First Thing To Do When You Intend Travelling Abroad
The first thing you should do is to apply for passport early enough. Early in this context is relative. This is because, for someone who just returned from their base abroad with expired or about-to-expire passport, the first thing s/he ought to do is to locate the nearest passport office with his or her "application for passport reissue" before any other thing.
Do Not wait till you have a few days to go back to your country of residence before you remember that you need to renew your passport.
Be proactive and not reactive, if not, 'Nigeria might happen to you'.
This is a clear note of warning because the "Enhanced passport" which Nigeria Immigration Service currently issue to Nigerians is programmed to be a sequential process (from the day you applied till the day it is finally produced and ready for collection).
It is NO LONGER business as usual where you can apply for passport today and probably get it the same day or next.
"Express" is gone (just like PBAT said that "subsidy is gone"). Passport processing period now ranges from three (3) to six (6) weeks as the case may be(ie, all things being equal).
The Enhanced passport (currently being issued by NIS) is tied to your NIN. Without NIN, you can't process the passport (even for a day old baby).
For those that already have passport, make sure that your first name, middle name, surname and date of birth (as it appears on your NIN slip/card) tally with it's arrangement on your current passport. If there's any discrepancy in the arrangement of the above information on both documents (including your date of birth), the process of renewing your passport will be delayed more than expected.
If this is the case, please go back to NIMC to correct/rearrange your information to tally with what you have on your passport. This is because, it is easier to correct/rearrange the information contained on your NIN slip than it is to do same on your passport.
Even if you just returned to Nigeria and you have not enrolled with NIMC to obtain NIN (national identity number), make sure you arrange your names and date of birth while going through the NIN enrolment process to reflect what you have on your passport. If not, you will experience difficulty at the passport office.
Please note that the requirements for both fresh and reissue of passport are still the same respectively.
If your passport application is a fresh one, make sure you arrange the information on your NIN to reflect what you want to have on your passport because it is what you have on your NIN that will appear on your passport after it is been produced.
The amazing part about the current NIS (Nigeria Immigration Service) and NIMC (National Identity Management Commission) 'romance' is that any day/ time NIMC network experience downtime, passport process in NIS across the country (where Enhanced passport is being processed) will be grounded. This is another reason why you should not wait till the 'eleventh hour' before you apply for your fresh/renewal of passport.
Just know that NIS cannot work effectively (with regards to passport processing) without NIMC but NIMC can work perfectly without NIS.
For the second time, make hay while the sun shines, do not allow Nigeria to happen to you.
The main point you have to take home from this my humble advice is that you should start your passport application process six (6) months before the time you will be needing it desperately to avoid Nigeria happening to you.
You can tell us your experience with passport processing or make general comment about the above writeup. Feel free to Like and Share this article on your social media space with your audience.
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