student visa from Nepal
Lodged online with Immigration New Zealand, with medicals and biometrics done in Kathmandu. The distinctive step is Approval in Principle — where you pay tuition only after they have decided to say yes.
Visa: the Fee Paying Student Visa
Validity: generally your course length plus up to ~3 months
Fee: around NZD 750
Funds to show: NZD 20,000/year for tertiary students
Get your Offer of Place
From an NZQA-approved provider. Approval matters — an offer from a non-approved provider will not support a visa.
Get the MoEST NOC
Nepal's Foreign Study Approval Letter, before you remit any tuition.
Lodge online with Immigration NZ
Through Immigration Online, paying the application fee.
Medical and chest X-ray
With an INZ panel physician in Nepal, required for study longer than 12 months, plus a police certificate.
Biometrics in Kathmandu
At the VFS Global centre. Confirm the current address before travelling — centres relocate.
Approval in Principle, then pay
If issued under AIP, you pay your tuition to the provider and the visa is then granted.
This is New Zealand's most student-friendly design feature and it is worth understanding, because it inverts the risk you carry everywhere else.
Under Approval in Principle, Immigration New Zealand decides your case first and asks you to pay tuition afterwards — the visa is then granted.
Compare that with the US or Canada, where you commit a deposit — sometimes a full year's tuition — before anyone has assessed whether you will be allowed in. AIP means the large payment comes after the substantive decision, not before it. If you are offered AIP, that is good news, not a delay.
New Zealand's paperwork is lighter than Australia's or the UK's. The scrutiny is concentrated in one place.
Genuine source of funds is the explicit 2026 focus, and financial-document scrutiny is high.
There is no fixed holding period published in the way the UK specifies 28 days — but the underlying question is the same, and arguably harder: where did this money come from, and is it genuinely available to you? Bank statements showing a long, ordinary history answer that. A recent lump sum invites the question you least want asked.
Offer of Place
From an NZQA-approved provider.
Passport
Valid for your intended stay.
Financial evidence
Meeting the NZD 20,000 figure, with a credible and documented source.
English evidence
A test result, or an MOI letter where the provider accepts one.
Medical & police
Panel-physician examination with chest X-ray for study over 12 months, plus police certificate.
Nepal NOC
The MoEST Foreign Study Approval Letter.
Academic documents
Transcripts and certificates, translated where needed.
Proof of tuition payment
Or your Approval in Principle letter.
The MoEST Foreign Study Approval Letter: online at noc.moest.gov.np, NPR 2,000, issued in ~1–5 working days, valid 6 months