Nigeria Immigration Service Deploys Passport Intervention Team to the UK to Clear Diaspora Backlog

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has deployed a dedicated Passport Intervention Team to the United Kingdom to help clear pending applications and ease passport access for Nigerians living in the country. The move, directed by the Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, is aimed at tackling long-standing delays that have frustrated diaspora applicants trying to obtain, renew, or process their Nigerian passports from abroad.

What the Intervention Covers

According to a statement from the NIS, the Comptroller-General of Immigration was directed to deploy the team from the agency’s Abuja headquarters to work alongside the Nigerian High Commission in the UK. The team’s mandate covers three categories of applicants:

• Nigerians with pending passport applications that have not yet been processed
• First-time applicants seeking to obtain a Nigerian passport for the first time
• Passport holders with less than one year remaining before expiry who wish to renew

Rather than requiring applicants to travel to a single central location, the NIS said the team will visit multiple designated cities across the UK, allowing Nigerians outside London and other major hubs to access enrolment and processing without lengthy or costly travel.

What Applicants Need to Prepare

Applicants who plan to take advantage of the intervention are advised to have their completed application forms and proof of payment ready ahead of their enrolment appointment. The exercise covers both biometric enrolment and processing for eligible applicants, but the NIS has been clear that the full schedule — including specific cities, dates, venues, and enrolment times – will be announced separately through official channels.

Crucially, the NIS has urged applicants not to show up at any location until the official schedule has been communicated. Anyone hoping to participate should closely monitor the Nigerian High Commission in the UK’s official communication channels for updates on dates and venues in their area.

Digital Channels Remain Open Throughout

Nigerians in the UK who are not able to attend the physical intervention sessions can continue to use the NIS’s existing digital passport application channels, including the Contactless Passport Application System, which the agency confirmed will remain fully operational throughout the exercise.

Contact for Enquiries

For questions or complaints related to the UK intervention, the NIS has provided the following official channels:

• Email: passport.london@immigration.gov.ng
• WhatsApp-only line: +234 916 087 8000

Why This Matters for the Diaspora

Passport delays have long been a source of frustration for Nigerians abroad, particularly for those who need a valid passport to travel home for family emergencies, weddings, funerals, or simply to maintain legal status while living overseas. Complaints about slow processing, unclear timelines, and limited access outside major cities have been recurring themes among diaspora communities for years, making direct interventions like this one especially significant.

This deployment follows a broader pattern of the Federal Government stepping up direct engagement with Nigerians abroad. In recent months, officials have repeatedly emphasised viewing the diaspora not as a burden but as a critical contributor to national development, pointing to remittances, investment, and skills transfer as key areas where Nigerians abroad continue to support the country. Alongside passport-related efforts, the government has also been active on other diaspora fronts, including facilitating the return of citizens affected by tensions abroad and hosting diaspora economic engagement events in cities such as Toronto.

The NIS has previously acknowledged internal restructuring challenges affecting passport production timelines domestically, including debates around centralising passport production processes. Deploying dedicated intervention teams abroad, as with this UK exercise, appears to be one way the agency is attempting to work around production bottlenecks by bringing processing capacity closer to where large diaspora populations are concentrated, rather than requiring applicants to route everything through Nigeria.

For Nigerians in the UK currently dealing with a stalled application or an expiring passport, this intervention represents a rare opportunity to resolve the issue locally rather than through Abuja. Given that similar diaspora-focused interventions have occurred in the past in other countries, applicants in other parts of the world may also want to watch for whether this UK model gets extended elsewhere in the future.

The key next step for anyone hoping to benefit from this exercise is simple: watch for the official schedule, gather the required documents in advance, and avoid showing up anywhere until dates and venues are confirmed through official channels.

This is a developing story. FlashInfoNG will update this article as soon as the official schedule of cities, dates, and venues is released.