KATHMANDU, Nov 27: The health examination fee for Nepali workers going abroad for foreign employment has increased. The government has raised the medical test fee to Rs 9,500 for workers preparing for overseas jobs.
Former Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Sharat Singh Bhandari had made the decision to increase the fee. On March 21, 2025, former Minister Bhandari revised the fee through a ministerial decision and fixed Rs 9,500 for all health check-up packages. Although there is currently no minister in the Labour Ministry, the same fee has been implemented from today (November 27).
Earlier, health institutions in Nepal were charging up to Rs 6,500 from workers going for foreign employment. The entrepreneurs have circulated a notice to all medical institutions instructing them to compulsorily charge the revised fee starting today.
The Nepal Health Professional Federation and the Nepal Medical Entrepreneurs Association have written to the institutions under them, directing them to implement the revised fee.
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The circular sent on Tuesday to health institutions and medical entrepreneurs states, “According to the sixth amendment (2081) to the Foreign Employment Health Test Procedure 2072, the list of institutions that fulfil all the required standards has been published. Accordingly, the listed institutions must include all 34 types of tests and implement the government-fixed fee of Rs 9,500 compulsorily from November 26, 2025”
Claiming that the service needs to be made more qualitative, the government has decided to conduct 34 types of health tests and increase the fee accordingly. Although the government decided to increase the fee at the time, implementation was stalled due to widespread controversy.
Nepali workers preparing to go abroad for employment are still bearing a heavy financial burden. Experts in the field say the increased medical fee has added even more pressure on these workers.
Labour and migration expert Rameshwar Nepal says that although increasing the fee could be justified, the burden should not fall on the workers. Considering that the health test fee had not been raised for many years, adjusting service fees periodically is natural. From a scientific perspective, adjusting the fee based on the cost of laboratory tests, operational expenses, technology and human resources is not inappropriate. However, he said that as soon as the issue of increasing the fee comes up, several important aspects are ignored.
“According to Nepal’s ‘Free Visa–Free Ticket’ policy, the cost of foreign employment should be borne by the employer,” he said. “There is a clear provision that workers should not have to pay additional expenses, but in practice, the situation is different. Workers have been paying for everything—from medical fees to other procedural expenses.”
Nepal told Republica that increasing the medical test fee has added extra burden on the workers. Although the government claims to provide relief to workers at the policy level, poor implementation has pushed the real burden onto the workers, Nepal said.
Nepal also said that Nepali workers are forced to pay more interest than what the government allows. To gather the required funds for foreign employment, most workers take loans from private sources at high interest rates. Even though the main goal of going abroad is to earn, the process itself has become increasingly expensive, putting workers at greater financial risk.
“Health professionals are supposed to work in the interest of workers. The cost of medical tests for migrant workers should be paid by the employer, not by the workers,” he said.
According to the Free Visa–Free Ticket policy, the cost of foreign employment should not be borne by the workers. In such a situation, labour expert Nepal says the government must strictly enforce the provision requiring employers to pay all expenses, including medical tests.
“If the government removes the financial burden on workers and strictly makes employers pay all costs, then even if the medical test fee reaches Rs 20,000, it will not harm the workers,” Nepal said.
