Nigerian visa -- 7 day Transit available? where?
Nigeria changed its rules requiring to get visa in your country of residence, but some people have reported getting a 365 day Nigerian visa in Mali.

1. Is a 7 day Transit visa available anywhere? Do you need to specify the exact 7 day period or can it commence on the date actually entereing Nigeria?

2. the 365 day visa. Where is it least expensive? Some have written it's CFA 135,000 in Mali ... that's huge.

they told me i needed to get it in my home country but after a bit of talking i had to pay a 'non resident fee' they gave me a 30 day visa for 120 for Aussies in Accra. Needed and invitation letter from a Nigerian. hope that helps

Back in July 12 I picked up my Nigerian visa in Ghana, the guy there was a ***** and it cost $170 but we got it the following day (full 30 day tourist visa)

Got my 365 visa in Bamako... they have a list of the prices there basically based on your home country's GDP. I'm Canadian and cost 130,000 CFA. UK was 133,000. US I think was 140,000. They will issue the same day though.

Gabon, Congo and DRC are all about 120 Euros each as well.

Bamako embassy is easier and quite friendly for me. Visa for a Kiwi only $30.

Had to get another one in Accra due to delays - as mentioned, they are corrupt as bollocks there - $50 for a Kiwi. All depends on your nationality and what law is in favour in the month you apply ;-p. (in 2010, but just adding to the info above for validity).

Be politely persistence.....

Any recent info on DRC visas in Brazzaville ? I have been refused one in Yaounde just now ( 22nd Jan) and have heard that Libreville will not issue DRC to non residents either. Plan B, I am looking at sending passport back to UK from Brazzaville but that could take three weeks apparently.

Anyone got any current info or better ideas ?

I got a 30 day visa for Nigeria in Cotonou, they accept applications Tuesday and Thursday and take 48 hours. They said they do not do 7 day visas when I asked but I believe that is flexible depending on your story. I applied also for Nigeria in Niamey but was told it is a week minimum and 70,000.

Nigeria visa in Accra. Spoke with Embassy (High Commission) just now.

Administration Fee for Residency removed since late 2012 (confirms Japanese travelers' mention, yet contradicts OZRanger's experience -- post #2 in this thread)

BUT according to Embassy Officer (EO) on phone
(1) they are strictly adhering to not issuing visas to non-residents. The EO told me my situation is more negative than positive, because of the non-residency status
(2) can submit application and write out your situation, but no guarantee
(3) Visa fee must be paid in advance and is non-refundable, whether visa issued or not

Visa cost is good (only USD 55.00, payable at Guaranty Trust Bank so it seems currency doesn't matter as bank would tell you the equivalent of USD 55 in CFA/EUR/etc) BUT this non-refundability and the EO on phone saying the non-residency is a problem suggest the outcome is not in an over-land traveler's favor ... maybe that's what they want you to think?

It seems Nigerian embassy is being transparent (no bribes, etc) , but are they just trying to scare away non-residents (since it's more work for them)?


Seems i should make the visa in Cotonou, but that's the last country before Nigeria and what if they won't issue the visa because they don;t like my hotel reservation/invitation or non-residency in Benin?

Why all this fuss about get visa in home country - the only info related to home country (on most visa application forms) is residential address, but they can google that info ... the embassy of country XX in your home country doesn;t do any checking of addresses. The information is available on the internet and can be accessed from most geographical locations with an internet connection. Also, doesn't the embassy here in an African country want the money/revenue OR is it that such government/diplomats get paid a flat salary so don;t want the extra work? (ie, they have no incentive in the compensation scheme). Royal PITA these visas on west side of Africa -- east side much better -- get VOA@Land_borders

For US Residents? For me in Berlin the Congos Visa were cheaper. The Visum for Gaboun at the embassy in Brazzaville was expensive. True but i loved the people and the beautifull green landscape of Gaboun.
I was chased away at the Nigeria embassy in Congo after spending hours there waiting for the consulat to finish his sleep. Finaly got 7 days transit in Kameroun after pretending to cry "I just want to go home". Got jumped in Nigeria and nearly pulled of my bike by 5 guys or killed by ghost drivers on my lane who then crashed into the car behind me but thats a different story:

http://afrikamotorrad.eu/index.php?report=en_westkueste

Travel save

Those were the prices when heading south using the most commonly used embassies to obtain the visa - about 100-120 euros each I remember, in my case for a Kiwi passport, but same for everybody I think except for Nigeria with its different price per country model.

Heading north as you did you used different embassies to me, the prices can be widely different between embassies as was your experience. Worth shopping around for your visas ;-p

Well sometimes you can be happy if you get a Visa at all. The Angola Visa kost me 200 Euro (+ Visa Agency + Invitation letter) and 3 Months waiting and calling the embassy every day for a 4 days transit visa...

Nigerian visa in Accra.... update from earlier today:

i went to the embassy, got to speak to someone but it was the man on the phone from the morning, who is NOT the decision-maker.

Additional things learned:
(1) Need Letter of Introduction (LOI) from home country embassy [in addition to Invitation Letter(IL)]. But some countries' embassies don provide such letters at all and some countries may take 1 week at a price of US$100 which is more than the cost of visa .... just plain logic silliness and need to pay for place to sleep during this 1 week of waiting

This seems a new requirement and Nigerian embassy fellow said it's needed because they don;t know me....but neither does my embassy except maybe the one where i made new passport recently.

What do you think if i provide the email correspondence between me and my country's embassy where i recently made a new passport b/c old one was full ? Come on, surely this means this embassy "knows me"

(2) This fellow NOT the Decision-Maker, so it's a greater risk when don;t know who/how you will be evaluated - of course they can always say "well we told you we don't issue to non-Ghana-residents)
Note when applied for Ghana visa (in Dakar), i got to speak with Chief Consul BEFORE paying any money and got his verbal agreement.

(3) Embassy fellow suggested making visa in Benin as it's the country next to Nigeria

According to Wikipedia, Togo and Benin have Nigerian embassies, but no phone # , no email, and no street address...anyone with experience in these places?

Got the Nigeria visa in Accra.... wrote a 1 page bullet point summary (ala The One-Page Proposal) only requesting a meeting/interview (vs asking for the visa, ie this is giving them some ability to exceed the customer's expectation vs. customer saying "i know you did it for so & so", which means it puts them in a corner). Provided reasons other than "because i need to get from A to B and Nigeria is in the middle". Provided more info than they needed. Provided email correspondence from my embassy , which was great because i asked them for a letter to confirm my old & new passport numbers, etc and they wrote they cannot provide such a letter....you see, i tried and this is what happened so some LOI from my country, huh! Also helped provided articles of activities/groups i've been involved in , with such articles having my photo.


I'll use this info package tailored to Angola and DRC to attempt visas to those places as a non-resident.