British high commission in Nigeria launches priority 24 hour visa delivery services

BRITAIN has launched a Super Priority Visa Service in Nigeria that allows prospective visitors to the UK to process their applications within 24 hours in a bid to cut the long waiting queues that have become a feature at the mission.

 

Traditionally, the UK has always been a favourite holiday destination for Nigerians and given its historic role as a former colonial master, has always had a large number of Nigerians wanting to settle there. This has resulted in lengthy queues at UK missions in Lagos in Abuja, especially during this the busy summer period.

 

In a bid to address the problem, the British High Commission, said the new service was targeted at meeting the needs of those who require urgent service to travel. High commissioner Paul Arkwright, welcomed the introduction of the Super Priority Visa service in Nigeria, saying it would make travelling to the UK a lot easier.

 

Mr Arkwright said: “I am pleased to see the Super Priority Visa service being launched in Nigeria. 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 particularly useful for business as we understand that business opportunities and urgent requirements can arise at very short notice. We recognise this and want to facilitate such travel to the UK with this new super-fast service."

 

According to the high commission, the introduction of the service allowed customers greater flexibility to choose from a number of visa products to meet their needs. So far, the UK is the only European country to offer a visa decision in 24 hours.

 

Mission officials say the Super Priority Visa service is aimed largely 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. They added that the service costs £750 in addition to the visa fee and would be available to eligible customers applying in the Abuja and Lagos Visa Application Centres.

 

Furthermore, 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.