Sunday, April 13, 2025 - The federal government has announced a new policy targeting visa overstayers, introducing strict penalties including daily fines and re-entry bans as part of sweeping immigration reforms.
Minister of Interior Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo unveiled the
measures during a stakeholders’ meeting on Friday, April 11, at NECA House in
Lagos, focusing on updates to the Nigeria Visa Policy 2025 and expatriate quota
regulations.
Under the new rules, which take effect in May 2025, foreign
nationals who overstay their visas will face a $15 daily fine. However,
enforcement will begin in August following a three-month grace period intended
to allow overstayers to regularise their status or make necessary travel
arrangements.
“From first of August, anybody that does not take advantage
of the amnesty period of three months, penalty will come,” Tunji-Ojo said. “But
if you take advantage of that window to regularise, we will not charge you.
Because the whole idea is not to punish you, the whole idea is for us to
regularise.”
He warned that foreign nationals who overstay their visas by
more than three months will be banned from re-entering Nigeria for five years.
Those who remain illegally in the country for over a year without rectifying
their status during the amnesty period will face a lifetime ban.
“From first of August, if you [overstay], it’s $15 per day
and if you have stayed more than three months, five years, abeg we don’t need
violators in Nigeria,” he added. “And if you have stayed more than one year
without coming forward during the amnesty period, abeg don’t come to Nigeria
again for life.”
In addition to these visa measures, the minister announced
the full digitalization of the Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Aliens
Card (CERPAC) process, scheduled to go live on May 1. The move aims to
modernize the application system, eliminating manual forms and allowing
applicants to complete and pay for the process online via the Nigeria
Immigration Service (NIS) website.
“We are automating it end to end. Because as it is today,
the procedure is that you have to go to buy a form. When you buy a form, you
pay at the bank, and take the form to CERPAC centre. There’s no country in the
world that does that,” Tunji-Ojo said.
He stressed that applicants with criminal records should not
apply, warning that the new system will be integrated with global security
databases including Interpol. “This place is not safe for you. Go back,” he
said.
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