How to Get Migration Certificate in Nepal: Types, Process, Documents, Cost

What is a Migration Certificate?

As per the definition, a Migration certificate is a legal/official document that has been acknowledged by the governmental authority that validates the transfer of the legal place of residence of a person. That being said, unlike a lot of other official documents, depending on the circumstances, a person may or may not need this document.

The most basic case is that one doesn’t need to make a migration certificate if they don’t have a plan to reside in a place for a long period of time. In this case, said person won’t have any issues from the lack of this certificate. However, if a said person plans on residing in a place for more than a few months, or has a plan for permanent residence then they will eventually need to make this certificate.

Now, while this is being said, you have to be aware of types of migration and their respective migration certificates as well.

Types of Migration

Anyone who has studied Environment Population and Health in their school days probably knows this – that there are two basic types of migration. They are Internal and International Migration.

Internal Migration – Those migrations that are done within the country
International Migration – Those migration done among the countries i.e migration from one country to another.

While both of these may sound similar and in theory are similar, the procedures to make them are very different. The most striking difference is that for international migration, Passport and Visa are a must while for internal migration, none of these are required.

Additionally, there are also two subtypes within each type of migration which are Permanent Migration and Temporary Migration.

Permanent Migration – Those type of migration where the said personnel change their area of residence with no intention of return
Temporary Migration – Those type of Migration where the said personnel leave their residence for a certain duration with the intention of return

Now, as the requirements for International migration include Passport and Visa – both of which have their own complex procedures, we will not be covering International Migration in this article. However, you can still apply the general rule of thumb for International Migration with this article as a basis.

With that being said a lot of you may wonder “Why do we even need a Migration Certificate?”. This question is often asked by those who have been residing in the same place for multiple generations as they have not come across the need for making this certificate.

Importance and Uses of Migration Certificate in Nepal

For those whose family has been residing in their current place of residence for a few generations, this certificate is not an immediate necessity. However, for those who have recently been migrated to their current place of residence, this is among those who need documents. There are primarily three reasons for this.

For Governmental Benefits from their area of Residence

If you did not know, you have to prove that you are a residence of a certain residential area for you to get the governmental benefits of that area. This can be done through citizenship.

But if you are not born in your current residential area or have made your citizenship from another area, you won’t get the benefits unless you have this certificate. These benefits include but are not limited to things like Social security funds, relief funds, and voting rights.

2. To make other important documents

Similar to our previous point, if you need to make governmental documents, you need to verify your area of residence. Without this certificate, regardless of where you reside currently, your area of residence will remain the same place where you registered your citizenship or birth certificate. This can create a lot of unnecessary hassle which can easily be solved by the Migration Certificate

3. For census

A census records the current situation of the population in Nepal and is collected from the application forms along with the existing data. If you do not make this certificate and have changed your palace of residence for a while, it can cause an error in the data and that can hamper the development plans in a big way.

While this may not always involve your area of residence, there is nothing guaranteeing that it won’t.

With the need for a migration certificate known, the next thing you should consider are the eligibility criteria that a person should fulfill to make this certificate.

Eligibility Criteria for Migration Certificate

For those who don’t know what this is, eligibility criteria are the conditions that a person has to meet for being qualified to make a migration certificate. Not so surprisingly, there are not many conditions to meet this criterion. In Fact, there are only two of such.

A person is considered to be eligible for a migration certificate as long as it can be proven that the said person is born within Nepal and his/her parents are Nepali Citizens
The person in need of this certificate is a Nepali Citizen.

Once these two criterias are fulfilled anyone can make the Internal Migration Certificate.

Since most Nepali automatically meet these two criteria, virtually anyone can make this certificate. The keyword here is Virtual as there are some rare cases where a person is denied or delayed from making this certificate due to different complications- such as loss of the documents.

Since we are talking about the documents, let’s get to know the required documents.

Documents Required for Migration Certificate in Nepal

The list of documents that are needed to make this certificate is rather small as this is just a certificate that states a person has changed his residence. For most cases this certificate can be made with only three documents which are:

Citizenship of the Migrant
A formal letter that states the reason for migration
Letter of approval from the place of departure

All of these documents are made at the place of departure which in most cases is the birthplace of the migrants.

That being said, some additional documents may be required in case an issue arises – often related to loans and debts – and the number of required documents depends entirely on the complexity of the said individual cases.

Now, this being said a lot of you may be wondering “What is the process of migration certificate?”. To answer this, let’s move onto the next sub-topic.

Core Process of Making a Migration Certificate

The core process is rather a simple one that is easy to follow and can be done rather quickly. However as we have hinted before, issues may arise and in this case, the process depends on the severity of the issue and the complications involved with it. But regardless the core process can be divided into 4 basic steps:

Step 1: Fill the application form for migration online or at the ward office
Step 2: Write a letter to the ward office stating the reason for migration, the number of migrating people, and the desired location of migration.
Step 3: Get the sign of approval along with a letter from the ward head.
Step 4: After arriving at the desired location, present a letter with the sign of approval to the ward head of said location.

After completing these steps, you will have to wait for a few minutes to get the migration certificate.

With this being said, the final question is the cost of the whole process.

Cost for the Entire Process

As with a lot of governmental procedures, the cost is charged for the application forms rather than the service. The charge however depends on the type of migration application which are as follows

Cost for Temporary Migration Form

Internal migration: Nrs. 2000
International Migration: Nrs 3000

Cost for Permanent Migration: Nrs 500

The reason for the high cost for a migration certificate of temporary migration is likely because the government has to maintain and update the records of each migrant with the data from both their place of residence. However, this is just speculation on our part.

Final Words

As we come to the end of this article a lot of you may be wondering why we have not mentioned anything about time. The reason is that all of these can be completed within a few minutes at both the location of departure and destination.

In the end, what we have to know is that a Migration Certificate is one of the most important documents that a person needs to make if s/he changes their location of residence to notify the government. If this is not done, the said individual and his/her family can face issues when they have to make further documents.

Apart from this, the Migration Certificate is also a Vital Document of the nation to keep the records updated and functional as well.

If you are in need of more information about governmental procedures, you can follow the link to a similar article that contains information about Things That you should Know About your Birth Certificate.

You can get the application form in this link here.