Consular Service in Nepal

The Department of Consular Services is a department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nepal. It mainly provides services to Nepalese citizens in matters related to abroad. The services include providing consular and legal consultation, consular attestation, diplomatic visa, diplomatic exemption, and visa recommendation. In order to carry out these functions the department also takes help from different Nepalese institutions situated abroad.[1]

The Department of Consular Service is established as per the decision of Nepal government made on 2070/1/20 B.S to reduce the workload of the ministry of foreign affairs and to provide faster and better consular services.[2]

Consular Service and Migrant Workers

Many Nepalese have been working as migrant workers in many countries. Some of them are employed with good facilities and remuneration while many others are facing different problems. As per the census of 2011 out of total population 19, 21,494(7.3%) were working abroad, today the population of migrant workers working abroad is estimated to be around 35, 00,000. The data of Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) shows that every day around 1200 to 1500 Nepalese leave for foreign employment obtaining labour permit from DoFE.  A recent labour migrantion status report shows that total of 4,322 Nepalese have died while working abroad from 2008/09 to 2014/15.[3] As many Nepalese are working as migrant workers and number of people who have died or faced other problems while working is very high, a need for a mechanism to facilitate and help the migrant workers and their families was felt which resulted in the establishment of a section in Department of Consular Services to address it. 

The Department of Consular Services provides various services to the migrant workers and their families under Consular and Legal Consultation section. The services include:

Old Provision
Anyone who would like to get help from the department has to submit an application in the Department of Consular Service. The application was only to be filed in the Kathmandu itself where the headquarters of Consular department is situated. It was very difficult to get the follow-up regarding the application as the applicant had to call the Consular Department and/or visit the office in person for the purpose.  This process was time consuming and expensive calculating the traveling and lodging expenses for each visit to Kathmandu.

Online Application System

As the number of Nepali nationals visiting abroad for job and study has gone up sharply over the years, the need of effective consular service has also grown equally high. Due to several difficulties faced by migrant workers and their family to seek consular help, the Consular department of Nepal has launched an online system to file the application on 14/10/2073 B.S. The online system is easy to use and has the mechanism of providing follow-ups online as well. This system has included online application, to receive compensation and insurance amount, rescue of the Nepalese who are stranded in foreign country and help to bring the dead bodies of Nepalese migrants back to Nepal. The online system is helpful as ordinary people living in various far flung areas of the country do not need to travel to Kathmandu just to file an application to make a request for searching or rescuing persons or bringing back home the bodies of those who died abroad.

The significant feature of the online system is that it can be operated from anywhere and the applicants can have their own username and password and they can check the progress made on their application anytime.

Assisting Through IEC Materials

Center for Migration and International Relations (CMIR) took an initiation to develop a video to aware and facilitate Nepalese migrant workers and their families who could benefit from the new online system. Pravasi Suchana Sathi is an initiative of CMIR with the support from Accountability lab, it aims to promote/ensure the access/right to information of Nepalese migrant workers by proving understandable, reliable, effective, timely, and process oriented information. To reach out many migrant workers and their families, CMIR mobilizes it different layers of network from national or international level.

Rationale of The Video

The online system introduced by the department is a new system and is not known to all. This system requires following certain procedures which might not be easy to understand and follow to the first time user. The Department of Consular Services has launched the online system but no guideline to use the services is given. Due to this, the targeted group even after being informed may not be benefited from the online system. For any system to work it must be known to the people it targets.  CMIR prioritizes to increase migrant workers and their families' access to information or government services through information materials. CMIR has taken initiative through this video not only to make the online system known to people but also to help them understand how to use the system. The video provides step wise process to file the application online which makes the difficult procedure much easier. The video mostly uses Nepali language making it accessible to everyone and not to only who understand English. The video also uses pictures and graphics to explain the process which will make understanding of the process even better and easier.