Changing your name on your Nigerian Passport due to marriage can be very tedious. Having gone through the process, this post will give you the details and step-by-step process to help you do it seamlessly. In this post, I will not only share the whole process but I’ll share the cost, websites to enable you to do it yourself and more.
Reasons for Changing Your Name on Your Nigerian Passport
Changing your name on your passport will require a legal name change. There are a few reasons a person may want to change their names on their travel document which include:
- Marriage
- Divorce
- Legal name change
- Mistake in official documents
Requirements for Changing Your Name on Your Nigerian Passport
- Marriage Certificate
- An affidavit from a Magistrate or High Court
- Newspaper Publication of Change of Name
- National Identification Number Card
- Passport Booklet and Copy of Data Page of Passport
- Acknowledgement Slip & Evidence of Payment
Get Your Marriage Certificate
To change your name after marriage, you must first make your marriage certificate accessible.. The original marriage certificate is required for citing at different stages of the name change so it’s important to prepare it.
If you aren’t married yet and are planning your wedding, a good place to start is the Nigerian Ministry of Interior website.
It is important to ensure that the church/registry you are getting married is authorized or has the licence to marry you. The last thing you need is an invalid marriage certificate.
Obtain an Affidavit from a Magistrate or High Court
You will need the following things to obtain an affidavit for a name change successfully:
- A passport photograph
- Your marriage certificate
This is the first step to changing your name officially. I did this immediately after my civil wedding because I had spoken to my lawyer friend who had prepared the document ahead of the wedding,
To do this you can visit a high court nearest to you or speak to a lawyer. This is the easiest process in your name change journey because you can get it within hours and its quite cheap to do. It should cost you between two thousand naira and five thousand naira depending on where you go to.
Publish Your New Name
After getting your affidavit you need to inform the public that your name has changed and this can only be done by announcing it in a national daily newspaper. I recommend you use a popular/reputable newspaper to avoid issues of legitimacy.
Popular Nigerian Newspapers I recommend include but are not limited to The Punch, Daily Post, ThisDay, Daily Independent, The Nation, and more. Ensure you double-check the spelling and placement of your name before and after publishing because agencies such as NIMC and Nigerian Immigration will carefully check for spelling errors and placements.
Purchase as many copies of the newspaper on the day your name appears in it. In the unlikely event that your physical copy or copies are damaged, you can also download soft copies from the internet.
Also note that you will also need the newspaper for any official name change process such as name change on bank accounts, driver’s license and more.
Change Your Name on Your National Identification Number (NIN)
You will need the following things to change your name on your NIN successfully:
- Marriage Certificate
- Sworn Affidavit
- Name change pay slip
- Newspaper publication
This is a crucial stage as you can’t change your name on your International passport. This is one stage that requires a lot of patience. I experienced the most delay here as NIMC had a system update during the period I did mine.
Do not do this with the roadside agents that also sell SIM cards, some of them are scams. I recommend going to a designated NIMC office in your state of residence.
Apply For Passport Name Change
Having completed all the steps above, you will proceed to the Nigerian Immigration Service office in your state of residence to apply for a name change on your passport. If it’s your first passport, you will apply for a new one, but if you already have one, you will be apply for renewal.
You can speak with an immigration officer for assistance but please note that nothing in Nigeria is free so it will come at a cost. The alternative to this is to do it by yourself by visiting the Nigerian Immigration Service’s official website . It’s a simple and easy-to-follow process which anyone can do and you get to pay the official price.
After applying online or with the help of an immigration officer, you will go to the NIS office for document citing and biodata capture. Please note you are not paying anybody on this day for anything, some people try to collect money under the disguise that they will hasten the process for you, but that’s a big lie.
The duration of your passport may vary, mine took one month because I did it at the headquarters in Abuja. We all know many factors in Nigeria affect the speed of certain things like network, number of applications etc.
I recommend tracking your application via the NIS website here to ease your mind after applying. All you need to track your application is your application number and reference number. This helps you see what’s going on with your application.
Once your passport is ready, you’ll get a message informing you to come pick up your passport!!!