TheNewsGuru

Tag: Immigration

  • New year goals: Eight things you should do before you japa

    New year goals: Eight things you should do before you japa

    Many Nigerians in search of a better life have set relocation from the country, now popularly referred to as ‘japa’, a top priority on their goals for 2023.

    Poor standard of living, rising insecurity and the economic uncertainty that looms over the country preparing for its general elections, change in government and drastic reform measures such as fuel subsidy removal, all in one year, are some of the main reasons behind the decision to japa.

    Today, millions of ethnic Nigerians live abroad and the largest communities can be found in the United Kingdom’ (500,000–3,000,000) and the United States (600,000–1,000,000 Nigerians). Other top destination countries include Canada, Germany, South Africa and The Gambia.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) investigation revealed that the five easiest routes for relocation used by Nigerians are study, work, marriage, application for permanent residency and asylum.

    However, irrespective of the relocation route one chooses to take, here are eight things you should do before you japa:

    1. Find out the requirements of your prospective country: Before deciding to relocate from Nigeria, it is important to find out what the visa requirements are for working. Too many Nigerians move abroad expecting to step straight into a similar job they had at home and then express surprise when they are unable to work due to visa restrictions, which can lead to frustration and depression. Also find out what the requirements are for driving, studying and traveling. Sometimes depending on your visa, you might have restrictions on where and when you are permitted to travel.
    2. Organize your documents: Many Nigerians have been denied visas by foreign embassies for simply failing to organise their documents, including photographs, information about family members and employers, criminal history, information about where they live, financial background and medical examinations. Also make copies of all important documents.
    3. Research your destination: Read up on the country’s weather, and etiquette norms, understand the actions that may offend locals so you can avoid doing them, learn how to greet people and how to share a meal, and be courteous.
    4. Learn a skill: basic services like hair making, barbing, tailoring and bead-making cost a fortune abroad and acquiring any of these skills can easily guarantee a source of income as you settle in and find your feet in your new country.
    5. Know someone: Loneliness is a major complaint from Nigerians abroad and you should ensure that you save up contacts of relatives and friends abroad before you relocate. It will also help to stay in touch with people in your home country as you adjust to your new environment and make new friends.
    6. Think about health care: Health care varies significantly around the world, and your access to a local system could depend on what kind of visa you hold. Before you relocate, find out what options you have for healthcare insurance and coverage.
    7. Save as much money as you can: Relocation abroad has a list of associated costs and it is best to plan ahead and start saving. Some of these costs include visa, passport renewal, flight tickets, overseas travel insurance, vaccinations and health checks, rent, possible furniture or other items you may need, and living costs to cover you for a period before you start working.
    8. Have a goal in mind: Before leaving Nigeria, ask yourself what you would really like to get out of your experience abroad. Also, constantly reminding yourself why you chose to move abroad will help you make great decisions about how to spend your time and income overseas.
  • Immigration raises alarm on use of ECOWAS travel certificates by human traffickers

    Immigration raises alarm on use of ECOWAS travel certificates by human traffickers

    The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) in Bayelsa, on Thursday raised the alarm on the increased use of ECOWAS Travel Certificates (ETC) by human traffickers to evade suspicion and arrest.

    The NIS said it uncovered the new strategy used by human traffickers to evade security checks and avoid suspicion by using the ETC as a travel document by their victims to any of the ECOWAS Member States to evade stringent checks at the airports and lower the level of suspicion.

    The NIS in Bayelsa also said in line with the directive of the Comptroller General of Immigration Service, Isa Jere Idris, a trafficked victim by name Miss Maureen Ekpe, was rescued and released to the family, while the alleged trafficker was at large.

    The Public Relations Officer for NIS in Bayelsa, Ibiemo Cookey, in a statement in Yenagoa, noted that the NIS, in Bayelsa, observed sudden increase in the rate at which young people obtained the ECOWAS travel certificate.

    He said this necessitated a risk analysis and a checklist of the age group that was involved, as well as the reasons given for the travel and countries where the holders of the document frequently visited, before it attached additional security measure to issuance of the document.

    He said it was on this ground that the unit directly responsible for the issuance, ECOWAS Unit, was tasked to add additional security document to the requirement.

    The document, called the Suspicious Travel Interrogation Form, was zeroed down to any suspected case and has yielded results so far.

    “It has helped in rescuing two victims by denying them the facility and denying several others without genuine reasons for travels, after due diligence interrogation.

    The PRO said in one of the cases, the trafficker, who was at large after the victim was stopped, prompted the alert system and gave the command the idea behind the increased demand for the document against the conventional passport.

    “The Bayelsa Command will not rest on its oars, until the syndicates are exposed and the only well justified, authentic trips without any link to Trafficking in Persons (TIPs) or Smuggling of Migrants (SOM) is established through the use of our interrogative process and  vital intelligence tools to fight the menace,” Cookey said.

    The NIS called on parents and guardians to desist from releasing their Wards/Children to people with hidden identities or motives, by verifying the kind of work their children were being offered and to report any suspicious move to take their children outside the country for unconfirmed work and mouth watering  plans.

    The NIS explained that the fight against human trafficking must be collective, to safeguard the lives and destinies of the young people.

    The NIS also assured that all cases being investigated would be concluded before the New Year, for onward report to the Service Headquarters, Abuja.

    He stated that the command had stepped up its strategies, while officers and men were warned to avoid being accomplices in anyway.

  • Ikoyi Passport Office issues 60% of total passports – Immigration

    Ikoyi Passport Office issues 60% of total passports – Immigration

    The Ikoyi Passport Office of the Nigerian Immigration Service ( NIS) in Lagos State has issued no less than 60 per cent of the total passports in the country.

    Mr. Olugbenga Ayegbusi, the Passport Control Officer ( PCO) in charge of the office and also a Deputy Comptroller of Immigration ( DCI), disclosed this in an interview with NAN on Sunday in Lagos.

    He said the office had to embark on extra work hours to meet the huge requests from passport applicants and surmount other challenges.

    Ayegbusi said that in order to meet the demand,  the personnel in the production unit were rostered for both day and night shifts.

    He said, “The passport production team has always been working day and night to ensure the demands of applicants are met.

    According to Ayegbusi, there is sense of responsibility at the passport office.

    ”It is not until I chase officers around before they perform their duties. Moreover, our amiable Comptroller–General of Immigration Service (CGIS) ,Mr Idris Jere, has been providing enabling environment to execute these duties,” he said.

    According to the PCO, the Jere-led administration is garnished with norms of culture and discipline.

    ” The issuance hall, under the tutelage of Jere,  is like a banking hall because he knows that the image and the impression the public has about the service matters a lot.

    ” At the Ikoyi Passport Office, we also know that first and last impressions matters and last long.

    ” So, we present a positive image of the Ikoyi Passport Office to Nigerians,” he said.

    The CGIS on Nov. 27 directed all passport offices in the country to work on Saturdays to clear backlogs of passport applications.

    The period for this exercise is expected to be every Saturday starting from Dec. 3, 2022, to Jan. 28, 2023, between the hours of  10.00 a.m. and 2.00 p.m.

    Jere was quoted from the directive to have said, “The motive is to enhance our service delivery to out esteemed clients.

    ” However, the Saturdays preceding the Christmas Day  and  the New Year Day  are exempted.”

  • U.S. Supreme Court to hear argument on Biden immigration enforcement policy

    U.S. Supreme Court to hear argument on Biden immigration enforcement policy

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday is set to consider whether President Joe Biden’s administration can implement guidelines challenged by two conservative-leaning states of shifting immigration enforcement toward public safety threats.

    This the court said in a case testing executive branch power to set enforcement priorities.

    The justices will hear the administration’s bid to overturn a judge’s ruling in favor of Texas and Louisiana that vacated U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) guidelines narrowing the scope of those who can be targeted by immigration agents for arrest and deportation.

    The Democratic president’s policy departed from the hard line approach of his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, who sought to broaden the range of immigrants subject to arrest and removal.

    Biden campaigned on a more humane approach to immigration but has been faced with large numbers of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

    The guidelines, announced by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in September 2021, prioritised apprehending and deporting non-U.S. citizens who pose a threat to national security, public safety or border security.

    In a memo, Mayorkas called the guidelines necessary because his department lacks the resources to apprehend and seek the removal of every one of the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally.

    Mayorkas cited the longstanding practice of government officials exercising discretion to decide who should be subject to deportation and said that a majority of immigrants subject to deportation “have been contributing members of our communities for years.’’

    Biden’s administration, saying fewer detentions and deportations have encouraged more illegal border crossings.

    The top Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, earlier called on Mayorkas to step down and said the House may try to impeach him when Republicans formally take control of the chamber in January.

    Republican state attorneys general in Texas and Louisiana sued to block the guidelines after Republican-led legal challenges successfully thwarted other Biden administration attempts to ease enforcement.

    Their lawsuit, filed in Texas, argued that the guidelines ran counter to provisions in immigration laws that makes it mandatory to detain non-U.S. citizens who have been convicted of certain crimes or have final orders of removal.

    U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton, a Trump appointee, ruled in favor of the challengers, finding that while immigration agents could on a case-by-case basis act with discretion the administration’s guidelines were a generalised policy that contravened the detention mandate set out by Congress.

    “Whatever the outer limits of its authority, the executive branch does not have the authority to change the law,’’ Tipton wrote.

    After the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in July declined to put that ruling on hold, Biden’s administration turned to the Supreme Court.

    The justices on a 5-4 vote declined to stay Tipton’s ruling, with conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson in dissent. The justices did not provide reasons for their disagreement.

    Biden’s administration has told the Supreme Court that Texas and Louisiana lack the proper legal standing to challenge the guidelines because the states had not suffered any direct harm as a result of the policy.

    The states countered that they would be harmed by having to spend more money on law enforcement and social services as a result of an increase in non-U.S. citizens present within their borders due to the guidelines.

    The administration also told the justices that the guidelines do not violate federal immigration law and that the mandatory language of those statutes does not supersede the longstanding principle of law enforcement discretion.

    A decision is expected by the end of June.

  • U.S. mission expands eligibility period for non-immigrant visa renewals

    U.S. mission expands eligibility period for non-immigrant visa renewals

    The U.S. Mission has expanded the eligibility period for nonimmigrant visa renewals from 24 months to 48 months.

    This was made known in a statement made available on Friday evening.

    According to the mission, applicants whose previous U.S. visa expired within the last 48 months or will expire in the next 3 months may now qualify to renew their visa without an interview.

    The mission noted in the statement that it was also opening thousands of visa renewal appointments to assist applicants who wished to renew their visas.

    “You may be eligible for a visa renewal without an interview if your application is for a B1/B2, F, M, J (academic only), H, L or C1/D (combined only) visa, AND you meet each of the following criteria:

    “Your previous visa was issued in Nigeria, your previous visa is in the same classification as your current application, your previous visa was a full validity, multiple entry visa.

    “Your previous visa expired within the last 48 months or will expire in the next 3 months from the date of application, you have all your passports covering the entire period since receiving the previous visa and the passport with the most recent visa.

    “You have never been arrested or convicted of any crime or offense in the United States, even if you later received a waiver or pardon, you have never worked without authorization or remained beyond your permitted time in the United States,” the statement read.

    The mission noted that processing times for the programme were expected to be up to two months and applicants would not be able to retrieve their passports during that time.

    “Each applicant must individually meet the criteria; minors can apply without an interview only if they meet the eligibility criteria on their own.”

    It was further noted that third parties unaffiliated with the U.S. Embassy Abuja and Consulate General Lagos might seek to take advantage of various visa services to target visa applicants with fraudulent offers or claims.

    The mission urged applicants to fill out their own forms and make their appointments themselves via the official websites.

    “Please see our website at https://ng.usembassy.gov/visas/nonimmigrant-visas/ for further information.

    “If you are qualified based on the above criteria, visit https://www.ustraveldocs.com/ng to start your application.”

  • Nigerians with expired passport can return home – Immigration

    Nigerians with expired passport can return home – Immigration

    The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) on Tuesday said that Nigerians in diaspora with expired passport would no longer require visas to visit home.

    The Service, however, stated that they must show their expired Nigerian passports to ensure they were truly from Nigeria.

    Mr Tony Akuneme, the NIS Public Relations Officer, disclosed this in an interview with NAN in Abuja.

    Akuneme was reacting to inquiries about the new visa policy of the Federal Government which said that Nigerians with dual citizenship don’t need visas to visit home.

    “The status of the new policy is that Nigerians with dual citizenship are free to come to Nigeria but with their Nigeria passport even if it’s expired.

    “You have to show that you are a Nigerian, that is why we say they can come with their expired passport. Dual citizenship means carrying two passports.

    “Unlike before that when your passport is expired you will not be allowed to come to the country, now we can allow them to travel in with their expired Nigeria passport”, he said.

    Akuneme further explained that although the essence was to allow them return home, they will be required to renew their passport before returning to their destinations.

    “The whole essence is that when they arrive, they must renew their Nigeria passport before going back,” the NIS spokesman added.

  • Canada reveals immigration plan amid critical labour shortage

    Canada reveals immigration plan amid critical labour shortage

    The Canadian federal government has revealed its immigration plan to welcome half a million immigrants each year by 2025 to tackle the problem of labour shortage.

    Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Sean Fraser released Canada’s 2023-2025 Immigration Levels Plan which embraces immigration as a strategy to help businesses find workers and to attract the skills required in key sectors.

    According to the new release from the immigration ministry, the Canadian economy is now facing critical labour market shortages causing uncertainty for Canadian businesses and workers.

    The ambitious immigration plan will manage the social and economic challenges Canada will face in the decades ahead.

    In 2021 Canada welcomed over 405,000 newcomers, the most in a single year.

    According to the plan, the government is continuing that ambition by setting targets in the new levels plan of 465,000 permanent residents in 2023; 485,000 in 2024; and 500,000 in 2025.

    “Our plan has a focus on economic growth, “By the third year of this plan, 60 per cent of new immigrants will be admitted under economic immigration categories,” Fraser said.

    The plan also brought an increased focus on attracting newcomers to different regions of the country, including small towns and rural communities.

    Immigration accounted for almost 100 per cent of Canada’s labour force growth and by 2032 it’s projected to account for 100 per cent of Canada’s population growth, the release said.

    According to the statement, Canada’s worker-to-retiree ratio is expected to shift from seven to one 50 years ago to two to one by 2035.

  • Just In: Terrorists attack Nig Immigration post, kill officer, injure two others

    Just In: Terrorists attack Nig Immigration post, kill officer, injure two others

    The Jigawa State Command of the Nigeria Immigration Service has lost one of its officers after bandits attacked a patrol base of the agency along the Galadi-Birniwa axis.

    The deceased was identified as Abdullahi Mohammed.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports the two other officers were identified as Abba Musa Kiyawa and Zubairu Garba also sustained serious gunshot wounds during the attack.

    The terrorists were said to have attacked the patrol base around 11.20 pm on Tuesday, shooting sporadically.

    Comptroller of Immigration in the state, Ismail Abba Aliyu, confirmed the incident.

    Aliyu said Mohammed who lost his life in the incident has been “laid to rest in Dutse town, according to Islamic rites”.

    He added that the two wounded staff members have been referred to a General Hospital for proper treatment and observation.

    END

  • No passport booklets shortage in Nigeria – Minister

    No passport booklets shortage in Nigeria – Minister

    Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, says there is no passport booklets shortage in Nigeria, as the Federal Government has cleared all backlogs of passport applications.

    This is contained in a statement issued by the Minister’s  Media Adviser, Mr Sola Fasure, on Tuesday in Abuja.

    According to him,  the ministry has made efforts to make passports available to Nigerians.

    “In 2021 alone, we provided 1.3 million passports to Nigerians. As at today, there is no booklets shortage in Nigeria.

    “As at the second quarter of 2022, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has provided 645,000 passports out of the 750,000 applications received.

    “To address the challenge of the backlog, we have sent 11,000 booklets to Ikoyi, 11,000 to Alausa and 8,000 to FESTAC centres in Lagos State.

    “We have also sent sufficient booklets to all the centres nationwide to address this challenge,” the minister said.

    He added that 10,000 passport booklets have been deployed to the new Port Harcourt passport production centre, to fast track passport issuance in the area.

    The minister said that the centre would now be responsible for passport demands from Rivers, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa.

    Aregbesola said that with these efforts, there was no excuse again for delays and non-issuance of passport within reasonable period across the country.

    The minister urged those seeking for passport to apply online to avoid being shortchanged by unscrupulous elements.

    “I will urge applicants for the Nigerian passport to apply early enough before their travel date to avoid cutting corners and falling into the hands of scammers and other opportunists.

    “It is important also that they apply by themselves through the NIS portal and not through touts and unscrupulous officials, which often brings heartaches,” he added.

    Aregbesola said that a six weeks and three weeks window for fresh application and renewal respectively had been provided after biometric data capture, within which the passport will be ready.

    “This timeline is to enable NIS investigate and validate the claims of applicants and confer integrity on the passport issued.

    “It is a reasonable provision in passport administration by global standard. There is no wait-and-get passport service anywhere in the world,” the minister said.

    He explained that in addition to the standardised timeline, the NIS had introduced tracking mechanism to enable applicants monitor the progress of their application.

    “We are also introducing data capture centres all over the country before the end of 2022, to eliminate physical contacts with NIS officials,” he added.

    He pledged that the Federal Government would continue to introduce necessary innovations in passport administration to serve applicants better.

  • Allow Nigerians with expired passports to return home – Aregbesola orders NIS

    Allow Nigerians with expired passports to return home – Aregbesola orders NIS

    The Minister of Interior, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, has directed the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), to allow Nigerians in diaspora to return to Nigeria with their expired International Passports.

    Aregbesola gave the directive on Wednesday, in Lagos, while responding to a complaint by a Nigerian-American citizen, Mr Jamui Kasumu, at the Alausa Passport Office during his unscheduled visit to the facility.

    He said Nigerians in diaspora were free to come back home with expired or non-expired Nigerian passport.

    The Minister said no Nigerian needed travel certificate to come back home, except children, whose parents were Nigerians, but their identity were yet to be established according to immigration rule.

    “I am using this medium to instruct all Nigeria Immigration Officers World-Wide to accord Nigerian travellers with expired Passport use such passports to return safely back home henceforth,” he said.

    The Minister also advised Nigerians in diaspora to update their travel document ahead of time to avoid rush during emergency.

    Earlier, a Nigerian-American citizen, Mr Jamui Kasumu complained to the Minister that the Nigeria Immigration in America and Delta airline prevented him from coming to Nigeria because of expired Nigerian passport.

    Kasumu said he was able to return to Nigeria after he got travel certificate he obtained through a relation in Nigeria.

    “I am appealing to you sir that the Immigration should allow Nigerians with expired Passport to come back to their country,” he said.