Sending money from Nepal to the United States requires going through a licensed bank or authorized payment service, since Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the country’s central bank, regulates all foreign currency outflows. The method you use depends on why you’re sending the money: tuition payments, trade payments, and personal transfers each follow different rules and documentation requirements. Here’s how each channel works in practice.
Bank SWIFT Transfers
The most common way to send a larger sum from Nepal to the USA is through a SWIFT wire transfer at a commercial bank. You walk into your bank branch, fill out a remittance application, and provide supporting documents that justify the transfer. Nepal doesn’t allow free outward remittance for any reason you choose. Every transfer must fall under a category permitted by NRB, such as education expenses, medical treatment abroad, imports of goods, or approved service payments.
The specific documents your bank will ask for depend on the purpose. For trade-related payments, you’ll typically need a proforma or commercial invoice, customs declarations, transport bills, and a self-declaration confirming you haven’t sent the same payment through another bank. For personal or service-related transfers, requirements vary but generally include your citizenship certificate or passport, a PAN (Permanent Account Number) card for amounts above $5,000, and documentation proving the purpose of the transfer.
Processing times for SWIFT transfers from Nepal usually range from two to five business days, depending on intermediary banks. Fees include the bank’s own service charge (often a few hundred to a few thousand Nepali rupees) plus a SWIFT messaging fee, and the receiving bank in the USA may deduct its own incoming wire fee, commonly $15 to $25. The exchange rate your bank applies will include a margin over the interbank rate, so the total cost is higher than the stated fee alone.
Sending Tuition Payments
Education payments are the most structured outward remittance channel for Nepali residents. If you’re a student heading to a US university, or a parent paying tuition on a student’s behalf, you’ll need a specific set of documents before any bank will process the transfer.
The key document is a No Objection Certificate (NOC), a government-issued letter confirming that a Nepali student has been approved to study abroad. You can apply for an NOC physically or through the Nepalese government’s online portal. Without it, no bank will process your tuition remittance.
Many Nepali students use Flywire, a payment platform that partners with NMB Bank in Nepal. The process works like this: you initiate a payment on Flywire’s platform, transfer Nepali rupees to NMB Bank, then visit any NMB branch within five business days to complete an in-person KYC (identity verification) check. If you don’t visit within that window, the bank returns the funds to your account. Bring these documents to the branch:
- Flywire authorization letter and payment instructions (printed from the platform)
- Admission letter or tuition invoice from your US university
- Student’s valid passport
- No Objection Certificate (both the bank copy and customer copy)
- PAN card if the payment exceeds $5,000
If the student is already overseas, you’ll also need a copy of their valid university ID and visa. And if you previously sent tuition through a different bank and are now switching to NMB, a no objection letter from the previous bank is accepted in place of the government NOC for subsequent payments.
Prepaid Dollar Cards for Online Payments
If you need to make smaller payments to US-based services rather than large wire transfers, prepaid international dollar cards issued by Nepali banks are an option. NRB has recently loosened the rules around these cards. The previous $500 annual cap on general prepaid cards for purchasing foreign goods and services online has been removed, and banks can now issue these cards without that hard ceiling.
For people working in Nepal’s IT sector, NRB introduced a dedicated IT prepaid card with a $3,000 annual base limit. If the company also earns foreign currency through service exports, the earned amount gets added to that base, up to a combined maximum of $5,000.
Visa deposit electronic cards offer another route. For amounts under $5,000, you don’t need a PAN card. Above that threshold, a PAN is required, but there’s no stated upper cap on the deposit. These cards are useful for paying US-based subscriptions, online services, or smaller invoices without going through the full SWIFT transfer process.
What You Can and Can’t Send
Nepal maintains capital controls, meaning you can’t simply wire money abroad for investment, gifting, or general savings purposes. NRB permits outward remittances only for approved categories: education, medical treatment, business imports, approved service payments, and a few other specified purposes. Each category has its own documentation trail.
There is no single “personal remittance” allowance the way some countries offer. If you want to send money to a family member in the USA for living expenses, the transfer generally needs to be tied to an approved purpose like education or medical care, with supporting documents. Attempting to send money without proper justification will result in the bank declining the transaction.
Costs to Expect
The total cost of sending money from Nepal to the USA includes several layers. Your Nepali bank charges a processing or service fee, typically a flat amount in Nepali rupees. There’s usually a separate SWIFT charge. The exchange rate markup is often the largest hidden cost: banks convert your rupees to US dollars at a rate less favorable than the mid-market rate, and that spread can add 1% to 3% to the effective cost.
On the receiving end, the US bank may charge an incoming wire fee. If an intermediary (correspondent) bank handles the transfer between the two banks, it may also deduct a fee from the amount in transit, meaning the recipient gets slightly less than you sent. When the total amount matters, such as for an exact tuition bill, ask your bank whether fees will be deducted from the transferred amount or charged separately to your account.
Platforms like Flywire for tuition payments build their fees into the exchange rate, so the student’s university receives the exact invoiced amount. This can simplify the math compared to a direct wire where deductions along the way leave you short.
Tips for a Smoother Transfer
Gather all your documents before visiting the bank. Missing even one item, like the NOC or PAN card, means a wasted trip and a delayed payment. For tuition deadlines, start the process at least two weeks early to account for bank processing, SWIFT transit time, and any document verification delays.
If you send transfers regularly, sticking with the same bank simplifies things. Your bank builds a record of your previous transactions, which can speed up compliance checks on future transfers. Switching banks mid-stream for tuition payments adds an extra documentation step, since the new bank will want proof that you aren’t double-sending through multiple channels.
Always confirm the beneficiary details, including the US bank’s routing number, the recipient’s account number, and the bank’s SWIFT/BIC code, directly with the person or institution you’re paying. Errors in these fields can delay the transfer by days or cause it to be returned entirely, with fees still deducted.