Embassy of Nigeria

I was at the Nigerian Embassy to renew my passport last week. I was highly impressed with the service even though the line for Biometrics was slow. You just need to be patient, follow instructions and wait your turn especially if you don’t have an appointment or you have a latter appointment date but just walked in. Overall it was a good experience. Proudly Nigerian! Lovely Ambiance Good Service Very Friendly And Courteous Staff Wheelchair Accessible Entrance Restroom

Epitome of incompetence! CONS: -PREPARE TO SPEND YOUR WHOLE DAY THERE: Come by 9:45 because they open at 10am regardless of what their website or gate sign says. Having an appointment is a MUST even if it does not speed up attendance! They only attend to 50 people daily regardless of your appointment time so come in the morning even if your time is later in the day because you will be given ticket numbers! You will NOT be attended to if you have no appointment slip! My appointment was the day I arrived at 9:30 yet I finished biometrics at 5:30pm! Imagine that! -they attend in order of women with children, elderly, those with payments for passports done the year before, those with appointments of the day before that was not completed and lastly those with appointments for that day who fall into the limited number of 50 per day. -THEY DO NOT RESPOND TO EMAILS OR PHONE CALLS! Don’t stress it!!! Even if you speak to someone, they will not help figure out any issues with you especially if there are errors on your passport or things you need to fix after leaving the embassy! I know how many calls and emails I sent to no avail, you will be tossed around like a ball UNLESS you know someone! PROS: -Washington DC is a nice place to visit just NOT the Nigerian Embassy… -Nigerian embassy is close the metro and within walking distance to an okay hotel. -God works wonders regardless, an angel with superior authority intervened on my behalf and I got my passport renewed and mailed in less than a month without any bribes! Safe to say, my God is bigger than any human and for that I am thankful!

I'm guessing that the day after the President's Day holiday produced a larger crowd than usual and that the staff was overwhelm with the increased volume of people. We ended up spending almost five hours there. Once our paperwork was examined and confirmed, the biometrics part went quickly. The organizational procedures when checking in needs improvement. That would reduce the level of chaos among staff and frustration among visitors.

Quite organized! If going as a walk-in for passport renewal, go early and be prepared to pay extra via cards for an official premium. No cash accepted for any payments. Only the exact certified envelop shown below green sticker with "CERTIFIED MAIL" is accepted for passport applications/renewal!

Let me tell you!!!!!! I had read previous reviews and came prepared. So nothing surprised me! - Embassy opens just before or around 10am so even if your appt is for 9:30am, and even though the placard at the game says 'opens at 9am' you'll still wait till around 10am if you come earlier. - I would will advise you to come early as they only attend to 50 people a day. I had an appt for 9:30am and arrived just at 9am, and met people who claimed to be waiting since 7:30am. As at 9am, there were already 10-12 people waiting for the gates to open. - Once ushered in, they inform you of which documents you need and you'll be able to determine if you're classified as a confirmed appt or a walk-in. Afterwards, tickets are issued. - I was the 10th or 11th person to arrive at the gate but ended up being #20 after tickets had been issued. Priority is given to the elderly and people with babies and young kids. Afterwards, Priority is given to people who made payments online last year before those who made payments online in the current year. This is in an effort to ensure older application are processed before it expires as payments expire exactly 1 year after. Make sure your application and payment ate still valid within the 1 year time frame. - After tickets have been issued, you'll be required to pay an admin fee of $30 - this baffles me. I really can't explain why it wasn't charged online together with the application fee. Anyway, just to be safe, hold cash, a credit card, and a debit card. Earlier reviews said debit card only but today they insisted on credit card. Thank God I had a credit card on me. I think they collect money order as well. - Two important documents you must have to even be issued a ticket: passport payment slip and Appointment confirmation slip. If you don't your appt confirmation slip, you'll be categorized as a walk in and that attracts a $100 fee. Walk ins are the last group to be issued ticket as well. Btw, hold your ticket very well! - After administration fee payment, collect your receipt and sit back down until you're called to bring forward your documents. They'll take the ones they need - there were some docs they didn't bother collecting even though it was on the website but still, bring it all! Better to be safe than sorry. Once your documents have been complied, sit down again. - An official will come to escort people in groups of 6-8 to the biometric area where you'll play yet another waiting game. Expect a allow a few people from nowhere jump in front of the queue: elderly people and people with babies and young kids. Officials will ask you to give chance to them. - At the biometric area, you'll scan your fingerprints, change your signature if you wish, and capture your passport photo. Here you'll provide your prepaid UPS, USPS, or FedEx envelope. - Plan ahead to renew your passport because it takes less or equal to 4 months to receive your new one in the mail. My appt was 3/3/22 and I was told to expect my new passport by June 3rd, 2022. - At this time, they'll ask you if you have any form of ID for travel in place of your expired passport. - For reference, I arrive at 9am, got ushered in around 9:40am-9:45am, and finished and left the premises around 12:39pm. - I truly believe the process can be improved. Hope this helps someone planning for their appointment. EDIT 06/14/2022 - Received my new passport, almost 2 weeks past the due date June 3rd that I was told to expect it. Whew! Glad that's done. For reference, I used certified prepaid UPS envelope. Told them I would be shipping a sensitive document so that makes sure they give you the certified one for clarity. My new passport was delivered in a USPS priority mail small envelope sealed within the prepaid UPS certified envelope I brought to my original appt. Tip: Note the expected date of new passport in calendar including the return tracking number and also sign up for delivery alerts so you receive updates. This way, you'll have records for troubleshooting if need be.

My profound gratitude goes to everyone here for their hard work and dedication. Can’t even explain how pleased and grateful I am with this embassy. I applied and received my emergency travel document all by mail and a phone call. Speedy services and very friendly customer service. They deserve six stars for such a great job and I’m very grateful once again.

After appearing there in person today, it turns out this embassy may be understaffed and can improve on the structure of how they do things. It’s apparent they’re working on improving the quality of services rendered. Everyone I came across was professional and tried to explain issues to the best of their ability even though some lost their cool at some point. If you’re going for passport renewals and applied online after June 2022, you’ll need an appointment before they can help you. Apparently your application will not show on the system until your appointment date. If you missed your appointment, they’ll attend to you as long as your payment hasn’t expired. - No walk-ins for the enhanced e-passports. Strictly by appointment, be it current or past. If you go before your appointment date, they can’t do anything to access your application and process it. - They don’t process visa applications. - They process ETC but that’s no good because you can’t use it to leave Nigeria, only to go there. - If your renewal is for the old E-passport NOT the new Enhanced E-Passport, you can walk in without appointment for help. - If you processed your renewal and biometrics through a passport intervention program and haven’t received it, you may not get it till next year. There’s a huge backlog on those. You can walk-in if you need it urgently and they may be able to help you like they helped me today. If you follow the instructions given when you apply online and go prepared with everything you need, you will not have any issues with the embassy and the new procedures they have in place. * let’s make it a habit to share information like this on reviews, not just complaints, so people can know how things work* And the embassy needs to do better with sharing information and updates on procedures with the public like the Atlanta consulate.

How long will it take to get our new passport. It’s been a full month now. I am just tired of the way Nigerian Embassy does things. Same old story from Nigeria. People Came from hundreds of miles away to renew passport and after a month they still don’t have any update. No one answers your call. Voicemail is full and they all don’t care to clear it up and actually answer peoples calls. Nigeria do better. You can’t keep frustrating your citizens this way, It’s awful

My advice to anyone looking to get their passport urgently is to explain their situation to the tall, dark, full-bearded and bald-headed man that works in the biometrics area/front desk. He’s certainly younger than most of the officials working there. He was cordial, professional and super helpful. Find him and you might have one less thing to worry about when you are at the embassy. More like an appreciation post instead of a review!

This embassy of Nigeria is weird sometimes. Workers are not really friendly this moment. They asked me to sit and wait in another room and keeping busy with other hearing people for 4 hours cuz I am deaf? They didn’t keep me follow up any updates even didn’t tell what I am waiting for. They are incompetent service. They didn’t provide deaf with access to communicate. It’s an embarrassing. They should improve services this time.