Nigeria Visa on Arrival (VoA) Experience

When people ask for Nigerian visa on arrival experience, what they truly want to know is: how is it like? Is it reliable? Are there any immigration issues at the airport? Is there a chance that you won’t be let into the country and be sent back from the airport?

These and others are the concern of the first time applicant/visitor regarding the Nigerian visa on arrival.

Truth is, the Nigerian visa on arrival experience for the visitor/applicant can be as swift and smooth as possible, without any immigration concerns whatsoever.

This is because the whole process is less hectic, 100 percent online, less time consuming, and without any need to visit the embassy/consulate.

The best thing is you can get an approval within two working days, and you will also be able to verify the status of your application online and be sure that the letter of approval is genuine/authentic.

This way, you can be sure that your visa has been truly approved by the immigration service before traveling. This makes for the best possible experience, without having any issues with the Immigration at the airport or port of entry.

The Nigerian visa on arrival process is typically like an e-visa. An application is submitted online with all required documents:

• Passport photo (white background, 200x450px)
• Passport data page (front page of international passport)
• Flight itinerary (return ticket)
• Letter of self introduction
• Letter of invitation
• CAC certificate of host company

For our customers, they only need to provide us with the flight itinerary, passport data page and recent passport-sized photo, and make applicable payment.

Then, we will provide other required documents (Invitation Letter, CAC certificate and Letter of Introduction), submit the visa application on your behalf, pay the visa fees and expedite the approval from the Nigerian Immigration Service.

We do all these within 24 hours and get your letter of approval. This is as easy and fast as it can get.

How can you check the authenticity of a Nigerian visa on arrival approval?

To make sure you don’t have a horrible experience at the port of entry (airport) with the Immigration, it is strongly advised you confirm that the letter of approval is genuine. And that your visa has been truly approved by the Immigration.

To do this, head over to the immigration portal and application number and reference number; then click search record. The application and reference numbers are indicated on the letter of approval.

If the letter of approval is genuine, the Immigration portal will bring up all information regarding your visa application with the approval status as Approved!

With this, you qualify to travel and you will be issued a visa at the airport on arrival without any issues whatsoever with the Immigration.

Once you get your visa on arrival approval letter and can confirm that it is genuine, you are good to fly! There will be no issues of any kind with the immigration when you arrive.

So, for all our customers, we make sure they have the best possible experience with the Nigerian visa on arrival. We do this by simplifying the visa process for them, taking all the hurdles with submitting an application and getting an approval.

We do this in a timely manner so they can quickly get their visa approval letter (verifiable online on the immigration website).

Generally, for the visitor it can be a very easy, straightforward and swift experience without going through any immigration hurdles, or worrying about anything.

But for us, it can be a pain sometimes resulting to huge losses.

Our experience processing Nigerian visa on arrival for visitors

While the visa on arrival experience for the visitor can be swift, smooth and great, it can be hellish for us sometimes and here is why:

Some visitors wait too late (less than two days to flight) before contacting us. This means we are put under pressure to sort out the documents, arrange them in the right sizes, order and formats in which the Immigration requires within so little time frame.

After doing that, we will need to submit an application, pay the fees and follow up on the approval. And given the urgency, we most times pay extra to expedite the approval (without charging extra from the visitor).

With differences in time zones, we have to work round the clock to make sure it is convenient for the visitor.

And sometimes there are issues with receiving payments. In such cases, we’ve had to augment and do the entire visa processing without receiving any payments upfront from the customer.

We do this on trust so the visitor can pay us on arrival. This often leaves us with a sour taste and a bad experience as most people will choose not to pay us after using our money to process visas for them.

A typical instance is the recent case of an American visitor whose flight was due in less than 24 hours. He got in touch with us, submitted his required documents and in less than 4 hours, his visa was ready.

We sent him the letter of approval (above), together with invitation and other documents; he flew to Nigeria and refused to pay us thereafter.

He dodged us at the airport. We reached him via WhastApp and he lied he was going to drop the money (300 USD) with the hotel receptionist at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island Lagos.

The next day we were at the hotel as early as 8am, waited till 3.30pm and he refused to come down to see us. He neither bothered to drop the money for us or even talk to us again. He would just read our messages and ignore them.

Worst thing is the fraudster/scammer refused to even talk to us on the phone. Indeed, it was a very disappointing experience to waste our time and money and processed a visa within hours for a middle-aged American citizen, who instead of showing gratitude, opted not to pay us and treated us with disdain.

This is just one of the many instances of the disappointing experiences we have had processing visa on arrival for visitors to Nigeria.

While we have a duty of care to protect your data and every personal information you give us, we do not spare criminals. We have reported him to immigration.

We lost our money and time. But he lost his dignity! Consequently, we’ve had to take the strict business decision never to process anything for anyone (no matter how urgent) unless we have received payment.