If you are currently looking for help to study abroad, there is a good chance the consultancy you are visiting is operating without a valid licence.
Out of an estimated 4,000-plus educational consultancies active across Nepal, only 1,471 are officially registered with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology ; and of those, only 760 have renewed their registration for fiscal year 2082/83. That means the majority of consultancies currently open for business are functioning outside the law.
The Ministry has now published the official list of renewed consultancies for FY 2082/83 and is urging students and parents to check whether a consultancy holds valid registration ; and what specific services it is actually authorised to provide ; before enrolling or paying any fees. The complete directory is available on the MoEST website, issued by the Educational Consultancy Certification Branch, Singha Durbar, Kathmandu.
The warning is not new. A government monitoring drive last year found that 70 percent of consultancies checked were running without registration. Many were collecting fees through personal bank accounts and sending students abroad without issuing proper receipts.
The Ministry had subsequently issued a circular requiring all consultancies to renew or face automatic revocation of approval. Over 100,000 students and parents use educational consultancy services every year, making the stakes significant.
Consultancies that have renewed are reminded they may only operate within the scope of services explicitly listed in their approval. Working outside approved categories is a direct violation of MoEST regulations and can lead to cancellation of registration. ECAN, the umbrella body of educational consultancies, has backed strict action against unlicensed operators and has formally called for tighter coordination between the Department and the Ministry.
Publishing the renewed list is the Ministry’s clearest move yet to put the sector in order ; but for now, the burden of checking falls on students and parents themselves.
What You Risk by Choosing an Unregistered Consultancy
Handing your future to an unregistered consultancy is not just a legal grey area; it can have serious and lasting consequences.
Since unregistered consultancies operate outside any regulatory framework, there is no government body holding them accountable. If something goes wrong ; a failed visa, a fraudulent university placement, or simply disappearing with your money ; you have little to no legal ground to stand on and almost no way to recover your fees.
Many unregistered operators have no formal agreements with universities or colleges abroad. This means the institution they are promising to get you into may not even recognise them, putting your admission and visa at direct risk.
Because transactions are often made through personal bank accounts with no receipts, you have no paper trail. If a dispute arises, you cannot prove what you paid or what was promised.
There is also the risk of being guided toward unrecognised or low-quality institutions abroad simply because the consultancy has informal and unverified ties with them, rather than proper accredited agreements.
At its worst, students have lost significant sums of money, missed application deadlines, and had visa applications rejected ; all because the consultancy they trusted was never qualified to advise them in the first place.
The simplest way to protect yourself is to check the MoEST renewed consultancy list before you walk through any door.
