Around 88,500 students have obtained their No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for foreign studies from home over the past three years, as Nepal’s education authorities continue expanding digital services for outbound students.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology began issuing NOCs online on May 15, 2023. Birendra Jung Thapa, chief of the ministry’s NOC branch, stated that a total of 339,851 NOCs have been issued since the system was introduced, with 88,480 students receiving their documents entirely online.

This means around 26 percent of applicants successfully completed the process from home, while the remaining 74 percent still had to visit the NOC branch office at Sanothimi, Bhaktapur in person to collect or complete verification for their documents.

Shree Prasad Bhattarai, joint secretary at the Higher Education Division under the ministry, said the online system was initially developed by integrating data from the National Examinations Board (NEB) for Grade 12 academic records. He said the platform has recently been made more efficient following integration with Tribhuvan University (TU) and Kathmandu University (KU) last week.

Minister for Education, Science and Technology Sasmit Pokharel has cited this development as a key achievement during his one-month tenure, according to the ministry. With the inclusion of these universities, officials have set a target of enabling 50 percent of applicants to obtain their NOCs from home. Students using academic certificates from NEB, TU, or KU can now apply and receive NOCs through the online system.

Under the current mechanism, students submit applications online, after which the branch verifies details, and applicants pay the required fees digitally. Once approved, students can print the NOC from home.

However, officials at the Sanothimi branch said that applicants must still visit the office if discrepancies are found in their online submissions. In such cases, original documents are required for identity verification and academic validation.

They said the relatively low percentage of fully online issuance is mainly due to errors in applications. If data accuracy improves, the share of home-based issuance is expected to increase. “Even minor mistakes in personal details or missing documents require applicants to come in person for verification,” one official said.

In 2023, the ministry established digital links between the NEB, Nepal Rastra Bank, and the Department of Immigration, enabling Grade 12 graduates to apply online for undergraduate studies abroad. However, students applying on the basis of university degrees still needed to visit the office with original documents for verification.

According to data from the Sanothimi branch, 13,773 out of 98,997 NOCs were issued online in 2023. In 2024, the number increased to 34,486 out of 106,881. In 2025, the branch issued 123,092 NOCs, of which 29,300 were fully processed online. So far in 2026, all 10,931 issued NOCs have been obtained through the online system, the branch said.

Following recent integration with TU and KU, students with bachelor’s and master’s degrees from these universities can now access the online service. However, networking with other universities, including Pokhara University and Purbanchal University, is yet to be completed.

Basu Dev Osti, former chief of the NOC branch, said the online application system allowing Grade 12 graduates to apply and download NOCs from home has been in place since 2023. “The plan was to gradually integrate universities so that all students could receive NOCs online,” he said.

Online applications for NOCs were first introduced on August 28, 2020. However, at that time, students were still required to visit the Sanothimi office to collect physical certificates. From May 2023, the system was upgraded to allow students to download and print NOCs from anywhere after verification.

To make the service more streamlined and technology-driven, the ministry issued the foreign study approval guidelines, 2023, which formally enabled electronic issuance of NOCs. The guidelines were approved on March 2, 2023, by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who was then serving as both prime minister and education minister.

Since the Covid pandemic in 2020, more than 100,000 students have been applying for NOCs annually for higher education abroad. Joint Secretary Bhattarai said efforts to fully digitise the process, including integration with foreign currency exchange systems, began in 2020 with the aim of making the entire service 100 percent online.

He added that the requirement for students to physically visit offices for applications, payments, and collection of permits has been significantly reduced under the current system.

Under the online platform, students must fill out separate applications for each academic level, subject, and institution. They are required to register using a ‘Master ID’ linked to their official email address and mobile number, which must match their National ID or citizenship records.

The guidelines also require the ministry to notify applicants via SMS or online updates regarding missing documents or application status. Once approved, students can pay the fee online and receive a digitally verifiable permit containing a QR code.

According to the ministry, the agreement with Tribhuvan University was signed on April 17, while the integration with Kathmandu University had been completed earlier.