According to the Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment, 17,438 people turned in their applications

at 10 centres set up by the Korean Employment Permit System (EPS).

“We received 10,103 applications inside Kathmandu Valley and 7,335 from

outside on the first day,” said Buddhi Bahadur Khadka at the ministry.

EPS will collect the applications until Sunday. The test has been scheduled for June 13 and 14. Only those who pass the test will be enlisted in the job roster.

Although South Korea has not yet unveiled the job quota for 2016, officials said all candidates who pass the language test will get job opportunities  

EPS has instructed all applicants to fill their forms correctly, or else their test results could be rendered null and void.

All applicants are required to pay USD 24 (around Rs 2,400) with their applications. The applicants also should not have criminal record or have stayed illegally in South Korea. Those younger than 18 years and older than 39 years will not be eligible to sit for the test.

Many candidates who failed last year are sitting for this year’s test as well.

Dharma Lama, who standing in a queue at Chaysal football ground to submit his application, said he was applying for the second time. He hopes to pass the test this year.

“Last year, the questions were tougher than I had expected. I have worked

hard for this year’s test,” Lama said.

A total of 62,514 people had applied for the test last year, of which 3,663 (6.2 percent) had passed.

One EPS official said the test is not getting any easier this year. Candidates will

have to answer open-ended questions from this year which are trickier than the close-ended ones that were part of the test format in the earlier years.

“Students need to have a better understanding and competence in Korean language to solve these questions,” he said.