dispatch from Nepal covers three fields: nursing care, agriculture, and food service.
According to the Ministry of Justice, the numbers of Nepali nationals residing in Japan under Specified Skilled Worker status are 28 in nursing care, 15 in agriculture, and 51 in food service (as of December 2020).
Challenges in talent dispatch from Nepal continue to be discussed among the relevant parties.

Key issues cited include differences in GtoG (government-to-government) engagement levels; problems with intermediaries entering processes that involve the private sector; preparation of demand letters and worker selection against them; and high costs for market promotion. Bilaterally, understanding of these challenges and changes to available options are still under consideration.

Nursing care

Among Specified Skilled Worker fields, nursing care was the first status of residence for which recruitment began inside Nepal, and applicants have been flooding in domestically as well. At present, the path to matching remains a long process.

Agriculture

In agriculture, dispatch under Technical Intern Training had been the main status of residence, but from April 2019 the new Specified Skilled Worker status of residence was established, and with agriculture included among the 12 fields, training schools in agriculture have begun educating talent locally in Nepal—where agriculture is a core industry—as ready workforce for Japan’s agriculture sector.

Food service

Specified Skilled Worker examinations in the food service field were held in the capital, Kathmandu, in February and March.

・Scheduled dates for the JFT Japanese-language test in the capital, Kathmandu, have been published for from the 16th onward, after the stay-at-home order in Nepal ends on May 13.

With COVID-19 cases rising in Nepal and an extension of the stay-at-home order scheduled through May 13 also expected, talent dispatch from Nepal to Japan remains stalled across the board.

https://www.np.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_ja/11_000001_00022.htmlEmbassy of Japan in Nepal


About the author

shyu
Overseas-based writer / A family of three: a Nepali national spouse, a Japanese national son, and myself, a Japanese national. Living in Kathmandu for 12 years.
Living overseas is like training in how people of different nationalities—and different birthplaces and upbringings—continue to live while maintaining some form of relationship.
As the number of foreign nationals living and working in Japan is expected to grow, I want to report on these trends from a perspective that stays close to how foreign nationals feel.

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