how to apply from Nepal
Four stages, and the university runs the third one for you. Your job is the documents — and they translate into English, not Latvian, which is a real saving.
Latvia's sequence is unusually favourable to the applicant because the hard approval happens before you deal with any visa centre.
Apply and have your qualification assessed
Latvia's Academic Information Centre assesses foreign qualifications as part of admission. Your university handles the referral, but it adds time — factor it in.
Legalise and translate your documents
Legalised, then notarised-translated into English. Not into Latvian, which is a genuine saving against Poland, Czechia or Spain.
The university applies to OCMA for your residence permit
On your behalf, at whichever fee tier you choose — thirty days, ten working days, or five. The substantive decision happens here.
Collect the D visa, then travel
Once OCMA approves, the D-category visa is issued through the designated visa centre, commonly within a few days to about a fortnight.
The residence permit is approved before the visa is issued — so the substantive decision is made on a file your university submits, and the visa step gives effect to it rather than assessing you again.
In most destinations you assemble everything, submit to a consulate, and wait to find out. Here your institution gets the decision first, and the visa step exists to give effect to it. That removes most of the uncertainty from the part of the process you cannot control.
September is the main intake, and medicine at Rīga Stradiņš also takes a February cohort — which is genuinely useful if you miss the autumn.
The intakes: September is the main intake, with a February cohort for medicine and dentistry at Rīga Stradiņš
One step that adds time: Latvia's Academic Information Centre assesses your foreign qualification as part of admission — arranged through your university, but it adds lead time
Shortlist and apply
Medicine and dentistry at RSU, engineering and IT at Riga Technical University, general programmes at the University of Latvia. Check entrance requirements per programme.
Start legalisation and English translation
Documents need legalising and then notarised translation into English. Begin alongside your application, not after the offer.
Qualification assessment
The Academic Information Centre assesses your Nepali qualification. This runs through your university and takes time you should not compress.
Accept, MoEST NOC, arrange funds evidence
An original bank reference letter on official letterhead showing the first year's subsistence — plus tuition.
The university files with OCMA
Choose your fee tier here. Thirty days is standard; if you are late, ten or five working days is a real option rather than a hope.
Collect the D visa
Through the designated visa centre once OCMA approves. Confirm the hub — Latvia has no embassy in Nepal.
Collect your residence card and register
Then term begins. Your permit already carries twenty hours a week of work rights.
English-taught study is the norm for international students here, and Latvian is a later question.
The English requirement: IELTS or TOEFL at the level the programme sets, with some institutions accepting other evidence of English-medium schooling
Latvian: not needed for English-taught programmes, but helpful for local employment and relevant to long-term settlement
Undergraduate entry from Nepal: Nepal's +2, assessed by the Academic Information Centre and then by the programme
Medicine specifically: competitive, commonly with subject requirements in biology and chemistry and an entrance assessment set by the university
The qualification assessment is worth understanding. Latvia does not simply take your certificate at face value — the Academic Information Centre evaluates what a Nepali qualification is equivalent to, and that assessment is part of admission rather than a formality afterwards.
It is not onerous, but it has a lead time, and it is one of the reasons a Latvian application should start earlier than the short visa timeline suggests.
Latvia's system is small, which makes the choice unusually simple.
Rīga Stradiņš University
The medical and health sciences university, and the reason most international students come to Latvia. English-taught medicine and dentistry, with two intakes.
Riga Technical University
Engineering, computing and architecture, with substantial English-taught provision at a fraction of medicine's cost.
University of Latvia
The largest general university — sciences, business, humanities and social sciences.
Specialist institutions
Life sciences and veterinary medicine at Jelgava, plus smaller regional universities.
For medicine the decisive check is not between Latvian universities — it is the Nepal Medical Council's recognised list. For everything else, compare on programme fit and cost, since the institutions are few enough to examine individually.
Acceptance letter
From a recognised Latvian higher education institution.
Legalised academic documents
Legalised, because Nepal has no apostille, then notarised-translated into English.
Qualification assessment
From the Academic Information Centre, arranged through your university.
Bank reference letter
An original, on official letterhead, showing the first year's subsistence funds in your name or a sponsor's.
Health insurance
Required — confirm the cover your permit needs.
Passport and photographs
To specification, for the OCMA application and the visa collection.
Tuition payment evidence
Where your institution requires it before filing.
Police clearance
Requested in some circumstances — confirm with your institution rather than assuming.
The specific thing to note: translation is into English, not Latvian. That is unusual among the EU destinations in this guide and it removes an expensive, slow step that Poland, Czechia and Spain all require.
Two Nepal-side items dominate: legalisation of your academic documents, and the bank reference letter — which needs to be an original on letterhead rather than a printed statement, and which some Nepali banks need asking for specifically.
Confirm the visa centre hub early. Latvia has no embassy in Nepal, so the D visa is collected through a designated centre — likely outside Nepal, which is travel to plan for.