Nigerian Passport Experience in Washington DC

. Posting this cause there was almost no information when I was looking.

I had my passport renewed Dec 18th 2023 at the Washington DC embassy.

  • I was a walk in. My actual appointment is May 12 2024 (soonest date I could find), but I need my passport sooner and on their website they said they take walk-ins. Note: you need to have an appointment date to do a walk in, a lady had an appointment date for a month before, and they still attended to her. The walk in is an extra $100 (says it on their website) in addition to the $30 administrative fee everyone has to pay. So if you’re doing a walk in, you’ll have to get a money order for $130, if your appointment is for that day, you can use your card to pay the extra $30.

  • You have to get there early regardless of your appointment time. They start attending to people at or after 10am, they open the gates for people to wait inside at 9am. I got there at 8:30am and I was like number 16 on the walk in list, then some other people with 10am appointments were there too. We stood outside till 9am.

  • They attended to 9:30am appointments then mixed walk-ins with 10am people. (I think they started to prioritize us because we’re actually paying an extra $100, but I could be wrong)

  • List to make sure I had everything I needed ⬇️ (note: all these need to be hard copy)

  1. Passport Application form to be completed online.
  2. Online payment receipt.
  3. Online acknowledgment slip.
  4. Expired Nigerian Passport.
  5. Photocopy of Applicant's data page of Nigerian Passport.
  6. Two current passport -size photographs preferably with white background.
  7. For applicants between the ages of 0-17, please pay close attention to the next section, as there are additional requirements for minors.
  8. A certified self-addressed prepaid envelope from USPS, UPS, or FedEx.

(They didn’t end up taking my passport photographs because they had their own camera)

  • Photo of the envelope above (It needs to be certified and already paid for, that’s where the stamps come from. You don’t have to use USPS, but USPS is close to my house, so that’s where I went). I paid an approximately $15 for the envelope and certification. It’s about 30 something if you want an express envelope.

  • After they finished attending to the people with 9:30 appointments (don’t ask me why they have 9:30 appointments when they start at 10), they started handing out numbers. I was number 19, number 1-12 were people with 10am appointments, 20-31 were also people with 10am appointments. 13 -19 were walk ins. I don’t know why they did it like that, all I can say is GO EARLYYYYYYY. Even if your appointment is in the afternoon, GO EARLYYYYY.

  • I got done at 1:30pm, so I spent about 5 hours there, which wasn’t bad because I had set my mind to be done when they were closing since I didn’t have an appointment for that day. The waiting is really the only long process. Once it’s your turn, it’s like 10-15 minutes max.

  • Side Note: some of them can actually be very rude, but I’m 99% sure they do not collect bribe. If they’ve collected from you before, then I’m wrong. But I even asked if I could pay to collect my passport the next day (not even as a bribe, I wanted to see if they did expeditions and if they could expedite for me), the two people I asked, at different occasions said, no they don’t do that, and you can’t pay on the side for anything - Very Sternly. I was like, no wahala. They said my passport will get to me in 4-6 weeks.

. Posting this cause there was almost no information when I was looking.

I had my passport renewed Dec 18th 2023 at the Washington DC embassy.

  • I was a walk in. My actual appointment is May 12 2024 (soonest date I could find), but I need my passport sooner and on their website they said they take walk-ins. Note: you need to have an appointment date to do a walk in, a lady had an appointment date for a month before, and they still attended to her. The walk in is an extra $100 (says it on their website) in addition to the $30 administrative fee everyone has to pay. So if you’re doing a walk in, you’ll have to get a money order for $130, if your appointment is for that day, you can use your card to pay the extra $30.

  • You have to get there early regardless of your appointment time. They start attending to people at or after 10am, they open the gates for people to wait inside at 9am. I got there at 8:30am and I was like number 16 on the walk in list, then some other people with 10am appointments were there too. We stood outside till 9am.

  • They attended to 9:30am appointments then mixed walk-ins with 10am people. (I think they started to prioritize us because we’re actually paying an extra $100, but I could be wrong)

  • List to make sure I had everything I needed ⬇️ (note: all these need to be hard copy)

  1. Passport Application form to be completed online.
  2. Online payment receipt.
  3. Online acknowledgment slip.
  4. Expired Nigerian Passport.
  5. Photocopy of Applicant's data page of Nigerian Passport.
  6. Two current passport -size photographs preferably with white background.
  7. For applicants between the ages of 0-17, please pay close attention to the next section, as there are additional requirements for minors.
  8. A certified self-addressed prepaid envelope from USPS, UPS, or FedEx.

(They didn’t end up taking my passport photographs because they had their own camera)

  • Photo of the envelope above (It needs to be certified and already paid for, that’s where the stamps come from. You don’t have to use USPS, but USPS is close to my house, so that’s where I went). I paid an approximately $15 for the envelope and certification. It’s about 30 something if you want an express envelope.

  • After they finished attending to the people with 9:30 appointments (don’t ask me why they have 9:30 appointments when they start at 10), they started handing out numbers. I was number 19, number 1-12 were people with 10am appointments, 20-31 were also people with 10am appointments. 13 -19 were walk ins. I don’t know why they did it like that, all I can say is GO EARLYYYYYYY. Even if your appointment is in the afternoon, GO EARLYYYYY.

  • I got done at 1:30pm, so I spent about 5 hours there, which wasn’t bad because I had set my mind to be done when they were closing since I didn’t have an appointment for that day. The waiting is really the only long process. Once it’s your turn, it’s like 10-15 minutes max.

  • Side Note: some of them can actually be very rude, but I’m 99% sure they do not collect bribe. If they’ve collected from you before, then I’m wrong. But I even asked if I could pay to collect my passport the next day (not even as a bribe, I wanted to see if they did expeditions and if they could expedite for me), the two people I asked, at different occasions said, no they don’t do that, and you can’t pay on the side for anything - Very Sternly. I was like, no wahala. They said my passport will get to me in 4-6 weeks.