The Shram Mantralaya is a highly corrupt place with lots of corrupt officials and a swarming amount of dalals. One guy told me that a job in the Shram mantralaya is a highest lucrative position after Birgunj border naka.
Nobody knows or will reveal you the rules except if you are willing to shell out some cash. The asking rate for US shram swikriti sticker was Rs 10,000 in December (lower for the gulf countries, but the manpower companies handle them and as expected those get processed in 20-25 minutes). I don't know if the inflation has struck their rate as well.. I, however, am proud that I didn't shell our a single rupee to those corrupt crooks. But, I did have some help with some friends who worked in Manpower industry, who knew the system well to guide me. I would like to give their pointers and steps to everyone and at least hope to reduce some blatant corruption that is taking place in our country.
First of all, when I asked as an airport official on my way back told me - if you are coming back on vacation then you don't need the sticker. I interpret that as - if you have a stamped H1b from Canada or other places then you may not need the damn sticker, but if you intend to get stamped in Kathmandu then they will stop you. But again, that is my interpretation and may or may not hold true.
Now, to get a shram sticker you need
- A offer letter on office letter-head from your company stating how much you make. The letter must also state that you work for 40 hours in 5 days per week (must as even when they work in the Shram mantralaya they don't give a damn to learn about other countries labor laws )
- Insurance or Rs. 5 lakhs from Nepal Beema Sansthan (for a 1 year term) which costs about Rs. 1460. And again they won't honor that you have better life insurance which you might have bought here or that your employer provides.
- A health certificate. My friend arranged this from some of his contacts. But I needed to supply my photo and a copy of my passport. I didn't go to doctor but got a certificate stating that I am perfectly fit and also phony height and weight :-)
- And you also need to fill up a form from the Shram karyalaya...
- A five rupee stamp.
- Nagarikta and passport (you may need to submit some copies )
If you have all the documents and go to shram mantralaya ( FYI which is in the road that connects new baneshwor to old baneshwor) and submit in the morning at around 11, which is the time the official who is supposed to handle will come, you can expect the sticker at around 3:00 PM.
And even then, some official may take you around the corner and ask you for some as he and the "keta haru" have done their job and worked hard for you. When such a thing happened, I didn't budge and gave nada to that jerk. However, he didn't cause any trouble later.
I hope I am able to clear some doubts on how to get a labor clearance (haha!) from Nepal.
Good luck!
yacc