BEVERLY HILLS, May 18, (THEWILL) – The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has placed an embargo on capturing and issuance of passports to applicants from Tuesday, May 18th to May 31, 2021.
The Comptroller General of Immigration, Muhammed Babandede, made the announcement on Tuesday during a press briefing in Abuja.
He said the decision was to enable the service to clear its backlog, noting that it would no longer collect fresh applications until the backlogs are cleared.
This means that all passports in control offices are closed for applicants from today till May 31st and payments for passports will be online when the portal is opened, which will be June.
The breakdown of the current backlog shows: Local: 71,644, Enhanced: 46,814 and Foreign : 17,906.
The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola had earlier given a six weeks timeline for passport collection.
He said the six weeks would allow for enough time to investigate, verify and validate personal information supplied by the applicants.
“What we are driving at is the peace of mind that comes from the 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”, he said.
He noted that applicants would 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 would be communicated to them.
The Minister added: “The technology for the efficient running of this system has been acquired and will be deployed.
“We are publishing on our website the list of the backlog of passports that are ready which are yet to be collected by the owners. They will be required to go to the statThe Nigeria Ie commands to collect them.
“With these changes, it is my firm belief that we will arrive at a new dawn in passport application processing.”
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