Nigeria is a beautiful country to visit as a tourist but more than that, being the largest producer of crude oil in Africa, Nigeria provides opportunities to entrepreneurs from not only the continent but also from countries across the world to do business. For doing the same, Nigeria has introduced the Nigeria business visa.
There are certain formalities are to be carried out in order to do business in a foreign country. Most important of which is getting a business visa. Nigeria business visa is nothing but a kind of permit or grant that gives the business person the authority to carry out business in Nigeria. It can be issued for attending business conferences, a business meeting for a branch of your own organization or a sister company, or attend client meetings. The non-extendable validity of the business visa for Nigeria is for a month permitting a stay of 14 days.
In order to apply for a business visa for Nigeria, an online and offline procedure is to be followed. The step by step process for the Nigerian business visa is given as follows:
After the submission of the documents, the embassy officials will process your documents and a visa stamp will be provided on your passport. It is important that you carry out all the parts of your process carefully as any mistake can lead to longer processing time or even visa rejection in some cases.
For getting the Nigerian business visa, you have to match the eligibility criteria for the application. The requirements are listed as follows:
There is a list of documents that are required in order to get the business visa for Nigeria. These documents are mandatory for getting the business visa issued. The Nigeria business visa requirements are listed as follows:
After the submission of the documents, the embassy or the consulate takes time to process and verify the documents to provide the business visa stamp on the passport. The processing time taken for the business visa for Nigeria is 10 to 12 business days. This time span may vary depending on the verification time required for visa documents or if there are any complications in the process.
There is even an option to get the visa processed in a shorter period of time. You can apply for an express visa processing by paying the extra fee which will get you the visa in under 48 to 72 hours.
The business visa fee is estimated based on certain parameters like the services that you avail or the urgency of the requirement of the visa, or if it is a multiple-entry visa.
Entry | Stay Duration | Validity | Fees |
---|---|---|---|
Single entry Normal | 3 months | 3 months | 34000.0 |
In order to check the visa application status, you can log on to the official embassy website or the website of the visa application centre. To check the status offline, you can contact the embassy with your visa application number and know the status.
After the successful submission of the visa application form and getting business visa stamp on your passport, there are certain measures that are to be taken. You must -
The maximum validity of a business visa to Nigeria is 90 days. If you are willing to extend the validity of your business visa, you cannot. The Nigerian government does not allow the extending of the business visa. You need to have a compelling business-related reason to convince the authorities to get the visa extended.
Generally, after the expiration of the Nigeria business visa, you are not legally allowed to stay in the country. The business is non-extendable as well. However, if you have to stay, then you can return to the native country and apply for the business visa again.
A medical test is a health examination performed by an authorized doctor to ensure that the applicant does not possess any kind of contagious diseases. These do not just include HIV/AIDS, but also other contagious diseases that can spread, especially Yellow fever in the case of Nigeria. This medical test is not necessarily required for all kinds of visa. These are, however, mandated for the yellow fever and a certificate of Yellow Fever Vaccination is to be submitted to the Embassy at the time of application.
Normally, for short-term visas, it is not possible to convert one visa type to another. Similarly, since business visa to Nigeria is a short term visa for a single entry of 90 days, it cannot be converted to another visa. In case you need a different visa, you may have to apply differently for the same. Also, you must note that if you apply for another visa within the validity of the existing short-term visa, the approval of the new visa will automatically cancel the previous visa.