By Kolawole Ojebisi
Residents of Enugu and Rivers States seeking to travel to the United Kingdom will not have to travel down to Lagos or Abuja to access visa services.
This follows the opening of new Premium Visa Application Centres by VFS Global in both cities.
According to a statement by the UK Home Office, the decision was made to allow convenient and easy access of visa for innumerable Nigerians leaving their native country for the UK.
According to the statement, the new centres, located at Omedel Luxury Hotel in Enugu and Hotel Presidential in Port Harcourt, are designed to cater to the increasing demand for UK visas from Nigeria, particularly during the summer travel season.
It added that appointments can be booked online via the VFS Global website.
The statement also stressed that the new centres are replicas of those in Abuja and Lagos, adding that the purpose is to complement the operations of previous centres which have been established since November 2024.
Nigeria remains one of the top four countries globally for UK visit visa applications, accounting for six percent of the total, the statement added.
“The government is pleased to be able to reopen the Premium Visa Application Centres in both Port Harcourt and Enugu.
“In 2024 we received more than 230,000 visa applications from Nigerian nationals across all visa routes and these new premium application centres will provide greater convenience for applicants in and around Enugu and Rivers State demonstrating the importance of the UK – Nigeria relationship in these markets as well as Nigeria as a whole,” The UK Minister of State at the Home Office, Rt. Hon. Lord Hanson said, while emphasizing the significance of the openings.
In a similar vein, while speaking on the added convenience and relief the openings will bring, the Head of Sub-Saharan Africa at VFS Global, Alok Singhal, said, “We are pleased to open the additional, conveniently located touchpoints for our UK visa customers in the form of the recently opened Premium Application Centres in Enugu and Port Harcourt, Nigeria, which help us cater to a larger number of travellers to the UK.
“Our customers will continue to enjoy the same comfort, convenience, and best-in-class services at these locations that they do at our Visa Application Centres in Abuja and Lagos,” he said.
VFS Global, which began partnering with UK Visas and Immigration in 2003, was awarded the global contract to manage UK visa services in 142 countries in 2023.
The company operates over 3,500 application centres across 158 countries and has processed more than 309 million applications since 2001.
