Nigerian Passports & Travel Documents FAQ

Fresh applications are completed online at the official e-Passport portal, not in person at a passport office as a first step. You complete the form, upload the required documents, make payment, and book an appointment — all before you ever visit an Immigration office.

Once your appointment is booked, you attend the passport office you selected (or, if you live outside Nigeria, the nearest Nigerian Embassy, High Commission or Consulate) with your payment and appointment slips, where your photograph and biometric data (fingerprints) are captured. The booklet itself is only produced after this in-person step.

For applicants 18 years and above applying by citizenship of birth, the standard document set is:

• A letter of identification from your Local Government or State of origin/residence, or a National Identity Card — or, for government employees, a letter of introduction confirming Nigerian citizenship, service number, length of service and rank, accompanied by a valid staff ID.
• The completed passport application form plus two passport-sized photographs, endorsed on the back by your guarantor.
• A completed Guarantor's form, signed by a Commissioner for Oaths, with a photocopy of the guarantor's Nigerian e-Passport data page and one passport photograph of the guarantor.
• A marriage certificate, where applicable.
• A birth certificate issued by the National Population Commission (mandatory for anyone born from December 1992 onward) or, for older applicants, a sworn Age Declaration with a passport photograph endorsed by a Commissioner for Oaths.
• Your Acknowledgement Slip and evidence of payment.

For applicants under 18, the requirements shift to establishing parentage and parental consent rather than the applicant's own standing:

• The completed application form with one passport photograph of the minor, endorsed on the reverse by the consenting parent.
• Evidence of the parent(s)' Nigerian citizenship.
• A birth certificate issued by the National Population Commission, for minors born within Nigeria.
• A letter of consent from either parent.
• The Acknowledgement Slip and evidence of payment.

Yes. In addition to the standard minor's document set, an adopted child's application must include a court order confirming the adoption, together with a letter of approval from the relevant State Ministry of Women and Child Development. This requirement is strictly for adopted children and does not apply to biological minors.

You will need your Certificate of Naturalisation, duly issued by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, alongside the standard package: the completed application form, two passport photographs endorsed by your guarantor, a completed and notarised Guarantor's form with the guarantor's own e-Passport data page and photograph, a marriage certificate where applicable, a birth certificate or your previous passport's data page as evidence of age, and your Acknowledgement Slip and evidence of payment.

The requirements mirror the naturalisation route, with your Certificate of Registration (issued by the President) standing in for the Certificate of Naturalisation: the completed application form and two guarantor-endorsed photographs, a notarised Guarantor's form with the guarantor's e-Passport data page and photograph, a marriage certificate where applicable, a birth certificate or previous passport data page as evidence of age, and your Acknowledgement Slip and evidence of payment.

Nigeria issues three tiers of fingerprint-enhanced e-Passport. The Standard (green) Passport is for ordinary citizens and comes in three variants: 32-page/5-year, 64-page/5-year, and 64-page/10-year. The Official (blue) Passport is reserved for designated government officials, and the Diplomatic Passport is reserved for accredited diplomats and top government officials approved by the President.

The Enhanced e-Passport is a Federal Government reform of the standard booklet that had been in circulation for over a decade with only 5-year validity. It introduces polycarbonate construction for greater durability and security, a 10-year validity option that reduces how often you need to visit a passport office, and a fully automated, strictly online-payment issuance process designed to cut out touts and middlemen.

It is also built around an Electronic Document Management System that tracks each application, communicates status updates directly to applicants, removes manual human handling from the process, and is meant to speed up decision-making and processing generally.

Eligibility is tied to specific senior public offices and ranks, including: Commissioners, Special Assistants and Special Advisers; Deputy Directors and above in the Federal Civil Service; Directors and above in State Civil Service; Deputy General Managers and above in federal/state parastatals; Chairmen, Deputy Chairmen and Secretaries of Local Government Councils; Deputy Director-and-above staff of the CBN and equivalent federal banks; Colonel-and-above (or Navy/Air Force equivalent) military officers; ACP-and-above police officers and equivalent rank in the DSS and other paramilitary services; Vice-Chancellors and Deputy Vice-Chancellors of federal/state universities (and polytechnic/college of education equivalents); immigration, military and police officers on peacekeeping missions; first-class traditional rulers and chiefs; and GL.08–14 government officials travelling abroad on official assignment with SGF/SSG approval.

Applicants need a letter of application/introduction from their organisation, two passport photographs, their last promotion or appointment letter, a photocopy of a valid official ID card, evidence of age, and (for elected political office holders) an INEC or state electoral commission certificate of return.

Diplomatic passports are reserved for Nigerian diplomats and other top government officials specifically approved by the President. The document requirements mirror the Official Passport: a letter of application/introduction from your organisation, two passport photographs, your last promotion or appointment letter, a photocopy of a valid official ID card, evidence of age, and (for eligible elected political office holders) an INEC certificate of return.

Complete the renewal application online, uploading your birth certificate (or age declaration), state-of-origin certificate, and your current passport's data page, then make payment and book an appointment. You then submit your payment and appointment slips in person at the passport office you selected, and attend with your existing passport booklet for a fresh photograph and biometric capture. Nigerians in the diaspora renew at the nearest Nigerian Embassy, High Commission or Consulate rather than a domestic passport office.

Correction requests are filed online with a non-refundable administrative charge, alongside an upload set covering: your birth certificate or high court declaration of age, a letter explaining the reason for the change, a newspaper publication of the change (where applicable), a court affidavit, your state-of-origin certificate, and your existing passport's data page. You then attend your chosen Immigration office in person, with the current booklet, for photograph and biometric capture. Diaspora applicants file through their nearest Nigerian mission.

This follows the same online application route, with an upload set of: birth certificate or high court age declaration, state-of-origin certificate, a formal application letter, your marriage certificate, a court affidavit, a newspaper publication, and your current passport's data page. As with other data changes, you must appear in person at your chosen office with the passport booklet for photograph and biometric capture, or file through a Nigerian mission if resident abroad.

These four changes — replacement, addition, deletion, or rearrangement of name(s) — are handled through the same change-of-details channel and non-refundable administrative charge as other corrections. You will need your birth certificate or age declaration, a letter stating the reason for the change, a newspaper publication, your state-of-origin certificate, a court affidavit, and your current passport's data page, followed by in-person biometric capture at your chosen office (or a Nigerian mission, if applying from abroad).

A lost or stolen passport is reported and replaced rather than renewed. In practice this means filing a police report or sworn affidavit of loss, then applying online in the same way as a fresh or renewal application, since you will not have the old booklet's data page to upload. The exact document checklist for lost-passport replacement can vary by office and has its own dedicated guidance page on the NIS portal.

Yes. Every application route above — fresh, renewal, correction, or data change — has a diaspora path: you complete the same online application (using the international applications portal rather than the domestic one), then submit your documents and attend biometric capture at the nearest Nigerian Embassy, High Commission or Consulate, rather than a passport office inside Nigeria.

NIS's Online Payment Refund Policy treats all payments through its online portal as final, non-cancellable and non-refundable by default, with narrow exceptions. Refunds are only considered for:

• Passport applications: a genuine double payment on a single application, or where no appointment was booked at all (contactless applications excepted).
• Visa applications: only a genuine double payment on a single application.

Refunds are explicitly not granted where an appointment has already been booked, where errors are discovered after payment, where a passport applicant switches between a 32-page and 64-page booklet after paying, where duplicate applications (not duplicate payments) are submitted for the same person, or where an application is queried or rejected outright — even genuinely, none of these qualify for a refund under the published policy.

Refund requests must be submitted within 21 days of the payment date, by email to NIS's payments support address, with the applicant's full name, application ID, payment reference number, and supporting evidence (such as proof of debit).

A Convention Travel Document (CTD) — also known as a Refugee Passport, 1951 Convention Travel Document, or Geneva Passport — is issued to refugees under “Protection” in Nigeria who cannot obtain a national passport from their own country. It is a bonafide, internationally recognised travel document valid for international travel, and Nigeria Immigration Service issued its first CTDs in May 2019, handed over to the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMi) for onward delivery to eligible refugees.

Nigeria is a signatory to the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which obliges signatory states to issue travel documents to refugees lawfully resident in their territory — the CTD is how Nigeria discharges that obligation.

Practical specifics: it is a 32-page, blue-coloured, biometric, ICAO-compliant travel document. It is issued at no cost to the refugee, since production costs are borne by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) rather than the applicant. Holders are permitted to return to Nigeria if they travel abroad during the document's period of validity.

This is a narrow, status-dependent category rather than a general alternative to a passport, and the application sits with the Nigeria Immigration Service in coordination with Nigeria's refugee status determination framework. If this applies to you, treat it as a specialist filing rather than a routine passport matter, and get advice on your specific status before applying.

Nigeria officially rolled out the ECOWAS National Biometric Identity Card (ENBIC) on 28 November 2025, becoming the seventh ECOWAS member state to adopt it (following Senegal, Ghana, Benin, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau). ENBIC replaces the older, paper-based ECOWAS Travel Certificate and Resident Permit with a chip-embedded, ICAO-compliant biometric card — built to ICAO Annex 9, Chapter 3 standards — carrying facial and fingerprint data.

The practical effect for clients: holders of ENBIC can travel between ECOWAS member states without needing to carry an international passport for that specific journey, since the card itself functions as the recognised travel and identity credential across the region. This is a new development as of late 2025.

This is distinct from the CERPAC (which addresses long-term residence within Nigeria for non-ECOWAS foreigners) and from ordinary Nigerian passports — ENBIC specifically serves ECOWAS nationals moving within the ECOWAS sub-region.