The Nigeria Immigration Service has placed an embargo on capturing and issuance of passports to applicants till the 31st of May 2021.

According to a statement released by the NIS, requests for Fresh and/or Reissue shall not be entertained with effect from 18th May 2021-31st May 2021 in all Centres except for locations in the Missions abroad. 

While noting that notifications for collection of produced Passports are already going out to applicants who indicated functional phone numbers in their applications, the statement added that a new Passport application and processing regime shall commence by 1st June 2021.

It explained that the development was in compliance with a directive by the Federal Government to clear all backlog of the passport booklet, adding that the NIS would not receive fresh applications until the backlogs had been cleared.

The statement further noted that payments for passports will be done online when the portal is opened in June.

Critical features of the reform include the following:

• Applicants shall visit http://immigration.gov.ng to apply, pay&upload all the required documents for Passports;

• Book interview/appointment after a successful online application;

• That no applicant who have not booked online appointment shall be attended to;

• That no cash payment to anyone shall be entertained in any Issuing Centre;

• That Passport application processing and issuance shall take a period of Six weeks after a successful enrollment;

• That requests for reissue can be submitted Six Months before expiration.

The reforms come at a time that many Nigerians have been highly critical of the government over its handling of registration for passports.

Some have to wait for four months to get their passports after registration, blaming the problem on scarcity of booklets.