The Foreign Employment Information Management System (FEMIS) has now been integrated with the National Identity Management Information System (NIDMIS), operated by the Department of National ID and Civil Registration.
This integration follows a joint meeting held last month between the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) and the Department of National ID and Civil Registration, which decided to link the two systems to enhance the accuracy and effectiveness of individual identification.
After the decision was made, software providers and technical teams from both departments completed all necessary integration procedures. Subsequently, the Department of Foreign Employment issued an official notice, announcing that the integrated system will become mandatory from Wednesday, October 15 (Ashoj 29).
With the linkage of the FEMIS and NIDMIS systems, several improvements are expected in the foreign employment process. Training providers will now be required to offer orientation sessions only to verified individuals. The integration will allow authorities to maintain a unified database of workers going abroad, provide them with essential information about the destination country’s geography, language, culture, and traffic rules, and guide them on pre-departure preparations, travel procedures, potential challenges, and solutions.
Additionally, workers will receive detailed guidance on permissible and prohibited work, important points to consider when signing contracts with employers, their rights and entitlements, and financial literacy — all contributing to safer, more organized, and dignified foreign employment.
According to Director General Kamal Prasad Bhattarai, only verified individuals will now be allowed to register for orientation training, and participants must be physically present in class. To do so, workers must already be enrolled in the National Identity Management System before applying for labor approval.
Although all preparations have been completed, Bhattarai stated that the system will become mandatory three days later. In the first phase, the integration applies only to the orientation training identification process. In later phases, it will be expanded to include labor approval, medical examination, and immigration systems, ensuring accurate verification of individuals at every stage.
Currently, Nepali citizens seeking foreign employment must register in the Foreign Employment Information Management System (FEMIS) and obtain labor approval before departure. They are also required to undergo orientation training from an authorized provider.
However, until now, there was no reliable mechanism to verify whether the person attending the training was the same as the passport holder. In some cases, biometric data of other individuals were entered, and there was no provision in the labor approval system to verify authenticity. The integration with NIDMIS is expected to eliminate such loopholes and enhance the overall integrity of the foreign employment process.
