How To Travel Out Of Nigeria in 2024
There are a lot of reasons why people travel out of Nigeria. It could be for educative purposes, business purposes, tourism or even searching for greener pastures.
Nevertheless, the processes of securing a visa to travel abroad might be a daunting task as most countries have strict travel rules especially when it comes to Nigerians who want to enter their country. This has caused many persons to be denied visas.
If you really want to travel out of the country, you need to know the following:
Your purpose of traveling
Many Nigerians fail to answer this question at the embassy and thereby are denied visas for travel.
Before you start applying for a visa, it is important to know why you want to travel out of Nigeria in order to know the category of visa to apply for.
The following reasons below may secure a visa for you to travel abroad:
- Marrying someone abroad
- Medical reasons
- Attending a conference
- Tourism
- Educational Reasons or Scholarship to study abroad
- Invitation by a family or friend
- Business purposes
Get your international passport ready
To get your international passport in Nigeria, you would have to visit Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) office in your respective states and apply for it.
For a 32-page regular e-passport, the official price is N25,000. 64-page five-year standard passport costs N35,00; 64-page 10-year standard passport price is N70,000. But if you want to speed up the process, you would have to pay more. Though, it depends on the state.
The following items and certificates would be required of you by the Nigerian Immigration Service
- National I.D card
- Local Government of Identification Certificate
- Birth Certificate or an Affidavit at the Federal High Court that shows your age
Note that if you already have a passport, ensure that it is valid for at least 6 months from your scheduled travel date.
Make a choice on the country to visit
Research about the country you would like to travel to before you make a choice on where to travel.
There are some countries that are visa free to Nigerians (Click here to see their list) while others would require a visa on arrival that would last a period of 30 to 90 days.
Book a hotel and plane ticket
You would also need to book a plane ticket if you want to travel out of Nigeria. Unless you have someone you are going to stay with, you would need to book a hotel for accommodation as Nigerian Immigration Service and visa officers would ask you about that. Tickets and receipts of such bookings will serve as a proof to the Immigration service
Apply for visa
Arrange the required documents for application and schedule an interview date or documentation review date. All depends on the embassy’s mode of operation.
Finally, when your visa is ready, you should be at the airport on the flight scheduled date.
At this stage, you will be searched thoroughly by hotel security and immigration both in Nigeria and the country you want to travel to.
Do not be found with goods that is against the laws of both countries and respect your visa terms and conditions.
The only way you can travel out of Nigeria for free is if someone sponsors you or through visa lottery which is rare today.
