Marriage to a Nepalese Citizen

Every country has its own laws that apply to its citizens marrying a person from a different country. Getting married to a Nepalese citizen with the goal of eventually bringing them to Canada to live is a process with many steps.

If you want to bring your Nepalese spouse or partner to live in Canada, you must then file a sponsorship application for them to become a permanent resident. If they would like to visit you in Canada while their application is in process, they must also apply for a visitor visa. For more information, please see our family sponsorship page and our visitor visa page.

 

Processing Time

If you file a Canadian sponsorship application for your Nepalese spouse or partner, this application takes an average of 10-12 months.

A visitor visa application for your spouse or partner to visit you in Canada while the sponsorship applications are processing takes an average of 3 –14 days.

Please see our pages on family sponsorship and Canadian visitor visa for more information on the processing times of these applications.

 

Nepalese Marriage Basic Requirements

Marriage in Nepal is regulated by the Registration of Marriages Act of 1971. Foreigners wishing to marry in Nepal are subject to the same laws as Nepalese citizens.

• Marriages may be solemnised according to the customs and usages of the individual’s religion, caste, community or family, provided that those customs do not violate any of the law’s provisions.
• The minimum legal age for marriage in Nepal is 20 for men and 20 for women.
• To ensure the legality of a religious marriage, the couple should register the marriage. It is also possible to have a civil ceremony. In both cases the civil authorities will issue a marriage certificate.
• In order to start the process, the individuals concerned need to have been resident in the Kathmandu Consular District for at least twenty-one days. At this point, you may apply to Consular Section of the Canadian Embassy to give Notice of Marriage. This involves an oath to be made confirming that the persons intending to marry are legally free and of age to do so.
• The Notice of Marriage will then be displayed in the Consular for twenty-one days, after which time, if no impediment has been shown to exist, the letter of No Impediment will be issued and an Affidavit of Eligibility to Marry. On issue of these documents, the couple has three months within which to marry.
• On receipt, the documents supplied by the Embassy plus the documents listed below, should be taken to the Chief District Officers (CDO) office. After a period of approximately 15 days, the couple will need to return to the CDO to sign the marriage register following which; the CDO will issue a marriage certificate written in both Nepali and English.

​Documents required

• Decree Absolute if married previously/or death certificate of previous spouse
• Original Passport at the time of application
• Photocopy of the data page from passport
• Photocopy of entry visa into Nepal

Religious Marriage

• The arrangements for any religious ceremony required will have to be made by the couple intending marriage.

• But, it should be noted that on its own, a religious Ceremony does not impart legality to a ‘marriage’; a certificate from the CDO will be required.
• The whole process from first applying, assuming that twenty-one days have already been spent in the Kathmandu Consular district, to receiving the Certificate of Marriage from the CDO should take approximately five weeks.The Address for the CDO Office is
  CDO Office
  Babar Mahal
  Kathmandu
  Tel: 009 771 4262828, 4262478
  Fax: 009 771 4267619

 

Family Members

If your Nepalese spouse has dependent children, this does not affect the Nepalese Marriage document application.

If you have dependent children, they have no effect on the application to marry a Nepalese citizen.

 

List of Nepalese Consulates in Canada

Click here

Calling Nepal from Canada

011 – 977 – Area Code – local number, where

• 011 is the exit code for Canada
• 977 is the country code for Nepal

List of Area Codes for major centres of Nepal (landlines only)

Bhaktapur	1	Gaighat	35	Lalitpur	1
Bharatpur	56	Gaur	55	Lekhnath	61
Bhim Datta	99	Ghorahi	82	Madhyapur Thimi	1
Biratnagar	21	Gularia	84	Mechinagar	23
Birendranagar	83	Hetauda	57	Nepalgunj	81
Birgunj	51	Itahari	25	Patan	1
Butwal	71	Janakpur	41	Pokhara	61
Damak	23	Kamalamai	47	Siddharthanagar	71
Dhangadhi	91	Kathmandu	1	Tikapur	91
Dharan	25	Kirtipur	1	Tulsipur	82

The code for cells is either 97 or 98.

 

Calling Canada from Nepal

00 – 1 – Area Code – local number

• 00- Exit code for Nepal, and is needed for making any international call from Nepal
• 1 – ISD Code or Country Code of Canada

List of Area Codes of Canada

Province	Code	Province	Code
Alberta	403 / 587 (southern Alberta) 587 / 780 (central and northern Alberta)	Nunavut	867
BC	236 / 250 / 778 (majority of BC) 236 / 604 / 778 (Metro Vancouver)	Ontario	226 / 519 (southwestern Ontario) 249 / 705 (northeastern Ontario) 289 / 365 / 905 (Greater Toronto Area) 343 / 613 (eastern Ontario) 416 / 647 (Toronto) 807 (northwestern Ontario)
Manitoba	204 / 431	PEI	782 / 902
New  Brunswick	506	Quebec	418 / 581 (eastern Quebec) 438 / 514 (Montreal) 450 / 579 (Greater Montreal) 819 / 873 (remainder of Quebec)
Newfoundland and Labrador	709	Saskatchewan	306 / 639
Northwest Territories	867	Yukon	867
Nova Scotia	782 / 902

 

Time Difference

Nepalese Time is its own special time zone, GMT+5:45. Nepal does not observe Daylight Saving Time.

Canadian Time Zone	# of Hours Nepal is Ahead	# of Hours during DST
Pacific (BC, Yukon)	13 hours and 45 minutes	12 hours and 45 minutes
Mountain (Alberta, western Nunvaut, Lloydminster, Saskatchewan)	12 hours and 45 minutes	11 hours and 45 minutes
Saskatchewan	11 hours and 45 minutes	11 hours and 45 minutes
Central (Manitoba, Northwest Territories, central Nunavut, northwestern Ontario)	11 hours and 45 minutes	10 hours and 45 minutes
Eastern (most of Ontario, most of Quebec)	10 hours and 45 minutes	9 hours and 45 mniutes
Atlantic (Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI, eastern Quebec)	9 hours and 45 minutes	8 hours and 45 minutes
Newfoundland	9 hours and 15 minutes	8 hours and 15 minutes

 

Emergency Information for Canadians in Nepal

Consulate of Canada in Kathmandu 47 Lal Darbar Marg Kathmandu Nepal Postal Address: P.O. Box 3596, Kathmandu, Nepal Telephone: 977 (1) 444-1976 Fax: 977 (1) 443-4713 E-mail: [email protected] Website: No Website	View Larger Map
High Commission of Canada in New Delhi 7/8 Shantipath Chanakyapuri New Delhi 110 021 India Postal Address: P.O. Box 5207, New Delhi 110 021, India Telephone: 91 (11) 4178-2000 Fax: 011-4178 2023 E-mail: [email protected] Website: india.gc.ca	View Larger Map

 

Canadian Government’s Travel Alerts for Nepa

For travel alerts, click here

Sponsoring a Nepalese to Come to Canada

The sponsorship process is long and can be complicated. To learn more, click the button below:

Learn More