The Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Dr. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has commended the Nigeria Immigration Service on the step taken to ameliorate the hurdles faced by the Nigerian Diaspora on visa application issues through the establishment of more service centers.
Dabiri-Erewa spoke on the development in a statement issued by the Media Unit of the NiDCOM on Friday in Abuja.
She said she was elated on receiving the news of the establishment of additional biometric visa application centres by the NIS.
She said it was indeed a welcome development going by the unpleasant situations that Nigerians living abroad face in respect of visa applications.
Dabiri-Erewa while commending the NIS for this feat, also implored it to look into issues affecting Nigerian Diaspora in other areas not covered.
The Nigeria Immigration Service in a memo dated March 16, 2023 with ref.no NIS/HQ/CGI/909/T/21 stated that an approval for the establishment of additional biometric visa application centres in 12 cities had been received from the Ministry of Interior.
The cities are Berlin, Germany; Nairobi, Kenya; Ottawa, Canada; Vienna, Austria; Stockholm, Swede; and Brussels, Belgium.
Others are Bern, Switzerland; Dublin, Ireland; Madrid, Spain; Cairo, Egypt; Rabat, Morocco; and Tokyo, Japan.
The service centres will attend to Nigerians in the Diaspora that hold other countries passports and need Nigerian visas to visit home.
The Service Centres are also available options that will ensure submission of visa requests are done other than Nigerian Embassies, thereby reducing the waiting time that visa applicants have had to go through.