NIS urges passport applicants to use online portal

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) yesterday charged passport applicants to use its online application and payment portal to reduce the stress and long hours of waiting to process the document.

This follows the recent death of an applicant at the NIS Ikoyi Office in Lagos who passed on while waiting for his passport.Responding to the challenges often encountered by applicants at passport offices across the country, Amos Okpu, who spoke for the NIS said: “Applicants make the process difficult for themselves.’’

“This is because the government has provided the e-platform to ensure ease of getting passport by individuals from any location but many people still insist on coming to our offices for everything and this can be hectic.”

He explained that most of the NIS offices are as conducive as possible within available resources so that applicants could have some degree of comfort, while waiting to collect their passports. Okpu, therefore, advised applicants to make more use of the organisations e-channel for efficiency and ease of service delivery.