Background
As part of Nigeria's drive to improve the ease of doing
business, the Nigeria immigration service (NIS) has announced
changes to the scope of activities that can be carried out on a
business visa.
The NIS has also shortened the approval period for visa on
arrival, opened new production centres for residence permits and
decentralised the reissuance of missing passports or those
requiring biodata changes.
Business Visa
Before the new changes announced by the Minister of Information
on 26 February 2017, business visas were limited to business
meetings. Under the new visa regime, foreigners can now obtain
business visas where a temporary work permit was previously
required. These include visits for conferences, seminars, contract
negotiation, marketing, sales, purchase, distribution of goods,
trade fairs, job interviews, training of Nigerians, emergency or
relief work and research. Also crew members, staff of
nongovernmental organisations and musical
