Nigeria Resumes Passport Services in US After Internet Hitch

The Federal Government has resolved the passport production crisis in the United States of America as the three missions have resumed passport services.

According to a public notice posted in the Embassy of Nigeria, Washington DC, all passport applicants scheduled earlier for biometrics were expected to come to the Mission on Monday.

The notice read: “This is to inform all passport applicants scheduled for biometric capture from Monday, November 13 to Thursday, November 16, that they have been rescheduled.

“It has been rescheduled to be held from Monday, November 20, to Wednesday, November 22 2023. The affected applicants can come to the Embassy on any of the days.

“The change of schedule is due to the internet outage experienced at the Embassy, and we regret any inconveniences this might have caused.’’

Confirming this development, a source in the embassy told the News Agency of Nigeria in New York on Sunday that the problem was resolved over the weekend.

He said: “The system is back over the weekend. The experts worked tirelessly to resolve it, and we are back.

“We fixed it yesterday (Saturday) and tested it. The system is back, and all the centres are fine, both in New York and Atlanta.

“The server in DC is connected to Atlanta and New York, so whatever happens to our server affects other Missions.’’

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told NAN that the problem was internet-related, not a server issue, noting that since the server was connected to the embassy internet, anything that happened to the internet disconnected the other centres as well.

According to the source, the experts in Nigeria worked with local ICT experts in the embassy, and they all worked together and were able to fix it.

NAN reports Nigeria has three Missions in the United States.

They are the Consulates-General of Nigeria in New York and Atlanta, and the Embassy of Nigeria in Washington DC.

The embassy in Washington DC, is the only passport production centre in the U.S., while the consulates take biometrics from their Missions and take the same to Washington DC, for passport production.

The Organisation for the Advancement of Nigerians and its 20 partner organisations in New York have earlier appealed to the Federal Government to provide passport production machines for Missions in Atlanta and New York.

“The New York consulate has jurisdiction over the highest number of states and accepts the largest number of applicants from across the United States.

“It boggles the mind to understand why two passport printing machines are located in Washington with none in New York or Atlanta,’’ the association pondered in a statement.

The New York jurisdiction comprises the 20 states of Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Nebraska, Ohio, and North Dakota.

Others are South Dakota, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Vermont, and Pennsylvania.

NAN