8mNigerians abroad to get e-passport
Written by Tordue Salem
Tuesday, 07 April 2009


ABUJA— The Comptroller General of Nigerian Immigrations Service, Mr. Joseph Udechukwu has allayed the fears that the 8 million Nigerians living abroad may not have the opportunity of being issued with the Electronic International Passports when the Service phases out the Machine-readable passports currently in use by Nigerians resident anywhere in the world by next year.
The CG Immigrations, who held an interactive session with the Abike Dabiri-Erewa-led Committee on Diaspora Affairs at the National Assembly told the Committee that the Service had concluded plans to phase out the Machine-readable passports.

According to him, Nigerians living abroad would need not bother, as the Immigrations Service was ensuring that e-passports were made available to all applicants abroad.

Mr Udechukwu was responding to fears by Mrs Dabiri-Erewa that the 8 million Nigerians in the Diaspora may not be re-issued the e-passports when the out-dated ones are phased out next year.

Said he: “In our consultations with Nigerians abroad, he expressed the fears about what will happen when their passports expire in 2010. What happens thereafter to the 8 million Nigerians in the Diaspora since there are no facilities for e-passports in many countries abroad,” she queried.

The Immigrations Comptroller-General however told the Committee that the service was working assiduously to avoid all obstacles to meet that target.



http://www.vanguardngr.com/content/view/32993/43/

anyone has tried getting a new passport at the Nigeria Consulate in NY after applying and paying online?
how did it go?
how many days after the online application did you get your passport?