oh another thing

@thamemead, I see you have decided to get the visa then rather than bribe your way through at MM Lagos. Good on you.

JJM,

postal visa application is easy. I really believe that if you have a Nigerian name and you are only applying for a tourist 3 months visa, you should get your visa in about 7-10 days; without needing to go to London. Call them in the afternoon to verify what you need to send (its the same as what is online, really).
Then send everything by Special Delivery - be mindful of the postal strikes but Speial delivery will get there in a day. Fill out a self-addressed special delivery envelope - you can get one for free at a post office; just add the stamps (£4.95).

Dont mind their possible rudeness and lack of professional customer service - they are trying their best with the process but perhaps a little stressed and not used to speaking to people properly - one even told me that they get all sorts of people being arrogant to them and not following simple instructions and process.

Good luck - you should never need to go to London. *Lastly, you can pay for everything by Postal Order - no need to use the online payment. Postal order has a 10% charge but its no biggy compared to using a website that has a TROJAN on it.

What did I do to get postal visa:

I went online to Nigeria High Commission website, filled the visa form and printed it off (you could jut print it off and fill the form by hand). In fact I could not fill every part of the form online e.g payment and signature.

[list]
[li]I bought postal order for £90 (£70 for visa and £20 or processing) plus £9.00 charge - £99.
2 passport photos - taken at a post office booth
Application form
Letter of invitation from parent (not necessary I was told if you have a Nigerian name but check - you can always write it yourself
Photocopy of face of mum's passport - see above; might not be needed
Self addressed special delivery envelope for return of your passport - you need stamps on them £4.95
Put all these a special delivery envelope to go to the Nigeria High Commission (postal visa section) - get a receipt and note down tracking number[/li]
[li][/li]
[/list]
And that is it. If everything is straightforward then visa sticker can be put on it even in 3 days and get it back 5 working days.

/

thanks Chis J. that sounds a breeze. May give it a try.

No fear of your passport getting lost in transit

that fear will forever be there unless the passport is being sent by special courier service(hardly with Nigerian HC)

Well lets see. Will let you know what option I go for.

To be honest with you, the fear is there but I live in the North West of England and it will cost me more to travel to London and waste 2 days than to get another British passport - and that process is quite easy given that it is not even peak time for travelling.

But Special Delivery will do. Special Delivery sent from the Post Office is tracked immediately and you can even view that the passport was received using the tracking system. And if you lose your passport in transit Royal Mail will have to compensate you (not enough for inconvenience but it is something). It will be hard for NHC to steal your passport because the evidence is there they received it and you have evidence of the special delivery to receive it back.

Anyway, they deal with many passport, you will have to be unlucky if yours goes missing. And they staff are actually touchy about the subject.

@ono1, am a bit confused by the 3 day express visa. did you have to buy 140 postal order (£20 for processing the £70 visa and £50 for the express service. could you kindly explain how the 3 day express service works. wht documents did you submit, i do no want to sound thick but did u have to leave your passport and collect two days later.
i called them to ask how the three day service works, but i was told to come in with all my documents. the guy was damn rude, he did not wait to me to answer the next question before he hang up, maybe he spent the night on the sofa.lol

Hi, I am trying to fill an online application form for e passport but got stuck filling out permanent address section. I reside in UK and the field does not allow any other address apart from Nigeria address.
The same thing applies to contact information field.
Please can anyone who has already filled this form kindly let me know what to do?

@Favour

Same happened to me while applying for my daughter, i think the system just changed cos it wasn't like that before, i'll advise you to go ahead. However, I wil advise you to confirm your interview date at least a day before you leave because it can change without you even knowing!

Thanks tunnytox!

so you are saying i shld just go ahead and fill wherever i can with my UK address?

in my own case i just used my Nigeria address because the program will prevent you from entering any address except Nigeria's but make sure you choose London as your interview office.

@ post. that's nigeria 4u

well, I decided to apply for my family's visa in person rather than by post. All things being equal, it was not too bad. Spent about 2 hours to submit, our naija people as usual tried queue jumping, which thankfully was not tolerated by that "hard woman". In any event I was ready to pounce on the lady that tried to jump the queue.

Picking up was a week later(Monday 9/11) and again I got there for the 3.30 time given(passport collection is between 3.30-4.30) but no news , nothing until 4.15 when it was announced that they are now ready to deal with visas. Collected mine by 4.40 and was out. So by Nigerian standards it is not bad.

However, I was speaking to a couple of oyinbos(one in person and the other agent), who say that the Nigerian embassy has not changed as it lacks organisation and customer service. One pointed to the "hard woman" and said "that one in particular is so rude, she does not need to work with people, ever again". Inasmuch as I agree with him, sometimes that is what we Nigerians need.

Overall, pretty painless(perhaps I am a glutton for punishment). So got my visa and am ready to roll.

Bump

If you need a visa, get a travel agent to do it for you and you don't have to go through the hassle of going to the embassy. I did mine through a company called DJB visas, sent my passport on Friday, passort came back with visa on Tuesday (today). They charge £50 for their services, worth the money- highly recommended. They only collect the funds when the passport is back so if you're tight for money, this works well. Obviously, not payment and you dont get your passport back. Hope this info helps someone.

I

was down there recently to get the new Biometric passport. My overall impression - a grand scheme. All the disorganisation, the haphardzness, the core hause staff, the lacklustre arrangement is by design.  The confusion over there has been planned and designed from the powers above simply because if things don't work properly, there is always an avenue to make extra dough from people willing to pay more for a quick service.

How many young nigerians are working as business analysts, project managers etc in the UK? You can imagine what the place will be like if young fresh blood are hired to revamp the whole process. All that is needed to run that visa section is mostly about 8-10 efficient staff with the highest level of customer service awareness and not those quota-system-employed hausas who don't have a clue and have probably been shipped in from Dutse, Jalingo, Potiskum just because Yaro's cousin must work in London. Shior!

My one advice, if you need a passport anytime in the near future, better plan a trip to Nigeria if you can and get it in Lagos or other states than waste time going to that HELL HOLE called the Nigerian Embassy in London. Save yourself the stress and tension.

i agree, with dnative above, i swore NEVER to go to that building again after they wasted my time for 3 days doing musical chairs and lost one of my children's passports in the process which they claimed i didnt submit but i had a receipt for it saying it was collected by them, hummm they found it o, by the time i finished showing them where i really came from, emi omo ijebu fun ara mi, when i used my new shoe to dent a big hole on their counter window pane, . anyway i did our new biometric passports in 9ja with no wahala at all for just N20,000.00 each, within 2 days, it was delivered to my house sef, no whala, no sweat,,  it cost me £400.00 (@N250 to £1) for 5 of us, imagine if i had done it here, it would have cost me almost Double.£790.00 for 5 of us that is calculating the commissions on postal order, the $110,00 x5,  the admin fee, and handling fee bla bla bla, ,

That place need fresh blood to run effectively, flush all the old cargo's out jare especially that rude woman, but o gbadun mi daa daa o!! i showed her my true colour, she will not 4get me in a hurry!! in fact next time she sees me she will run a mile

If you going to the Nigerian Embassy, be ready to spend the whole day down there.

The place is run by MORONS who do not have customer experience knowledge and BASICALLY do not care about anybody.

Nigerian Embassy is like a football stadium where everyone is shouting, there is no control or management whatever.

Picking a ticket down there is just a waste time, all the times have been there I have had to jump the queue to be seen to.

They should turn the Embassy into a BUKA where everyone can go and enjoy themselves, the place off no use.

The Nigerian embassy in London is truly behind in a lot of ways! However, Nigerians who visit should also STOP harassing the workers! It only made the whole thing worse especially in the eye of non-Nigerians who were there as well! There is no doubt that some of the workers are rude and crude but most Nigerians who visit still have the uncivilized way of approaching issue and it makes the place so rowdy! THIS IS ENGLAND, whatever it is that you can't do to a McDonald staff, don't go ahead and do it to embassy workers! It makes us all look silly!

bump

Anyone recently applied for the new passport online?
Anyone paid for their services online or is it a waste of time doing it online?

Dis Guy:

Anyone recently applied for the new passport online?
Anyone paid for their services online or is it a waste of time doing it online?

Good question cos my old passport will soon expire.

I recently went to sort out a visa to travel to Nigeria on my British passport.

I spent about 4 hours in total the first day, submitted all documents and made payment. I collected 4 days later, the second day, I spent no more than 2 hours, so all in, the place has improved. The staff were also a lot more courteous than I remember.

My people, I want to visit Nigeria in some month’s time and I have applied for the new Nigerian ePassport because my current one has expired. I also paid $65 online for the ePassport and my interview is on 23 February 2010. This means that I will travel from Glasgow to London. As a student, I don’t want to spend money and time to go that far and return without achieving my aim. Therefore, I implore anybody who has recently obtained the ePassport over there to let me know the items I need to bring along with me. At present, I only know that I must come with my expired passport and a £20 processing fee in postal order. Please correct me if I'm wrong. 

Another issue is that I can't find my way around London. Please which airport is closer to the embassy and what is the best way to get to the embassy from the airport?

No Wee,

I hope you don't expect to get your passport on the same day.
You will collect it at least 7-10 days after acceptance of your application.

No Wee:

My people, I want to visit Nigeria in some month’s time and I have applied for the new Nigerian ePassport because my current one has expired. I also paid $65 online for the ePassport and my interview is on 23 February 2010. This means that I will travel from Glasgow to London. As a student, I don’t want to spend money and time to go that far and return without achieving my aim. Therefore, I implore anybody who has recently obtained the ePassport over there to let me know the items I need to bring along with me. At present, I only know that I must come with my expired passport and a £20 processing fee in postal order. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Another issue is that I can't find my way around London. Please which airport is closer to the embassy and what is the best way to get to the embassy from the airport?

Just read the requirements online and bring extra cash and documents just in case and dont bother arguing with them, just tick off as much as possible from the required list, go early

From Gatwick you can get easybus (book online) to central then get a train to Charing Cross
From Heathrow get the piccadilly line to Piccadily Circus then a Bakerloo line to Charing Cross

The Nigeria High Commission in London recently launched a pr campaign on the NTA about the refurbishment of the Northumberland building and the redeployment of indolent nonchalant staff members from the visa and passport section. But what I observed recently, on more than four visits contradicts the purported message. The information on the website is ill conceived and distorted.

Is there an international agreement that bars the high commission from issuing maiden passports to undocumented Nigerians abroad? There is no provision for such people on the NIS London website and the information given by the customer service attendants is unhelpful and spurious.

Atimes its like the madness never leaves the blood,but we cant say we black are cursed now,everything about naija is girigiri.

they are no 1 in rushing and jumping queue
,, ,, ,, 1 in fake and stupid arrogance

they are never in order

Dis Guy,

Thanks for your response.

I went to the embassy for the e-passport and everything went well. I must also say that I did not witness any drama or madness at the embassy. I will go there this week for the collection of the e-passport.

The following are the items anybody who has the old passport and wants the e-passport should go there with to avoid delay or come tomorrow:

1.  Your old passport

2.  Application form

3.  Payment confirmation slip (of the $65 online payment)

4.  Passport acknowledgement slip (it will show the date of your appointment)

5.  £20 postal order to Nigeria High Commission London (processing fee)

@ No Wee

Thanks alot for that info.

No Wee:

Dis Guy,

Thanks for your response.

I went to the embassy for the e-passport and everything went well. I must also say that I did not witness any drama or madness at the embassy. I will go there this week for the collection of the e-passport.

The following are the items anybody who has the old passport and wants the e-passport should go there with to avoid delay or come tomorrow:

1. Your old passport

2. Application form

3. Payment confirmation slip (of the $65 online payment)

4. Passport acknowledgement slip (it will show the date of your appointment)

5. £20 postal order to Nigeria High Commission London (processing fee)

okay, I want one but my problem is paying in dollars. I don't have a dollar account so can't pay online.
Also, did you take the so called guarantor's form along with you?