The Nigeria Immigration Service has sent a Passport Intervention Team to the United Kingdom. The team is expected to arrive on Monday, 10 August 2026. Its task is to clear pending applications and speed up new and renewal requests for Nigerians living across the UK.
The deployment follows a directive from the Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo. He instructed Comptroller-General of Immigration Kemi Nandap to send the Passport Intervention Team from the service’s Abuja headquarters. The NIS confirmed the move in a statement posted on its official X account on Sunday. It described the exercise as part of continuing efforts to ease passport processing for Nigerians in the diaspora.
According to the statement, the Passport Intervention Team will work directly with the Nigerian High Commission in London. Together, they plan to process a mix of outstanding applications, fresh submissions and renewals for passports nearing expiry. The NIS said the exercise is open to three categories of applicants. These include Nigerians with pending applications already in the system, first-time applicants, and holders whose current passports have less than one year left before expiry.
The exercise will not be confined to London alone. The immigration service said the team would travel to several cities across the UK. This arrangement is meant to let eligible applicants outside the capital take part, without needing to make a long trip to a single venue. The NIS has not yet published the specific cities, dates or venues involved. It said a detailed schedule, along with enrolment times, would be released separately in the coming days.
Applicants have been told to hold off on visiting any location until the Passport Intervention Team’s official schedule is confirmed. The service also asked participants to come prepared. They should carry a completed application form and evidence of payment to their enrolment session with the team.
The intervention arrives against a backdrop of persistent frustration among Nigerians abroad over slow passport turnaround times. Reports from diaspora communities in the UK, the United States and parts of Europe have detailed months-long waits and unexplained processing delays. Some applicants allege extra informal charges demanded to speed up their cases. One Nigerian based in the US recently told Vanguard he had spent well over a million naira trying to renew a single passport, after his initial application stalled for months. Advocacy groups, including Concerned Nigerians in Germany, have separately pressed the federal government over what they describe as systemic obstacles facing applicants outside Nigeria.
The Ministry of Interior has been rolling out a broader set of reforms to passport administration under Tunji-Ojo. These include the Contactless Passport Application System and a planned Single Travel Emergency Passport for citizens who lose their documents while abroad. The NIS said these digital channels, along with the existing passport home delivery service, will keep running as normal throughout the UK intervention. Applicants who prefer not to attend an enrolment session in person will still have other options open to them.
For enquiries or complaints tied to the Passport Intervention Team’s UK exercise, the NIS has provided a dedicated email address. It has also set up a WhatsApp-only line, reachable on +234 916 087 8000. The service is urging applicants to monitor the Nigerian High Commission’s official communication channels for updates, rather than relying on unverified information circulating online.
Whether this Passport Intervention Team deployment can meaningfully cut the UK backlog remains to be seen. Much will depend on how quickly the promised schedule reaches the public, and how many applicants the team can process during its time in the country. For now, the NIS says the exercise marks another step in its stated commitment to efficient and responsive passport service delivery for Nigerians both at home and abroad.
