Nepal

Are you planning to get an e-passport? If so you must get Nepal’s National ID card (NID) number first as per government rules.

If you are really bent on getting your NID card number, then be prepared to spend a day or two - to fill out a form and then to visit the nearest office assigned to handle your NID application.

The National ID card (NID) is a digital card with biometric and demographic data of a person, which can be obtained by the citizens of Nepal. 

It is given by the government’s Department of National ID and Civil Registration for the identity verification of a citizen.

It has a unique identification number and is said to eventually replace citizenship cards.

Even though it is not fully implemented, people are still applying for the card as the government has made the identity card number compulsory to get an e-passport.

Here are a few steps to get your NID card number.

1. Form

The first step to getting a national identity card is to fill out an online or offline form.

·      Offline form

To get an offline form you have to go to the governmental office designated by the government according to the province.

Only 150 people are given offline forms in a day so several people go to the office around 10 pm night and stay there till morning just to get the form.

If you want to stay in line for the whole night, it’s better to take your food and warm clothes with you.

In the morning, at around 6 am the police officers standing outside the office will allow only up to 150 people to enter the gate. The rest are told to come again to try their luck.

After the form is filled out, you will again have to stay in line to get inside the room where they will take your personal and biometric data.

You could stay in line for hours as the office opens only after 10 am.

While you are in the line, the staff will check your form and your citizenship card.

Remember if you are unmarried it’s compulsory to have a citizenship card. But if you married you must possess your marriage registration certificate, in addition to the citizenship card.

Failing to produce these documents, you will not be allowed to stand in the line.

·      Online form

To get an online form, first you have to go to the NID Pre-Enrollment website. On the homepage, you will have two options - log in for individuals and log in for service providers.

Choose the first option and then you will need to provide your mobile number. 

Then you will receive a One-time password (OTP) code. By entering the code you will be redirected to the New Enrollment page.

Clicking on the New Enrollment you will go to the next page where you will see Applicant Data, Contact Details, Family Details, Appointment, and Preview. But you won’t be able to get to contact or family details parts without filling in applicant data.

In applicant data, you have to fill in all your personal data according to your citizenship card.

You have to provide the data in both Nepali and English languages. So, if you are not familiar with Nepali typing, take the time to configure it because you won’t be able to copy and paste from another source.

After you are done filling in the information, click next.

In the next step, you have to provide contact details which include permanent and temporary addresses.

After you are done filling in both the addresses press the next button.

Once you click next, you will have to fill in your family details, including parents, grandparents, and spouse.

The fields marked with an asterisk ( * ) are mandatory.

Once you are done filling in all the details, press the next button which will open the appointment to get the date and venue.

You have to set the venue designated by the government according to your province but you won’t get the appointment date before 15 days or a month.

After you get the date for the appointment and click next you will see a preview of your national identity card application form.

You have to recheck all the information you have submitted till now. If there are not any corrections to make, submit the application.

Before submitting the application, you will be notified that once the application is submitted, you will not be able to edit the details anymore.

2. Appointment date

On the appointment date, you have to go to the governmental office designated by the government according to your province.

If you have chosen a different place in the form, the staff will send you to the place according to the province you are from.

You have to reach there at 10 am and stay in the line, it could be for a few minutes or hours depending on the crowd.

Once your turn comes and they let you in, one of the police officers sitting near the gate will write a number in your form.

After that, you will be allowed to go towards the office where you have to stand in line according to your form number.  

The staff there will check your original citizenship card and form. In the case of a married person, you have to show your marriage certificate as well as your citizenship card.

If you don’t have a citizenship card or marriage certificate you will be sent back home.  

3. Card number

If you have all the documents you will be allowed to go inside the room where they will collect the personal and biometric data.

Once everything is done they will give you a paper which will you’re your NID card number and other details.

They will ask you to recheck it and give you one last chance to edit it.

If you are sure about all the submitted data, they will ask you to get a signature from one of the officers.

After that, you can go home and rest.

If you are in a hurry to enrol for your e-passport, you can use your NID card number and proceed here.

But hold on, that’s not the end of the story. To actually get your NID card you will have to wait for more than a year.

Once your NID card is ready, you will get a SMS notification.