Most foreign visitors to Nigeria need a visa before they travel, and since 2025 almost everything about entry is done online. Lagos’s international airport, Murtala Muhammed in Ikeja, is where most people arrive.
The e-visa
Visa on arrival ended on 1 May 2025. Short visits - tourism, business, visiting family - now need an e-visa, applied for online through the Nigeria Immigration Service’s portal before you travel. The approval arrives by email with a QR code, which you show on arrival.
- Apply well ahead, not the week you fly.
- An e-visa cannot be extended. If you need to stay longer, you need a different visa, not more time on this one.
- Do not overstay. Overstays are fined for every day, and long overstays bring bans on returning.
If you are coming to work
A short-visit visa does not let you work. The employment route is a Subject to Regularisation (STR) visa, sponsored by your employer, followed by a residence permit, the CERPAC. See moving to Lagos.
ECOWAS citizens
Citizens of the other ECOWAS countries - Ghana, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and the rest - can enter without a visa on a valid passport or ECOWAS travel document under the ECOWAS free movement protocol. Living and working here long-term still needs residence.
The landing card
Every non-Nigerian arriving or leaving must complete the landing and exit card online, on the Nigeria Immigration Service’s e-card portal, before the flight. It replaced the paper card handed out on the plane. Do it before you leave for the airport, and again before you fly out.
At the airport
- Immigration, then baggage, then customs. Have your e-visa, return ticket and the address you are staying at to hand.
- Declare cash above USD 10,000 to customs, in both directions.
- People will offer help - with bags, trolleys, taxis, money. You do not need any of it, and you should not hand your passport or bags to anyone who is not in uniform behind a desk.
- Change only a little money at the airport, if any.
Getting into the city
- Be met, if you can: by your host, your employer’s driver, or a hotel pickup arranged in advance.
- Book a ride-hailing car from the official pickup point, and check the plate and the driver’s name before you get in.
- Use the airport’s registered taxis, not a driver who approaches you inside the terminal.
- Arrive in daylight if you can choose. Lagos traffic can turn an hour’s journey into three, and the roads out of the airport are worse at night.