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Ninety-five consultancies raided, 69 operators detained: Nepal's 2026 crackdown on the study-abroad industry
On 16 May 2026, the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office raided 95 educational consultancies across Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur and detained 69 operators and managers, according to The Kathmandu Post and University World News. Ratopati reported the wider operation covered 195 offices in the Putalisadak, Chabahil, Gongabu, Baneshwor and Kumaripati areas after a surge in fraud complaints.
The allegations, as reported, describe an industry that had drifted a long way from education counselling: consultancies operating without valid licences or lapsed registrations; fake government seals, which can attract forgery charges; illegal recruitment fees; and, most tellingly, sending people abroad on student visas when the real product being sold was a job. One consultancy named in the reports was accused of defrauding about 300 people; one victim, a 32-year-old from Kavre, said he had been promised work in Croatia at €850–1,200 a month and had paid a "recruitment fee" of between 700,000 and 1 million Nepali rupees, which he lost.
The reports do not single out medicine. We include this case anyway, for two reasons. First, the same offices sell every destination and every course — a consultancy that forges a government seal for a work-visa client will forge an admission letter for a medical one. Second, the scale is the lesson: complaints about consultancy fraud in Nepal had "increased sharply" for years before enforcement caught up, which means that for years the only defence a family had was its own checking.
For students in Nepal specifically: the Nepal Medical Council publishes which foreign degrees it recognises, and a medical degree from an institution outside that list will not lead to registration at home no matter what the consultancy promises. Beyond that, the basics are universal — confirm the offer with the university directly, pay tuition to the university, keep your originals, and treat any consultancy that resists those three things as the case study it will one day become.
Were you affected by this case, or something like it? Report it with your own evidence, or tell your story — first-person accounts are what stop the next family.
This is a news-sourced case summary written by the TrustMBBS team, not a first-person account; see the sources above. They reflect one person's experience and are not a verdict on any institution. Report your own: Report a scam or tell your story.