Ololade Omosan-Agie
The Nigeria Immigration Service has re-opened its passport application portal for processing of new passport application and payments.
The NIS had last month suspended the processing of new passport.
The Service had explained that the suspension was to ensure that all backlogs are produced and handed over to command controllers for collection by members of the public.
The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, last week announced that the new passport regime was postponed from 1st to 8th June 2021.
However, the Assistant Comptroller for Immigration Service, Amos Okpu, on Tuesday, announced that the portal will begin to function by 12 midnight to allow eligible passport applicants to apply and make payments for the services.
The statement showed that applications and payments for passport services would be made through the Service website www.immigration.gov.ng.
The Comptroller General of lmmigration Service Muhammad Babandede, had explained that the Service had made significant progress in the clearance exercise of backlog of Passport applications.
He said that the huge number of applicants turning up to collect their passports across issuing centres is causing some form of congestion.
He said, “This situation will not allow the Service to accommodate new applications especially considering our desire to ensure that people who come to our offices comply with all the COVlD-l9 Protocols.
“So far a total number of 230,500 applications have been cleared and the Passports produced. Out of this, a total number of 43,350 are yet to be collected.
“Passport Control Officers have been directed to continue to send out short message notifications for collect on to all applicants who indicated functional contact details/numbers in their applications while efforts have been intensified to clear up the remaining applications in some Centres.”