Background
World leaders met in Marrakech, Morocco on 11 December 2018, for the conference on Global Compact for Migration to adopt the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration.
It is expected that the pact will encourage greater international cooperation to better address the world's migration challenges.
In line with the agreement, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has released guidelines for the e-registration of foreigners in Nigeria.
The Migrant e-Registration Guidelines ("the guide") highlights the process through which an immigrant in Nigeria can be registered with the NIS.
Objective
The guide provides the necessary information and requirements for migrants residing in Nigeria to be properly documented in line with global best practices.
The e-Registration is a two-part process which includes, the enrolment and biometrics data capture and the receipt of an acknowledgement slip:
Enrolment and biometrics data capture:
This process is as follows: Migrant walks into any designated Migrant Registration Office in the migrant's state of residence.
Migrant provides supporting documents (original International Passport and Residence Permit, for sighting while copies will be submitted) and other required information.
The Registration officer enrolls the migrant using information provided.
Registration officer captures the biometrics of the migrant. Migrant crosschecks enrolled data.
Registration officer confirms submitted documents.
Acknowledgement slip:
After completing the registration, the migrant is issued an acknowledgement slip showing registration details.
Deadline and Penalty
The deadline for completing the registration process is 31 December 2019. Failure to comply may attract a penalty.
Takeaway
The e-Registration process is expected to ease the update of migrants' status and provide a means of identification, alongside the Residence Permit.
An additional motivation for the exercise is to curb the spate of insecurity which is believed to be partly due to some undocumented immigrants from neighboring countries especially in the North East region of the country.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.