UK unveils 24-hour visa service in Nigeria

The United Kingdom has unveiled a Super Priority Visa Service in Nigeria to allow customers to process applications within 24 hours.

The British High Commission, in a statement posted on its  website, quoted the British High Commissioner in Nigeria Paul Arkwright as saying: “I am pleased to see the Super Priority Visa Service being launched in Nigeria”.

He added: “This comes with an additional cost but is designed to give greater flexibility to our customers, and underlines our strong commitment to make improvements to the visa services we offer.

“We  expect this new service to be useful for business. We understand that business opportunities and urgent requirements can arise at short notice.

“We recognise this and want to facilitate such travel to the United Kingdom with this new super-fast service”, Arkwright said.

The High Commission explained that the introduction of the service allowed customers greater flexibility to choose from a number of visa products.

He said: “It is offered with our Priority Visa (front of queue processing five to seven days) and standard (15 days) services.

“The United Kingdom is the only European country to offer a visa decision in 24 hours.

“The Super Priority Visa Service is aimed at key business customers and those needing to travel urgently by providing a visa decision for collection at the Visa Application Centre the working day following submission.”

 The  service costs 750 pounds in addition to the visa fee and would be available to customers applying in the Abuja and Lagos visa application centres.

The High Commission said those applying in the “Visitors” or “Points-Based System Tier 4” are eligible to use the Super Priority Service.

It said appointments are available from Mondays to Thursday from 8:30 am to 10 am, and Fridays from 8:30 am to 9 am, at the Abuja and Lagos centres only.