Paper arrival cards are disappearing across Asia. Nepal is now preparing to go further: recognising digital passport and visa records inside its own immigration app.
On 16 September 2026, Nepal’s Department of Immigration (DoI) said it is drafting a proposal to give legal validity to digital immigration records shown through its mobile application. Director General Ramchandra Tiwari told a Kathmandu press conference that, once implemented, foreign tourists could use those digital records instead of carrying physical passports or visas for hotel check-ins, security checks, currency exchange and domestic air travel.
That is not an arrival card in the narrow sense used by Thailand or Singapore. It is part of the same destination trend: move traveller identity and entry paperwork onto phones, link it to government systems, and reduce friction at the border and inside the country.
In one sentence: destinations are digitising entry paperwork and traveller credentials; Nepal wants digital passport and visa records to work for day-to-day checks, not only at the airport desk.
What Nepal is planning
According to reporting by myRepublica, foreign visitors would log into the DoI mobile app, enter passport details, and have those details linked to the DoI’s central database. The department is also preparing airport help desks to help visitors download and use the app.
Tiwari also framed the project as an emergency-response tool. After preliminary reports that around 1,000 foreigners were missing during a recent disaster, several diplomatic missions asked for help tracing nationals. Officials currently struggle when visitors are not captured cleanly in entry and exit records or hotel registration through the Foreigner Management Information System. A live app link to the DoI database is meant to speed identification and assistance.
Important caveat: this is a draft proposal, not a live nationwide mandate yet. Travellers should keep using current entry rules until Nepal publishes the legal change and clear start date.
The wider Asia shift to digital arrival cards
Nepal’s announcement lands in a region that has already moved hard toward pre-arrival digital forms:
- Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC): Non-Thai nationals submit online before entry via the Immigration Bureau system. It replaces the old paper arrival card. It is not a visa.
- Singapore SG Arrival Card (SGAC): Electronic replacement for the paper disembarkation card, with an electronic health declaration, submitted before arrival through ICA.
- Indonesia All Indonesia Arrival Card: A free digital form combining immigration, customs and health declarations on the official Immigration platform, typically within a short pre-arrival window.
- Cambodia e-Arrival: Official submission through arrival.gov.kh or the Cambodia e-Arrival app, consolidating immigration, customs and health information (and related visa flows where relevant).
The pattern is consistent. Destinations want data earlier, queues shorter, and one QR or digital record instead of paper slips that get lost in passport wallets.
Who uses what (quick comparison)
| Destination | System | What it replaces | Status note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thailand | TDAC | Paper arrival card | Pre-arrival online form for non-Thai nationals; not a visa |
| Singapore | SG Arrival Card | Paper DE card | Submit before arrival via ICA e-Service or MyICA |
| Indonesia | All Indonesia Arrival Card | Separate paper immigration/customs/health forms | Free digital form on the official Immigration platform |
| Cambodia | e-Arrival | Paper immigration/customs/health forms | Official site arrival.gov.kh or official app only |
| Nepal | DoI mobile app digital records | Physical passport/visa checks for some in-country procedures | Draft proposal as of mid-September 2026; not fully live yet |
For current visa and entry basics across Southeast Asia, see our updated Southeast Asia visa requirements guide.
What hotels and tour operators should do now
Digital arrival systems fail guests when operators stay silent or send people to the wrong URL. A practical checklist:
- Update pre-arrival emails with the official portal only, the submission window (often 72 hours or up to 7 days), and a plain reminder that the card is not a visa.
- Train front desk and guides to recognise the official QR or confirmation screen, and to refuse screenshots from lookalike sites.
- Separate visa advice from arrival-card advice. Guests confuse e-Visas, visa exemption and arrival cards every day. Keep them as three distinct steps.
- Watch Nepal specifically. If the DoI app becomes accepted for hotel registration, align your foreign-guest registration process with whatever the ministry publishes, and keep a paper fallback until the legal change is clear.
- Use the operational upside. Cleaner digital records help destinations locate visitors in emergencies. Properties that register guests accurately help that system work.
Watch for lookalike sites
Cambodia’s immigration authority has already had to warn travellers that only arrival.gov.kh and the official Cambodia e-Arrival app are legitimate. Similar clone sites appear around every new digital entry product because travellers search under pressure the night before a flight.
Rule of thumb for guest messaging: link the government domain, say the form is free unless a separate visa fee applies, and tell people to ignore paid “fast track” middlemen for arrival cards.
The takeaway
Nepal’s plan is another signal that Asia’s visitor journey is moving onto phones: first the arrival form, then broader digital recognition of passport and visa status inside the country. Destinations gain earlier data and faster processing. Visitors gain fewer paper forms. Hotels and tour operators sit in the middle. The winners will be the ones who brief guests clearly, stick to official portals, and treat digital entry as part of the product experience rather than an afterthought at the airport.
