Name Mismatch on Nigerian Passport Application

Before anything else, you face one choice: fix the form, or fix the supporting document. The two routes go through different agencies, cost different amounts, and need different evidence. Picking the wrong one wastes a week and leaves the mismatch in place.

The rule is simple. The Nigeria Immigration Service treats your NIN record as the canonical reference for who you are. If the form disagrees with the NIN, the form is what gets fixed. If the NIN itself is wrong relative to your NPC birth certificate, the NIN is what gets fixed — and the form will then be aligned by NIS support against the corrected NIN.

Two minutes of comparison up front saves the wrong correction. Pull three records side by side: your latest NIN slip, your NPC birth certificate, and the application summary from immigration.gov.ng. Read each character by character.

Almost every name mismatch falls into one of these patterns. Identifying which one applies tells you exactly which fix to apply.

This is the case where you submitted a typo or an abbreviation, and your NIN is correct against your NPC birth certificate. The form is locked once you have paid, but NIS support can edit it on request.

1. 1
   Confirm the NIN is correctCross-check the NIN slip against your NPC birth certificate. If both agree, the form is the only side that needs work.
2. 2
   Open a NIS support ticketUse the Help or Support link on immigration.gov.ng. Include application number, reference number, centre, and date of payment.
3. 3
   Attach evidencePhotograph or scan of your NIN slip and NPC birth certificate. Both must show the name spelled the way you want the form to read.
4. 4
   State the request clearlySpecific: 'Please correct the surname field on my application from X to Y to match my NIN record exactly.' One field at a time, with the exact target text.
5. 5
   Wait, then re-verifyNIS support edits the file and pushes it back to NIN Verification. Watch the tracking portal; the status should advance to Production Queue within days once the field matches.

Form-side fixes through NIS support do not cost money. The cost is response time, typically a few working days for a clear, well-evidenced request.

If the NIN itself is wrong relative to your NPC birth certificate, the modification happens at NIMC, not at NIS. Since October 2024, NIMC name modifications go through the self-service portal at selfservicemodification.nimc.gov.ng; enrolment centres no longer process walk-in modification requests.

The fee is ₦2,000 per modified field. NIMC's documentation guidance lists the typical supporting documents as a court affidavit, a newspaper publication, and where applicable a marriage certificate or another government identification document. The corrected NIN slip is usually issued within a few working days.

Once the new NIN slip is in hand, return to your open NIS support ticket and reply with the corrected slip attached, asking for re-verification. The file moves from NIN Verification back to the Production Queue once the systems agree.

For the full NIMC walkthrough see how to correct your NIN name and how to register for NIN if your starting point is even earlier.

A small share of cases have both the form and the NIN drifted from the NPC birth certificate. Order of operations matters here.

1. Fix the NIN first at NIMC, using the NPC birth certificate as evidence.
2. Wait for the new NIN slip to be issued through the self-service portal.
3. Then open the NIS support ticket asking for the form to be aligned against the corrected NIN.

Trying to do both in parallel produces a moving target: NIS support edits the form against an in-flight NIN correction, and the two records oscillate until one of them is locked in.

The name on a Nigerian passport application can look "wrong" for reasons that are not enrolment errors. These need a different route entirely.

• You got married and your surname changed. That is an intentional update, not an enrolment typo. The fix is to update the NIN and NPC certificates first using a marriage certificate, then apply for a re-issue passport with the new documents. See change name on a Nigerian passport.
• You divorced and reverted to your maiden name. Same pattern as marriage but with the divorce certificate as evidence. Re-issue route applies.
• You changed your name by court order (deed poll). The Nigeria High Commission in London is explicit that a deed poll alone is not accepted for passport processing abroad; the name must be declared in a Nigerian court with an affidavit. Once the court order is in place, the re-issue route applies.
• Your form shows your full legal name but the airline ticket shows a shortened version. Not an NIS problem. Airlines accept the legal name on the passport; reissue the ticket if the airline insists.

In every "not a mismatch" case, the form is right and so is the NIN; the question is how to update both to reflect a real life change.