Choosing a consultancy
How do I tell a good consultancy from a bad one before I pay?
Judge a consultancy on what it puts in writing, not on what it promises in the room. Before paying anything, get an itemised quote separating government fees from the consultancy's own fee, confirm the company is registered, and establish what happens to your money if the application fails. A consultancy that will not put those three things in writing is telling you something, and no amount of office decor or wall photographs offsets it.
3 figures on this page have no source yet. They are marked in place, with what it would take to confirm them. Check the authority yourself before acting on them.
What choosing a consultancy is
A consultancy sells time and process knowledge: which form, which office, which order, and what an application needs to look like to succeed.
What it cannot sell is an outcome. No consultancy decides a visa, an admission or a registration — those are decided by governments and institutions applying published criteria.
That distinction is the whole basis for judging one. A consultancy that markets outcomes it does not control is either mistaken about its own role or deliberately misleading you.
Who needs it
- People whose case has a genuine complication
- A study gap, a previous refusal, an unusual funding source, a complex ownership structure. This is where experience actually changes the result.
- People with no time
- Much of this work is queuing, chasing and re-submitting. Paying someone to absorb that is a legitimate purchase, and it should be priced as such.
- People who genuinely do not need one
- A straightforward personal PAN, a simple firm registration, a standard application to one institution. Recognising this is worth more than any comparison of firms.
What it costs
The single most useful question you can ask: 'which part of this is the government fee, and which part is yours?' A firm that answers immediately is comfortable being compared. A firm that cannot separate them is quoting a number rather than a price.
| Item | Type | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Government and institutional feesThe same wherever you go. Nothing a consultancy does changes them. | Government | Fixed by the authority — should be shown as a separate lineSources: Office of the Company Registrar (Nepal), Inland Revenue Department (Nepal), MoEST — No Objection Certificate portal |
| Consultancy service feeThe negotiable part, and the part that should be itemised. | Professional | Varies widely between firms for identical workNo source yet. A survey of quoted service fees across registered consultancies in the ten cities covered, recorded with the date and the exact scope quoted. |
How long it takes
- Getting comparable quotesBudget a week to get three written quotesNo source yet. Observed response times across a sample of consultancies.Three is enough to see the range. One quote tells you nothing.
- The work itselfGoverned by the authority's processing time, not the consultancy'sSources: Office of the Company Registrar (Nepal), Inland Revenue Department (Nepal)A firm promising to make a government process faster is describing something it does not control.
Documents you need
- RequiredA written, itemised quoteGovernment fees and service fees on separate lines.
- RequiredA written scope of workWhat is included, and explicitly what is not.
- RequiredThe company registration numberVerifiable against the Office of the Company Registrar.
- RequiredA receipt for every paymentIn the company's name, not an individual's.
- RequiredThe refund terms, in writingSpecifically: what happens if the application is refused.
Step by step
First, check whether you need one at all
Read the guide for what you are actually trying to do. A large share of what consultancies are paid for is form-filling on processes designed to be done directly.
Confirm the company is registered
Check the name against our directory of MoEST-registered education consultancies — 924 entries from the government register, ranked by a model payment cannot influence — and ask for the registration number to verify with the Office of the Company Registrar.
Get three written quotes
Same scope, in writing, from three firms. The range itself is informative — an outlier in either direction is worth asking about.
Insist on itemisation
Government fee and service fee as separate lines. This is the single question that most reliably separates firms.
Establish what failure costs
Ask in writing: if the application is refused, what is refunded and what is not? Get the answer before paying, not after.
Pay to the company, and get a receipt
Payment into a personal account with no receipt is the pattern behind most complaints that go nowhere afterwards.
Keep every document yourself
Originals stay with you. A consultancy holding your passport, certificates or transcripts has leverage it should not have.
Mistakes that cost money
Choosing on a promised outcome
What it costs: You pay a premium for a guarantee nobody can honour, and the firms most willing to promise are the least likely to deliver.
Instead: Choose on written scope, itemised price and verifiable registration.
Paying in cash to an individual, with no receipt
What it costs: If it goes wrong there is no record that you paid, no entity to pursue, and nothing for a complaint to attach to.
Instead: Pay the company, keep the receipt, and make sure the receipt names the company.
Handing over original documents
What it costs: Passports, transcripts and certificates held by a third party become leverage in any dispute, and reissuing them is slow and expensive.
Instead: Provide copies. Attend in person where an original must be presented.
Accepting a bundled price
What it costs: You cannot tell the statutory fee from the markup, so you cannot compare two firms or know what is negotiable.
Instead: Ask for the split. Every legitimate firm can produce it.
Judging by the office
What it costs: Fit-out, wall photographs and university banners are marketing spend, paid for out of fees. They correlate with budget, not competence.
Instead: Judge on the paperwork you are given before you pay.
Alternatives, and the trade-off
Doing it yourself
Better when: Straightforward cases. Most government processes are designed to be completed directly, and the guides on this site cover the sequence.
A lawyer or chartered accountant
Better when: Where the question is genuinely legal or financial — company structure, contracts, tax position — rather than procedural.
Applying to an institution directly
Better when: Most universities accept direct applications, and some charge less than a consultancy's fee for the same submission.
In favour
- Absorbs the queuing, chasing and resubmission
- Genuine value where a case has a real complication
- Familiarity with what a specific office expects
Against
- Cannot influence the decision itself, only the quality of the submission
- Fees for identical work vary widely and are rarely itemised without being asked
- Bundled pricing hides which part is a fixed government fee
- Little recourse if you paid an unregistered firm in cash
Questions people ask
How much should a consultancy charge in Nepal?
There is no standard rate, and quotes for identical work vary widely between firms, which is exactly why three written quotes are worth more than any published benchmark.
What should be consistent is the government portion of the cost. If two quotes differ on the government fee, at least one of them is wrong or is hiding a markup inside it.
Is it normal to pay a consultancy before anything happens?
Partial payment up front is normal for professional work, but paying the full amount before any service is delivered removes your only leverage if the firm stops responding.
Stage payments against milestones are reasonable to ask for and many firms will agree.
Can a consultancy guarantee a visa or admission?
No. Visas are decided by governments and admissions by institutions, both applying published criteria, and no consultancy has any part in either decision.
A guarantee is either meaningless or is describing something other than what you think you are buying — ask what specifically is guaranteed, in writing.
What should I do if a consultancy has taken my money and done nothing?
Gather every receipt, message and written commitment first, because a complaint with documentation is a different proposition from one without.
This is the point at which paying an unregistered firm in cash becomes decisive: with no entity and no receipt, there is very little to pursue.
Do I need a consultancy at all?
Often not. Straightforward registrations and single-institution applications are designed to be done directly, and the fee buys convenience rather than a better outcome.
Where a consultancy earns its fee is a complicated case — a previous refusal, a study gap, an unusual funding source, a complex structure.
How do I check a consultancy is legitimate?
Ask for the company registration number and verify it against the Office of the Company Registrar, then confirm that receipts are issued in that company's name.
A firm that is reluctant to give a registration number has told you what you needed to know.
Sources
Last reviewed .
That company registration can be verified against the Office of the Company Registrar
That government processing times are set by the authority rather than by any intermediary
Sources: Office of the Company Registrar (Nepal), Inland Revenue Department (Nepal), Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (Nepal)
Typical consultancy fee ranges, and how often fees are itemised on request
No source yet. A quoted-fee survey across registered consultancies in the ten cities covered, recording scope, price split and date. No authority publishes this, and it is the largest genuine gap on this page.