Lost or Damaged Nigerian Passport: What to Do (2026)

Lost your Nigerian passport? Report it at the nearest police station for a police extract, get a sworn affidavit of loss from a Magistrate or High Court, then apply for a replacement on passport.immigration.gov.ng — the same portal as a renewal. Using a passport you’ve declared lost is a criminal offence, so move fast.

What to do first if you lose your Nigerian passport

In short: report the loss to the police for a police extract, get a sworn affidavit of loss from a Magistrate or High Court, then apply on passport.immigration.gov.ng using Apply for Renewal/Re-issue Passport — the same portal a normal renewal uses. Source: Nigeria Immigration Service, immigration.gov.ng/info-center/how-to-apply-for-the-replacement-of-lost-passport/, checked 25 July 2026.

1. Report the loss to the police. Go to the station nearest to where you lost it — or nearest to your address, if you don’t know where — and ask specifically for a police extract for loss of passport. That is NIS’s own wording; a generic complaint slip is not the same document and will likely be rejected.
2. Get a sworn affidavit of loss. A Magistrate, a High Court, or a Commissioner for Oaths / Notary Public can swear it. Attach your photograph, as NIS requires.
3. Gather your supporting documents. Per NIS’s own list: your birth certificate (or a court-issued age declaration), your Local Government Certificate of Indigeneship, your other passport’s data page if you hold dual nationality, and a marriage certificate or other ID if your name differs across records. A newspaper publication announcement is not on this list — that step is for name-change cases, not a straightforward loss; treat any agent who insists otherwise, usually alongside a fee to “arrange” it, as a markup.
4. Apply and pay online. On the portal, choose Apply for Renewal/Re-issue Passport, upload the police extract, the affidavit and your supporting documents, then pay the booklet fee.
5. Attend your appointment and track it. Print your acknowledgement and payment slips, attend your booked appointment for biometric capture, and track your file through our NIS passport status check guide.

Skipping to step 4 without the police extract and affidavit is the most common reason a lost-passport application stalls — NIS lists both as required, not optional.

Do you need a police report to replace a lost Nigerian passport?

In short: yes — NIS’s own document list requires a “police extract for Loss of Passport,” not a general complaint report, alongside the sworn affidavit. Source: Nigeria Immigration Service, immigration.gov.ng, checked 25 July 2026.

Many stations issue a routine complaint acknowledgement on request, but NIS’s requirement is specifically a police extract — a formal statement confirming the loss, not a general complaint slip. Ask the station for that document by name, and confirm it carries your old passport number if you have it.

One embassy’s version adds detail NIS’s own page skips: address your formal written application to the Comptroller General of Immigration (C.G.I.), Abuja, and if a passport declared lost is later recovered, notify NIS immediately and surrender it for cancellation — using a “found” passport is treated the same as using a lost one. Source: Nigeria Embassy, Madrid, “Lost/Damaged Passport” page, checked 25 July 2026.

The sworn affidavit — what it is and what it costs

In short: the affidavit of loss is a sworn statement made before a Magistrate, High Court, Commissioner for Oaths or Notary Public, with your photograph attached — a basic version commonly costs ₦500-₦2,000 at the registry, though this is not one fixed official fee. Source: Nigeria Embassy, Madrid; Nigerian legal-service guides (nigerianqueries.com), checked 25 July 2026.

The affidavit puts your account on the legal record — what was lost, roughly when and how — sworn in person. NIS’s guidance specifies it must come from the High Court, with your photo attached. Registry and court fees for a basic affidavit are commonly quoted at ₦500-₦2,000 by Nigerian legal-service guides, not one fixed government schedule — ask for a receipt and confirm the figure at your own registry.

How much does it cost to replace a lost or damaged Nigerian passport?

In short: inside Nigeria you pay the same booklet fee as a standard application — ₦50,000 (32-page) or ₦100,000 (64-page) — since NIS does not publish a separate lost-passport surcharge; one US consulate does, at an extra $370. Source: passport.immigration.gov.ng fee schedule; Nigeria Consulate, Atlanta, checked 25 July 2026.

Source: Nigeria Immigration Service, passport.immigration.gov.ng; Nigeria Consulate, Atlanta, “Passport & Consular Fees”; Nigeria Consulate, New York, “Emergency Travel Certificate” — all checked 25 July 2026. ₦ equivalents are this site’s own conversion at ₦1,540/$, 24 July 2026, not an official naira price; confirm the live figure with your own mission or the portal.

If your card declines at a diaspora consulate’s USD payment step, see how to pay visa and passport fees from Nigeria.

Red flag: a police extract and a High Court affidavit are ordinary government processes anyone can walk in and request. An “agent” who wants a lump sum sent to a personal account to “sort your papers” before you’ve even filed the police report — or who quotes a flat fee well above the figures in the table above — is running the classic upfront-fee pattern. See how to spot a fake visa agent in Nigeria, and if you’ve already paid, how to report it.

Lost your passport abroad? Get an Emergency Travel Certificate first

In short: if you lose your passport outside Nigeria, apply for an Emergency Travel Certificate at the nearest Nigerian mission to get home — it is a one-way document only, so you still complete the full replacement once you’re back in Nigeria. Source: Nigeria Consulate, New York, “Emergency Travel Certificate” page, checked 25 July 2026.

Running the full NIS replacement from outside Nigeria takes too long if you need to travel now. The Emergency Travel Certificate (ETC) exists for this: a Nigerian mission issues it so you can get home, then you handle the proper replacement in Nigeria.

At the New York consulate, requirements are a completed application form, a photocopy of your (now lost) passport’s data page if you have one, two photographs with your name on the back, a police report from the country you’re in (only if lost or stolen), and a copy of your flight ticket to Nigeria. The fee is $150 (about ₦231,000 at ₦1,540/$), payable only by USPS money order. The certificate covers a one-way journey to Nigeria only, valid six weeks from issue — it will not get you into a third country, and you surrender it on arrival. Requirements and fees vary by mission; confirm with the one covering your location.

Once you’re back, follow the lost-passport steps above — the ETC gets you home; it doesn’t replace the passport itself.

Damaged passport: when NIS treats it as “lost” instead

In short: a damaged passport follows its own document pack — you present the damaged booklet itself for inspection instead of a police extract — but if you cannot produce the booklet’s remnant, at least one mission’s rule treats the case as a loss instead. Source: Nigeria Embassy, Madrid; Nigeria Consulate, Atlanta, checked 25 July 2026.

Damage is a separate case from loss: a formal application addressed to the C.G.I. in Abuja, the damaged passport booklet itself for sighting, a photocopy of your data page, and (per the Madrid embassy’s version) a sworn affidavit — but no police extract, since nothing was actually lost or stolen. Damage from fire adds a fire incident report and a written explanation of how it happened.

The line between “damaged” and “lost” comes down to whether you can produce the booklet. One US consulate states it plainly: submit the remnant of the damaged passport booklet, and if you cannot, the application is “treated as Lost” — you fall back to the full police-extract-and-affidavit pack instead. Source: Nigeria Consulate, Atlanta, “Required Documents” page, checked 25 July 2026. No published NIS rubric grades ordinary wear versus a write-off; that call is made at the point of application, not against a fixed checklist we could source.