Manaslu Restricted-Area Permit Requirements: Costs, Rules, and Checkpoints

What are the Manaslu restricted-area permit requirements in 2026?

Four permits cover a full Manaslu Circuit: the restricted-area permit (RAP) from the Department of Immigration, the Manaslu Conservation Area Project entry (MCAP), the Annapurna Conservation Area Project entry (ACAP), and, for itineraries adding the Tsum Valley, a separate Tsum RAP. The RAP is the seasonal one, priced per person per week: USD 100 for the first seven days from September through November, USD 75 for the first seven days from December through August, with extra days at USD 15 and USD 10 respectively. The two conservation entries cost a flat NPR 3,000 each, and the Tsum add-on runs USD 40 per week.

The seven-day RAP clock covers only the restricted section, from the Jagat checkpost to the far side of the Larkya La (5,106 m), not your whole trek. A standard 14-day circuit spends six to eight days inside that zone, so most trekkers pay the base week plus one or two extra-day fees; the acclimatization night most groups take at Samdo (3,875 m) is worth its additional USD 10 to 15. Rates on this page were checked against the Department of Immigration fee schedule in July 2026 and have held unchanged since 2019.

Why does Manaslu require two trekkers and a licensed guide?

Department of Immigration rules set a minimum group of two foreign trekkers plus a licensed Nepali guide for every Manaslu RAP, with no waiver and no extra-fee workaround. A single applicant cannot hold the permit alone: Immigration checks the group list against passports at issue, and the police post at Jagat matches names against the physical permit again on the trail.

The border explains the rule. Manaslu's restricted zone runs close to the Tibet frontier, and Nepal has managed access to these corridors through group-and-guide conditions since opening the region to trekkers in 1991. Solo travellers still trek Manaslu every season by joining a fixed group departure, which satisfies the two-person floor; the national picture for unaccompanied trekking, including the 2023 rule changes on other routes, is mapped in the solo trekking guide requirement guide.

How does the Department of Immigration application work?

Registered trekking agencies are the only parties who can file a Manaslu RAP application; the Department of Immigration accepts no walk-in requests from individual trekkers. The agency files through Immigration's online permit system, attaching each trekker's passport scan, Nepal visa page, and two passport photographs, together with the guide's license and the company's own registration papers. That company file is the reason the agency-only rule exists: the permit binds an accountable Nepali operator to your group for the length of the restricted section.

Processing takes one working day. Applications lodged on a Sunday-to-Thursday morning at the Kalikasthan office in Kathmandu normally come back the following afternoon; Friday filings wait until Sunday because Immigration closes on Saturday. You must already be in Nepal when the application goes in, since the original passport has to be available for inspection, so build at least one full Kathmandu working day into the front of your itinerary before the drive to Machha Khola.

Which conservation permits sit alongside the RAP?

MCAP and ACAP entries cost NPR 3,000 each for foreign nationals (NPR 1,000 for SAARC citizens) and are sold at the Nepal Tourism Board building on Pradarshani Marg in Kathmandu, in the same morning your agency spends at Immigration. Both are single-entry with no time limit, so a slower itinerary changes nothing on the conservation side.

ACAP surprises people on a Manaslu trek. The circuit leaves the Manaslu Conservation Area after the Larkya La and descends through Bimthang into the Annapurna Conservation Area, where the counter at Dharapani checks the ACAP paper on your way out. The Khumbu runs a completely different system with no RAP and no TIMS, explained in Everest Base Camp permit costs, and the national matrix of every permit type sits in the Nepal trekking permits master guide.

What does the Tsum Valley add-on cost?

USD 40 per person per week buys the separate Tsum Valley RAP, filed in the same Immigration application run as the Manaslu permit. The Tsum trail leaves the main circuit at Lokpa (2,240 m) and takes five to seven days up to Mu Gompa (3,700 m) and back, so most itineraries stay inside a single USD 40 week; the Tsum fee has no seasonal split, unlike the main Manaslu RAP.

Tsum needs its own permit because it is its own restricted zone, gazetted separately from the Manaslu corridor. The same two-trekker and licensed-guide conditions apply, and the checkposts treat the two papers independently, so a group splitting between Tsum and the direct circuit route needs its paperwork planned that way from the start.

Where are the checkpoints on the Manaslu Circuit?

Jagat (1,340 m) holds the entry checkpost, where police record the RAP and stamp trekkers into the restricted zone; the MCAP counter follows at Philim, an hour and a half up the trail. Sama Gaon (3,530 m) hosts the second RAP check, matching names against the Jagat register before groups continue toward Samdo and the pass, and the ACAP office at Dharapani logs your exit on the far side.

Carry every paper in your daypack rather than a porter load, because the posts want documents from the person standing in front of them. Lost permits are replaced only in Kathmandu at full price, which mid-circuit means abandoning the trek rather than paying twice at a counter. Send your agency passport scans and photos at least a week before your start date; we file the morning after you land and hand over the complete four-permit set the evening before the drive to Machha Khola.