With labour and employment offices in Janakpur and Biratnagar starting to provide individual as well as institutional labour permits for foreign jobs online from Sunday, the government has extended the service to all the seven provinces.

“The individual, institutional and re-entry permits can now be obtained from all the provinces,” said Kabiraj Upreti, deputy spokesperson at the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security.

Earlier the offices were providing only re-entry permits.

“We have been issuing re-entry permits online for a year,” Punya Prasad Poudel, information officer at the Labour and Employment Office, Biratnagar told the Post. “We have completed the necessary preparations for providing the individual and institutional labour permits online from today.”

While the government brought a provision making it possible for migrant workers to obtain the re-entry permits in destination countries in 2019, the Foreign Employment Office in Tahachal, Kathmandu began issuing the re-entry, institutional and individual permits online from mid-January, mid-April and mid-May last year, respectively.

In the Gandaki, Lumbini, Karnali and Sudurpaschim provinces, the services are being provided through the labour and employment offices in Pokhara, Butwal, Surkhet and Dhangadhi, respectively, according to the labour ministry.

The two provinces–Madhesh and Province 1–account for the largest share of migrant workers.

Of the 348,867 new labour permits issued in the last fiscal year ended mid-July, 100,066 and 70,623 permits were issued for individuals from Madhesh and Province 1 respectively, according to government data.