Interior ministry scraps UK fast track passport applications

NIGERIANS resident in the UK will no longer be able to access fast-track applications of their passports which enable them to renew travel documents within 72 hours because the Nigeria Immigration Service has asked the London mission to halt the programme.

In May last year, Ambassador Sarafa Ishola assumed office as the Nigerian high commissioner to the UK and set about addressing the perennial passport problem. To help clear the backlog that had built up due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown, Ambassador Ishola introduced a fast track option that allowed those desperate to travel to get their passports within 72 hours.

Under the scheme, after submitting their application forms online, applicants who needed their passports urgently, could get the process speeded up by paying a fast track fee of £120. All they had to do was go to the Post office and get a postal order for £120 payable to the Nigerian High Commission.

Once this postal order was handed in at the mission along with printed out copies of application forms and payment receipts, applicants were allowed to their biometric data captured there and then. All applicants then had to do was hand in a self-addressed envelope and their passports would be sent to them within 72 hours and in some cases, applicants could simply pick-up their passports within 24 hours.

This system worked well for months until recently when the NIS told the London mission to stop the fast track programme. There are now fears that a backlog may build up against with the fast-track express service removed.

Olajumoke Ariyo, the vice chair, passports of the Central Association of Nigerians in the UK (Canuk), said: “This executive committee assumed office in May 22 last year, almost immediately after the high commissioner arrived. We immediately began working to support and assist Nigerians in navigate the complicated passport applications process.

"We also worked with the high commission to introduce the fast track system to the public and helped disseminate relevant information and updates to the community. This collaboration enabled the high commission to promptly clear the backlog of over 6,000 applications and process thousands if daily new applications.

"There was also a clear reduction in the tension previously seen at the high commission and a new ease in the passport application process being experienced by applicants and other users of the service. With the scrapping of this highly productive fast-track programme, there is a high possibility of a return to the bad old days and already, we are beginning to see an evidence of this with aggressive and abusive behaviour being exhibited by customers who are seeing their expectations not met."

In November 2021, Nigeria's interior minister Rauf Aregbesola visited the UK to formally launch the new enhanced 10-year passport, at the high commission in London. Evidently, since the launch of the new document, the high commission has been asked to change its operating methods to include the introduction of a new appointments system, which is operated from Abuja as opposed to being locally generated.

With the fast track service, touts were taken out of the system as people who urgently needed their passports paid the £120 straight to the government. However, with the scrapping of fast track, people in desperate need of their passports are forced to resort to using the illicit services of touts charging anything up to £350 per passport.

Under the new system, it takes between eight to nine weeks to get an appointment for biometrics capture and a further one to two weeks for a passport to be processed, so those who need to travel urgently are forced to apply for even more expensive visas or an Emergency Travel Certificate. Others are simply taking alternative of travelling with expired passports.

Ms Ariyo added: "It is quite unfortunate but it would seem that very little thought if any is given to making the process of obtaining a Nigerian passport in the UK easy, uncomplicated, straightforward or transparent. This is happening while certain individuals are being enriched at the expense of Nigerians and the Nigerian government, so this situation needs to be reviewed urgently."