NIS: How to apply for a new Passport, renewal in Nigeria
Posted by Editor | 3 years ago | 1,419 times
In a bid to ensure seamless, transparent, as well as according human dignity to applicants and fulfill citizenship integrity, the Federal Government of Nigeria said it is turning around the entire passport application process by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to Six weeks timeline, which has taken effect from 1st of June, 2021.
This development is coming after the ministry had received several complaints in the past, including shortage of booklets, touting, racketeering, inflating the cost of passport, passports being issued to ineligible persons, the COVID-19 issue, among others.
"It has become imperative therefore to review our operations and rejig our system, in order to be able to offer excellent services to our clients, the Interior Minister said."
According to him, efforts are on to embed security operatives both seen and unseen, in all passport offices. "They will wear body cameras. They will detect and report any form of solicitations, inflation, improper communications, extortion, diversion, hoarding and other corrupt practices. Those caught will be dealt with according to the law," he stressed.
The Minister disclosed further that an ombudsman will also be created for members of the public to receive complaints and reports on officers trying to deviate from prescribed guidelines and subversion of the process.
It would be recalled that the passport portal was closed on May 17, following a directive by the Minister of Interior.
The minister had directed the closure of the portal to enable the service to clear the backlog of applications in issuing centres across the country in the past few months.
However, applicants are to note that a new passport application and payment regime has begun.
Below are some of the highlights applicants must know before applying for a passport
- According to Aregbesola, special centres have been created for expedited services. These special centres will run on a public-private partnership basis. This has already taken off in Abuja and 10 more will be opened in coming weeks as more of such centres will be opened all over the country. The goal is to have one in each local government, university campuses, institutions of higher learning and other places.
- A timeline will be fixed for every application i.e., a collection date. This will be six weeks, comparable to what obtains in other countries. This is to allow for enough time to investigate and validate personal information supplied by the applicants. What the ministry is driving at is the peace of mind that comes from assurance of certainty. If there are circumstances that will make the date to change, it will be communicated to the applicant one week before the collection date.
- Applicants will have no basis for further communication with officers, other than to complete their application process and leave the venue. The date for the collection of their passports or any challenge to the application, will be communicated to applicants. The technology for the efficient running of this system has been acquired and will be deployed.
Subsequently, applications and payments for passport services shall be made through the service website, www.immigration.gov.ng.
According to the Comptroller-General of the service, Mr Muhammad Babandede, said applicants are expected to visit the portal to apply and upload their support documents for vetting and processing.
- A chat room facility to guide applicants through the application and payment process has been provided on the portal.
- Upon successful applications, applicants shall make their online booking interview/enrollment appointment on any day, time and location they consider convenient.
- The new timeline for passport production and issuance after a successful enrollment at the selected issuing centre shall be six weeks for fresh applications and three weeks for re-issue (renewal applications).”
It should be noted that no applicant who is yet to make an online application and payment shall be allowed into any of the issuing centres for passport processing.
Thereafter, applicants would be contacted through the email addresses and phone numbers they provided during the application when their passports were ready.
