GlobeQuest

Nigeria visas and residency

Who can visit Nigeria without a visa, and the 6 long-stay routes that let you actually live there.

Short stay

Visiting Nigeria, by passport

How the 198 passports we track get in. A visitor entry is never permission to work, study or settle — that is what the routes further down are for.

United Statese-VisaUnited Kingdome-VisaIndiae-VisaCanadae-VisaAustraliae-VisaGermanye-VisaFrancee-VisaNetherlandse-VisaIrelande-VisaSpaine-VisaItalye-VisaPortugale-VisaPolande-VisaSwedene-VisaSwitzerlande-VisaSouth Africae-Visa
Long stay

How you actually move to Nigeria

Work / sponsoredMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Expatriate quota → e-CERPAC (employment residence permit)

Anyone taking a job with a Nigerian employer. This is the only ordinary route to living and working in Nigeria legally, and it always starts the same way: the employer must hold an approved expatriate quota position for your job title before anything on your side can begin.

What you need
  • An approved expatriate quota position held by the employer, granted by the Federal Ministry of Interior for the specific job title
  • A formal letter from the employer accepting immigration responsibility for you
  • Employment contract or letter of appointment, plus acceptance of the offer
  • Degree certificates and CV evidencing that you fill the quota position
  • Police clearance and a passport valid at least six months
  • An e-CERPAC application, with biometric capture at a Nigerian mission if you are applying from outside Nigeria, or in Nigeria if you are already here on valid status
How long it lasts
CERPAC is issued for up to two years and renewed before expiry; the Nigeria Immigration Service states a minimum of one year. Where an STR visa is still used, it gives 90 days and is not extendable.
Path to permanent residence
CERPAC renewals do not automatically accumulate into permanent residence. The Nigeria Visa Policy 2025 groups permanent settlement into a Permanent Residence Visa family covering investors, highly-skilled nationals and retirees; other than that, marriage to a Nigerian citizen is the route. Long service on CERPAC alone is not a settlement route.
Cost
The CERPAC fee published by the Nigeria Immigration Service is USD 2,000 for an employed foreign national (USD 600 for students; free for spouses of Nigerian citizens), normally paid by the employer, on top of quota and business-permit fees at company level.
Processing time
The quota application at the Ministry of Interior is the long pole and is measured in weeks to months. Expect the permit application itself to take weeks more.
Worth knowing
  • The two-step is being replaced and you need to ask which version your employer is running. Under the old process you obtained a Subject To Regularisation (STR) visa at a mission abroad and regularised into CERPAC inside a 90-day window after landing. The 2025 reforms introduced e-CERPAC, obtainable before arrival and serving as an entry permit valid 30 days, expressly to remove that two-step — and the NIS's public visa listing no longer shows an STR class. But the NIS still publishes its STR/R2A employment visa page, and people already in Nigeria on STR visas are being handled as regularisations. Confirm the current sequence with the mission you will actually apply through rather than with a guide, including this one.
  • Entering on a business visa and trying to convert remains the single most expensive mistake made here. Business visitor visas cannot be turned into a residence permit — the fix is leaving Nigeria and applying properly from abroad.
  • The quota position belongs to the employer, not to you. Changing jobs means a new quota position at the new employer and a fresh permit; it is not a transfer. Quota review tightened in 2025 — employers must now give compelling justification and evidence that no Nigerian was available.
  • Quota positions carry an understudy requirement — the employer is expected to train Nigerian counterparts and report on it, and audits of understudy compliance were stepped up in 2025. Some positions are also time-limited rather than renewable indefinitely.
  • Nigeria has no digital nomad or remote-work visa. Working remotely for a foreign employer while on a visitor visa is outside every route in the Visa Policy.
  • Since 1 May 2025 visa-on-arrival has been discontinued and all applicants use the e-Visa system; inbound and outbound passengers must also complete the electronic landing and exit cards before travel.
  • The overstay penalty regime that took effect on 1 September 2025 is reported by immigration advisers as USD 15 per day, with a five-year entry ban for overstays beyond three months and a ten-year ban at a year or more. The NIS has not published a fee table we could verify these against, so treat the figures as indicative and the bans as the part to take seriously.
  • The Expatriate Employment Levy — a charge on employers of USD 10,000 to USD 15,000 per expatriate per year — was published on 27 February 2024 and suspended on 8 March 2024, before it ever took effect. We found no evidence it has been reinstated. It has not gone away as a policy idea, and it is worth asking a prospective employer whether their sponsorship budget assumes it stays suspended.
Sources:NIS — Employment Visa (Expatriate), R2A / STRNIS — Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Aliens Card (CERPAC)NIS — e-CERPAC portalNIS — e-Visa application system and automated landing/exit card
Work / sponsoredMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Temporary Work Permit (TWP)

Specialists coming in for short, defined technical work — commissioning equipment, after-sales service, audits, training, installation — where there is no intention to reside.

What you need
  • A request from the Nigerian host company to the Comptroller-General of Immigration setting out the work and its duration
  • A cable/approval issued by the NIS which the applicant presents at a Nigerian mission or on arrival at the port of entry
  • Evidence of the specialist skill and of the equipment or contract concerned
  • Passport valid at least six months
How long it lasts
Short and defined — typically up to 90 days, extendable once on application. It is not a residence permit and does not lead to one.
Path to permanent residence
None. The TWP is explicitly a short-duration work authorisation with no residence status attached.
Cost
A visa fee plus the host company's processing costs. Materially cheaper than the quota-and-CERPAC route.
Processing time
Faster than the quota route — the approval cable is usually issued in weeks rather than months.
Worth knowing
  • The TWP exists precisely so that companies do not have to burn a quota position on a three-week job. Using it for what is really an ongoing role is a compliance risk for the host company.
  • It confers no right to bring dependants and no residence permit, so no local bank account, no NIN and no driving-licence conversion.
  • The approval is issued to the host company for a named individual and a named task. It does not travel with you to another client.
Sources:Nigeria Immigration ServiceNIS — e-Visa application system and automated landing/exit card
InvestmentMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Investor Visa (N3 classes) and investor permanent residence

Foreign nationals importing capital into a Nigerian business. The Nigeria Immigration Service grades investors by the size of the capital imported and retained, and attaches a longer residence permit at each step up.

What you need
  • Company incorporated in Nigeria with the Corporate Affairs Commission and registered with the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission
  • A Certificate of Capital Importation evidencing that the capital actually entered Nigeria through an authorised dealer bank
  • A Business Permit from the Federal Ministry of Interior for a company with foreign shareholding
  • Capital imported and retained at or above the class threshold, per the NIS published classes: N3A small-scale USD 250,000–500,000, N3B medium USD 500,000–1 million, N3C large USD 1–10 million, N3D ultra-large USD 10 million and above, plus a separate N3E class for the oil, gas and power sector
  • Prior holding of an F4B or F4C business visa — the NIS lists this as a precondition for the N3 investor classes, so the investor route is not a cold start
  • Board resolution and evidence of the applicant's role in the company
How long it lasts
The investor visa itself is valid 90 days from issuance and is not extendable; what it buys is a multiple-entry residence permit whose length rises with the class — three years on N3A, four on N3B, six on N3C and eight on N3D. Capital must stay in Nigeria.
Path to permanent residence
Yes — this is the main route to permanent residence in Nigeria other than marriage, and the Nigeria Visa Policy 2025 places the investor classes inside a Permanent Residence Visa family alongside highly-skilled nationals and retirees. Confirm the current qualifying amount directly with the NIS: it is set by policy rather than by statute and has been revised.
Cost
Dominated by the capital requirement. Add company incorporation, the Ministry of Interior business permit, quota fees and CERPAC.
Processing time
Months. The Certificate of Capital Importation and the business permit both have to exist before the visa application is meaningful.
Worth knowing
  • The Certificate of Capital Importation is the document that matters and the one people skip. Without it your capital is, for repatriation purposes, invisible — and repatriating dividends or sale proceeds later becomes very difficult.
  • Registering the company is not the same as registering the investment. NIPC registration and the CCI are separate steps from CAC incorporation.
  • Thresholds are quoted in US dollars by policy. Because the naira has floated since June 2023 the naira equivalent moves constantly — work from the dollar figure and the day's rate, not from a naira figure in an older guide.
Sources:NIS — Investor Visa (large-scale corporations), N3CNigeria Immigration ServiceNIS — Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Aliens Card (CERPAC)
FamilyMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Dependant / spouse residence (R2B–R2E and spouse CERPAC)

Spouses and children of CERPAC holders, and foreign spouses of Nigerian citizens.

What you need
  • Marriage certificate or birth certificates, legalised as required by the receiving mission
  • The principal's CERPAC and employer letter accepting immigration responsibility for the family
  • Dependants applying in their own right before travel — historically STR visas in their own passports, now through e-CERPAC on the same sequence as the principal
  • Biometric capture and CERPAC registration after arrival
How long it lasts
Aligned to the principal's CERPAC, normally up to two years and renewed together.
Path to permanent residence
A foreign spouse of a Nigerian citizen has a materially easier position — CERPAC is issued gratis — and marriage is one of the recognised routes toward naturalisation. A dependant of an expatriate worker has no independent settlement path.
Cost
CERPAC at the dependant rate; free for the spouse of a Nigerian citizen, per the Nigeria Immigration Service fee schedule.
Processing time
Follows the principal's timeline; regularisation after arrival takes weeks.
Worth knowing
  • A dependant CERPAC does not carry the right to work. A working spouse needs their own quota position at their own employer.
  • Dependants need their own pre-arrival application, whichever sequence is current. Arriving on a visitor visa to 'join the family' creates exactly the same non-convertible dead end as it does for the principal.
Sources:NIS — Employment Visa (Expatriate), R2A / STRNIS — Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Aliens Card (CERPAC)
StudentMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Student residence (student visa → CERPAC)

Foreign students admitted to a Nigerian university or other recognised institution.

What you need
  • Admission letter from the institution and evidence it will accept immigration responsibility
  • Proof of funds for tuition and maintenance
  • A student visa issued abroad on the strength of the admission letter — historically the STR student class
  • CERPAC at the student rate
How long it lasts
Issued for the duration of the programme and renewed annually alongside enrolment.
Path to permanent residence
None directly. Graduates wanting to stay need an employer with an available quota position and a fresh application from scratch — study time does not count toward anything.
Cost
CERPAC at USD 600 for students per the NIS fee schedule, plus tuition and the visa fee.
Processing time
Weeks for the visa once admission is confirmed; CERPAC takes weeks more.
Worth knowing
  • The institution has to be willing to sponsor and to accept immigration responsibility. Not every private institution does this routinely.
  • There is no post-study work permission attached. Plan the employment route before you graduate rather than after.
Sources:NIS — Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Aliens Card (CERPAC)NIS — Employment Visa (Expatriate), R2A / STR
Work / sponsoredLow confidenceVerified August 2026

ECOWAS national residence

Citizens of ECOWAS member states, who enter Nigeria without a visa under the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Residence and Establishment.

What you need
  • A valid ECOWAS passport or travel certificate
  • A residence card or permit for stays beyond the 90-day free-movement period
  • Evidence of employment or of the economic activity you are establishing, when applying for residence
How long it lasts
Ninety days of visa-free presence on entry; residence beyond that is by permit, renewable.
Path to permanent residence
The Protocol's third phase — the right of establishment — is the long-term basis, but Nigeria implements residence and establishment through its own permit system rather than automatically.
Cost
Substantially cheaper than the CERPAC route; residence-card fees rather than a USD 2,000 permit.
Processing time
Weeks.
Worth knowing
  • Ninety days visa-free is not a right to work. ECOWAS nationals still need to regularise residence and, in practice, still meet employer-side requirements before working.
  • Free movement under the Protocol is a live political question — member states have suspended and restored aspects of it, and the community's membership has changed. Confirm the current position before relying on it for a move.
Sources:Nigeria Immigration ServiceNIS — e-Visa application system and automated landing/exit card
On the ground

Where you'd land in Nigeria

Lagos

Africa's largest city and its loudest commercial engine — brilliant, exhausting, unignorable.

Full Lagos guide
Abuja

Nigeria's purpose-built capital — planned, orderly, green and far calmer than Lagos.

Full Abuja guide

Nigeria at a glance

Capital
Abuja
Population
237.5M
Languages
English, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo
Currency
NGN