₦airaland Forum

Please I just want to make front page
Wats the way to do it
Tell me if you know better. Thanks no insults please.

Cotton: OP, had you known your wife could have traveled back here on her expired passport. They would have allowed her entry but she wouldn't be able to travel out with it. Then once here simply renew it the Nigerian way which would cost less than 20k and take approximately 24hrs.

Really? Never knew that bro

otiigba1: same here, like you asserted respect yourself, some people go there, to either make the staffs feel inadequate

you people don't get it.. the woman humiliated me because of my signature variation and that does not mean one was being rude to her. I remember explaining to her very politely but NO she wouldn't hear me.

as for the site not working well its a normal experience.

ok na. naija pipu

... the undertaking go find cure for EBO..... ni?

very funny. he just wanted to get in touch with his ''no show side'' lol.

Epiphany: Yes sir i agree, but the signature is not the only thing that you had issues with, was it? Apart from that, other comments and opinions about the high commission necessitated my contribution.

If i have offended you, i apologize.

non taken bro i as a matter of fact liked your comment.

Epiphany: Pls permit this long message. . . .

In the last 3 years, with my last experience occurring just a few months ago, i have had cause to visit the Nigeria High Commission in London. Having gone through two different services (getting two new passports for my children at different times as well as renewing my old one on a third occassion) I have to say that my experience all those times was VERY VERY SMOOTH. I never had a problem with anyone esp after having followed the instructions on the website to the letter. All the staff i came across were polite, helpful and willing to assist especially if you came in with all the required documents which show that at least, you made an effort to follow the online procedure.

Lets all be honest with ourselves. Nigerians (and in fact, any other people) with strong pre-conceived ideas and solutions to their self made challenges are not the easiest people to deal with. While I was in the building, I noticed that a lot of people came into the building with the hope that they would be able ‘settle’ someone for one or two of the things they could not do online and continue with their passport applications. Others came into the building probably hoping that the staff in the High Commission would respect their haughtiness, abandon their stations and dance to their tunes to effect what I would call, a ‘personal or VIP service’. In other words, they came into the High Commission with the ‘abandon - your - daily - duties - and - come - and - walk - me - through - the - whole - process - because - I - cant navigate - the - website’ attitude.

My own contribution to this discussion is simple: First, settle down and patiently go through the online instructions. Honestly, from personal experience, you WILL NOT understand the process the first time you browse through all the tabs but lets face it, how many of us understand anything the very first time you try to? Like my academic subjects, I had to get a pen and paper and jot things down when I was reading through the site just to gather the more important instructions.

Second, after filling out the forms, the payment thing with credit or debit cards was a bit confusing and yes, the first time I had to call the help-desk number which is in the US I think. Believe it, someone answered this and took me through the process step by step ad even sent me an email to tell me that my payment had gone through. It was only after this payment that an appointment day could be booked.

Sometimes the site may be down so there is the need to visit the site on other days to see if the portals work, so the need to apply for passports early enough is sensible. As expected, when you are rushing and in a hurry, you will misunderstand some of the rules and directions and of course, will become irritable. Once you carry this attitude into the High Commission and the staff see that you are already irritable, do not have complete documents and are only our to either make trouble or prove a point, their own defenses go up and words are then traded.

Once again and lastly, the High Commission is not a difficult place to visit. On all three occasions, I was in and out in less than one hour.

insulting a man because he changed his signature and not believing that he is the real owner of his passport has nothing to do with the site working or not bro.

I thank you flyca. No be fight bro sister

datalossvictim1: SMH!! You are what you are complaining about.

You think so? If you had seen what I passed through I bet you will say worse. But no wahala we are all entitled to our own opinions kpere.

Konjour: Your travails are pretty minor compared to what you'd face in that building if your passport ever

gets missing. Lost mine last year and had a torrid time renewing it cuz of the required documents

that I was asked to produce by the immigration officials including a police report for the missing

passport, something which the police had stopped issuing since 2012. I was directed to pay a

postal order of 20 GBP at the post office that's just off the adjoining street that runs past

the national gallery to the North of Trafalgar square, came back a bit late only to be told I should

have bought a postal order worth 100 GBP instead, and that even if I had bought the correct

postal order, I wouldn't be allowed into the building as it was past 2 PM or so I think, bearing in

mind that that's the only Nigerian Immigration Service outlet that works in the UK. It wouldn't

matter if you travelled down all the way from Carlisle, Newcastle, Aberdeen in the north or nearby

Croydon, Luton or Reading you'd all be attended to like y'all live on Northumberland Avenue itself.

Travelled from Liverpool in the North West down to Westminster on 3 different occasions for the

replacement, gave 'em a royal mail special delivery pack to prevent me having to come to

collect it in person, the morons still managed to send another person's passport to me in my own

delivery parcel. Had to pay to send it back to 'em again using another special delivery pack.

Got the replacement passport after a month from the date of biometrics enrollment.

The high commission is just a reflection of the bigger contraption called Nigeria.

Sorry bro. It's sad I feel ur pain.

dmz: My appointment was for 30th July. Dropped off Molue from Scotland at 6:45, got to the commission around past 7, joined the small but ever growing queue. The notice on the door said the commission will open at 09:30, actually opened at 08:45. By 10:30 I was on my way back to the coach station to catch the 12:30 Molue back to base. I received my passport by post on the 6th of August. Print all the documentation required for your application, humble yourself and you should be fine. Come in with the air of the Manager of ASDA late night cleaning and security and you will get just what you asked for.

Hahaha I laugh in Swahili. Why the stereotype of an ASDA late night cleaner? I will not tell you where I work but I ain't a cleaner and I live well sir.

If you were lucky to be treated well doesn't mean that the unlucky ones behaved rudely. You should knw this bro. Smh

AUSTAAI: I've heard about all that ill treatment from Naija person to Naija person but when my missus went to renew hers, to my greatest surprise, it was smooth sailing such that I had to double check if i was at the right place and i did everything online.

Your experience is not a strange one but you have to study the online thing very well or ring them up to guide you.

Most of us will complain the way we were treated but won't say how badly we behaved.

Respect yourselves whenever you go to our commission and it will be reciprocated. Treat the staff with respect and they will treat you well.

I had a wonderful experience when i went there, Its sad yours wasn't great. My sympathy shaa.

And you think I did not or we did not call their office? We waited on the phone for hours and hours no response. If the site was easy to use I would have done everything my self and another lady who called the embassy was shouted at over the phone. That was not my case. ..

armadeo: Bigass where's your profile pic.







Meanwhile another thread hits front page on page one. Who's this new mod?

my brother no hating i done de wait for the front page since university days and i don graduate years ago...

onoja12: the problem with Nigerians,is that they dont complain,if you know the name of the lady that attended to you,write a letter of complain,to the Minister of foreign affairs,copy the ambassador and the senate committee on foreign affairs as well as the house committee on diaspora and watch what would happen

Akpahi I think thats the way to go cos the humiliation was too much and come to think of it that I had travelled with the same passport to the Uk, JAPAN, India and FRANCE recently and even have a valid two years Visa on it.

igbsam: Sorry for all the troubles you went through, but may i remind you that once you make your trip down to Naija, from the tarmac that u arrived, down to the security checks and before u enter naija fully, u will be subjected to alot of health checks, to see if you have Ebola and other security checks too. And also, if you are leaving the country and when you arrive back to london, i don't want to even mention the Health Checks you will have to face there since you just left an Ebola Country.

I know all that but what can a black brother DO in all these.

I would say the earth has not been smiling on the black race recently.

**takes a deep breath and nurtures my tread to maturity.**

teetee123: I believe the situation is the same every where, naija , europe, africa or US.
The website is made not work except you are an insider and if you ever pay
through it, they will frustrate you.
A friend who paid via online got to the Nigerian high commission (not UK), she was then
given an appointment of about 2 weeks which means travelling back to her base,costing her
about 500 US dollars twice ( travels and accommodation)
She eventually got the passport after 2 months.

Scene 2 - Nigerian way
Call the agents/ touts, they charge you 3 times the official price,they file the form,
secure a day for you to fly in to the capital, you do your data capturing that day,
you go back to your base and they send it by courier in few days or you get it in few days
if you can wait.

Scene 3 - Local way
The same story on the local level- if you do it yourself and pay official prices na wahala - 1 year
you may not get it, if you pay the officers rates na same day or worse 24 hours

I totally disagree with you on the above because my wife just renewed her British passport and it was so hassle free and was ready within a week. She was so upset when Naija's one took the other turn. And even in naija people working at the UK and USA visa application centres don't take selfies in front of applicants so its not same everywhere as you claim.

bigass: YOU OWN STORY SEF GET TO MANY CORNERS

what corners are you talking about madam?

that am not the owner of the passport or the lady saying they don't transfer signatures from old to new?

the lady in question claims she has NEVER seen where they transfer signatures from passport to passport.

BIGASS; did you even read the story at all?

redsun: why was it a problem to sign your "old" signature? Something as simple as that shouldn't have caused you any distraction.Even the british passport authority are way behind in issuing passports to british citizens at the moment.

i changed it because my bank troubled me with it over time. my kind of job keeps you away from civilisation for long so that also contributed to my signature variations.

my brother staying back is an option but we still gat loved ones in naija. awareness is the way to go here.

I have been hearing about the ill treatment nigerians dish out to fellow nigerians at the high commission but little did I know that mine was just round the corner.

my wife who is a British citizen needed to apply for a Nigerain passport so she could attend her younger brother's wedding in Nigeria in September. now her Naija passport had expired so we thought that renewal is better than naija visa. we hopped out to London after several failed attempts to make a payment and secure a session at the embassy. Early this morning we arrived at London and made our way to the High commission on 9 Northumberland avenue.

When we got to the place its the usual naija flag flying high. lol. We were directed to enter through the back door which had security men. They asked us of our appointment letter which we failed to present because we could not book it online. He said we can't go in because we do not have an appointment. We explained that the site was difficult to navigate so he asked us to go to charing cross and do it at a cyber cafe which as you might guess is owned by a naija guy.

As we sat under a tree to see tHrough the site again, a young man approached and asked us if we needed help with the application and as my wife was about giving him a listening ear, i immediately said (as a sharp guy) don't worry we are fine so he left. A minute a latter another man said to me that if we want to get anything out of our mission today we had better go to the cyber cafe with him. Apparently he was taking a woman there so we followed.

on our way there, we asked the man why everything about Nigeria is always different even in a western world. he said that its so because the money when paid goes to Nigerian immigration in naija then the application goes to the high commission thats why it very difficult to navigate. on getting to the cyber cafe we met others we had same problems like ours so it was on a first come first serve basis. we waited for like an hour plus with the server going off and on on periodic intervals. we came to a conclusion that the cyber cafe is an affiliate of the high commission cos they charge you so much for a little help they render.

at the end, we were able to fill out the form and pay online. they gave us appointment for the 20th of august but the bros said if we go there showing them evidence that we came from far they could attend to us today and that since my wife is changing her maiden name to mine we would have to pay a charge of £40 for a postal order. this was paid for before we went back to the high commission. on arrival they asked us to get another postal order for £20. reasons known to them alone.

just at the submission desk, the lady attending to my wife said that I need to sign the letter of consent for my wife's change of name and the signature on my passport has to reflect what am signing.

Now the issue is that I renewed my Naija passport last year and the new passport which was done in Port Harcourt still carried my old signature that they transferred to the new passport. The woman insisted that I sign the exact thing on my passport but I explained that I signed that signature in 2008 and had changed it since then. Men see insult. She said she had never seen where they transfer signature from an old passport to new. That am I sure this passport is mine? she started raising her voice and I became a centre of attention. felt so pissed and nothing I said was reasonable and imagine a woman bringing a man down in front of his wife. I felt so humiliated and belittled and that if I can't sign the old one then the application will not be accepted or she will have to apply for a visa meaning we start the whole process again. I had to relearn the old signature and tried to do it as it appears. they reluctantly accepted and allowed us to proceed to the biometric section.


At the biometric section we waited and waited till it eventually got to our turn. as you already know, it says switch off your phone before you enter but imagine one of the ladies attending to people taking selfie. its a shame.

to my greatest surprise, a staff asked one of the applicants renewing his passport if he wants to transfer his old signature to the new passport he is applying for and he said yes. It this point, I felt like going back to give that young woman a very dirty slap but remembered i was in London.

NAIJA WHICH WAY..

very funny........

NAIJA I HAIL THEE

your questions are on point especially the last one bro.

5. Was the liberian govt trying to catch the attention of the world by involving Nigeria.

lovely....

And these children are so fluent speaking the Mandarin. In my opinion they are smarter cos they only hear their parents speak to them which is less frequent to English which they hear always at schools and play grounds

its well..

not again. God save our land. incompetency always

i have always wondered why chinese parents do not speak english to their wards though they stay in English speaking countries like the UK on the contrary, naija parents and others want to force the day light out of their children shush their's to speak only English.

are we that ashamed of our native dialects just wondering.

Issorai. God bless America the land of plenty single dads. Choi

Issorai. God bless America. Land of plenty single mums.

Sagamite: Another cretinous person with peanut for a brain.

na only that word you s abi ? CRETINOUS olofofo agbaya. dan banza kawei.