The Oyo State Command of the Nigeria Immigration Service has said that residents of the State will no longer wait for months to get their passports but will take just three weeks for renewal and 6 weeks for fresh applications.

The Comptroller of Immigration, Oyo State Command, Mallam Issa Alhassan Dansuleiman made this assurance while speaking with newsmen on the efforts of the Nigeria Immigration Service to ensure people no longer wait endlessly to get their standard passports processed.

His words: “The period needed for processing a Nigerian standard passport is three weeks for renewal and six weeks for fresh applications. People no longer have to wait for months to get their passports processed again.”

He assured people living within the state that the standard Nigeria Passport which is the major travel document will now be issued quickly, adding that gone are the days when you have to wait for months to get a passport except for unforeseen circumstances like NIN number not appearing on the portal or having discrepancies.

According to him, the state command will not delay passport issuance, reiterating that a maximum of six weeks is the longest anyone would have to wait for a normal process, reiterating that efforts are in top gear to ensure that passports are issued without any delay and late issuance of passport becomes a thing of the past in Oyo command of NIS.

He said when he came on board four months ago, the command had a backlog of 18,000 passports yet to be processed due to some unavoidable delays.

The Comptroller, however, warned that the command would not issue passports to anyone without the National Identification Number (NIN) which is a major criterion, emphasising that the process of getting a passport is now very flexible in order to make it easy for anyone to acquire a passport, especially the enhanced E-Passport.

Mr Dansuleiman urged Nigerians to approach the command office for the Standard Nigeria Passport, Diplomatic passport, Official Passport, ECOWAS Certificate and Seman Certificate which are some of the services offered by the NIS.

He further promised that the command will support and collaborate with stakeholders for the development of the state and country as a whole, noting that the media should continue to project the country in a positive light and continue in its role by sensitising the public on major issues that can bring development to the nation.