Before you start

An employer holding an approved expatriate quota position for your job title
A letter from that employer accepting immigration responsibility for you
Degree certificates and CV evidencing you fill the quota position
Passport valid at least six months, with blank pages
A yellow fever vaccination certificate

Step-by-step

1
Confirm the quota position exists before you accept the job
The Federal Ministry of Interior grants quota positions to companies by job title, with an understudy obligation attached. Nothing on your side can begin until it exists. Ask to see the approval letter — this is a normal request, not an awkward one.
Via employerWho: Your employerWeeks to months
2
Apply for the pre-arrival permit — and ask the mission which one applies
This is the step in transition, so confirm the label rather than assume it. Historically it was the STR visa (class R2A), applied for online and issued by a Nigerian mission abroad: 90 days, not extendable, regularised into CERPAC after landing. The 2025 reforms introduced a pre-arrival e-CERPAC — an entry permit valid 30 days — meant to replace it, and the NIS's visa listing no longer shows an STR class, though the NIS still publishes the R2A page. The supporting documents are the same either way: quota approval, the immigration-responsibility letter, your contract and your credentials. Visa-on-arrival was discontinued on 1 May 2025.
OnlineWho: YouWeeks
3
Complete the electronic landing card before boarding
All inbound non-Nigerian passengers must complete an online landing card, and outbound passengers an exit card, in the 72 hours before travel. Airlines check it at the gate.
OnlineWho: YouBefore departure
4
Complete CERPAC registration in Abuja
Register on the e-CERPAC portal, pay and attend biometric capture. The published fee is USD 2,000 for an employed foreign national, USD 600 for a student, and free for the spouse of a Nigerian citizen. On an STR visa the 90-day window is the whole clock; on a pre-arrival e-CERPAC the entry permit runs only 30 days. Being in the capital means the CERPAC centres and the NIS headquarters are the same short drive.
OnlineWho: Your employer, then youWithin 30–90 days of arrival, depending on the route
5
Get dependants their own pre-arrival applications
Spouses and children apply in their own right before travel — historically STR visas in their own passports, now through e-CERPAC on the same sequence as the principal — and hold their own CERPACs. A dependant CERPAC carries no work rights; a working spouse needs a separate quota position at their own employer.
OnlineWho: You
6
Enrol for a NIN from two years of residence
The NIMC Act requires registration by foreigners legally resident two years or more, and a NIN is needed to obtain or renew a long-term residence permit. The NIS states CERPAC is issued for one year and above, so a renewal will fall due at or before that two-year mark — enrol before the two collide.
In personWho: YouFrom 2 years of residence

Documents you’ll need

Passport with the entry visa or the pre-arrival e-CERPAC approval
Expatriate quota approval letter
Employer's letter accepting immigration responsibility
Employment contract and acceptance letter
Degree certificates and CV
Yellow fever vaccination certificate
Passport photographs to Nigerian specification

Things most newcomers don’t know

Being in Abuja materially changes how a stuck immigration file is resolved.

The Federal Ministry of Interior and the Nigeria Immigration Service headquarters are both in the capital, as are the officials running the online platforms the quota, business permit and CERPAC applications now sit on. When a quota application or a CERPAC file stalls — which happens — an employer's representative in Abuja can attend in person in a way a Lagos-based one cannot. Companies with a Lagos operation and no Abuja presence routinely retain someone here purely for this. Ask how your employer handles it.

Source: community-reported; Federal Ministry of Interior

Development-sector and diplomatic employment often runs on a different immigration basis entirely.

Staff of accredited diplomatic missions and of international organisations with headquarters agreements — the ECOWAS Commission, UN agencies — are commonly admitted on diplomatic or official visas and accredited through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, not through the quota-and-CERPAC route. Abuja has a much higher share of such employment than Lagos, and the two systems have completely different rules on dependants' work rights and on tax. Establish which one you are in before applying any general Nigerian immigration advice to yourself.

Source: community-reported

A business visa still cannot be converted into a residence permit, and the temptation is greater here.

Abuja's economy runs on meetings, and plenty of people arrive repeatedly on business visas for consultancy work before an engagement becomes permanent. The moment it becomes employment, the employment route applies — whichever pre-arrival sequence is current — and the business visa cannot be regularised. The person has to leave, apply at a mission abroad and return. Long-running consultancy relationships are exactly where this creeps up on people.

Source: Nigeria Immigration Service

The pre-arrival step is mid-transition, so confirm the sequence with your mission rather than with a guide.

Under the old process you obtained an STR visa abroad and regularised into CERPAC inside a 90-day window after landing. The Nigeria Visa Policy 2025, in force 8 May 2025, introduced a pre-arrival e-CERPAC valid 30 days as an entry permit, expressly to remove that two-step, and the NIS's public visa listing no longer shows an STR class — but the NIS still publishes its STR/R2A employment visa page and existing STR holders are still being handled as regularisations. Whichever applies to you, the entry document's window is the whole clock and it starts when you land: 90 days on an STR visa, 30 on an e-CERPAC. The overstay regime that took effect in September 2025 makes running out concrete rather than theoretical.

Source: Nigeria Immigration Service

Common mistakes to avoid

Accepting a role at a company with no free expatriate quota position.
Arriving on a business visa when the engagement has become employment.
Letting the entry window run down — 90 days on an STR visa, 30 on a pre-arrival e-CERPAC — while a biometric appointment is unbooked.
Assuming diplomatic or organisation accreditation works like the CERPAC route.
Leaving NIN enrolment until the first CERPAC renewal is already under way.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.