The Nigeria High Commission London has announced the resumption of Fast Track Service in the processing of Nigerian passports with effect from Monday, 11th October 2021.
The Fast Track Service, which was suspended due to some logistic challenges, has now been resolved according to the Nigeria High Commission London.
In a media release made available to African Voice, the Mission stated that unlike before, applicants for the Fast Track Service will only be attended to from 10.00 am, Monday to Friday. (NOT EARLIER THAN 10.00 AM).
The statement further read, The High Commission of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the United Kingdom takes this opportunity to express its appreciation for the patience of all Nigerians in the UK, especially, Applicants for Nigerian passports who had urgent needs to renew their passports.
Mission appreciates your understanding in this regard. We want to assure you that we would always strive towards improved service delivery at the Nigeria High Commission.
Further to the Public Notice released by the High Commission on 16th September, 2021, on the suspension of passport fast track services due to certain challenges that the Mission faced at the time, the High Commission wishes to inform Applicants that the challenges for fast track services have been resolved.
Meanwhile, it is expedient to remind all Nigerians on the issue of clearing of backlogs on passport processing. It would be recalled that the lockdown in the UK arising from the outbreak of COVID-19 led to the suspension of passport processing, amongst other services from December 2019 to March 2021. Within this period, over 18,000 applications were outstanding as backlog for processing. Mission resumed operations on 12th April 2021 and has since cleared the backlog.
However, from 13th April to 30th September 2021, 16,518 passport applications have been received from Nigerians desirous of renewing or obtaining new Nigerian passports.
The High Commission London has since been attending to these applications and is currently clearing the backlog of applicants, who applied in May 2021.
The Mission would subsequently clear the backlog of June, July, August and September 2021 accordingly.
The challenge faced in the passport processing in the last few weeks necessitated the Mission to suspend the fast track services to attend to other applicants, whose biometrics appointments have always received prompt attention. This will continue based on the date of application/online payment.
Meanwhile, Mission is not unaware of the fact that some Nigerians are in urgent need for passports. Hence, such applicants may wish to avail themselves of the fast track services, which is optional, with effect from Monday, 11th October 2021. Unlike before, Applicants for fast track service should come not earlier than 10.00 am daily. This is to allow adequate attention to non-fast track applicants.
It is pertinent to advise Passport applicants to embark on the processing of the renewal of their passport, six months before the expiry date. This will make the fast track optional service undesirable. In actual fact, the fast track service is very disruptive to our operations, because it does not allow for proper planning since the actual numbers of applicants that would require the service are unpredictable.
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