NIN Does Not Match Passport Application — How to Fix

Your file is paused at the NIN Verification stage. Nothing is wrong with the passport application itself. The Nigeria Immigration Service has compared what you submitted on the form against your live record at the National Identity Management Commission, and the two systems disagree. NIS does not retry the verification on its own; the file sits there until the two records match.

Think of this as two databases that need to point at the same person. The fix is to make them agree. That can mean correcting your NIMC record, or correcting the passport form, depending on which side holds the wrong value. Critically, do not pay again, do not restart the application, and do not assume time will heal it. Time is irrelevant to a sync stall.

The Nigeria Immigration Service public guidance on NIN verification is explicit: a disparity between the data provided on your passport application form and your NIN record is what triggers the error. The check is character-by-character on three fields.

Other NIN fields (phone number, address, photo) are not part of the passport NIN verification. Only the three above matter at this stage.

Open both records side by side before you decide what to fix.

• Pull your latest NIN slip from the NIMC self-service portal or from your saved files. Read the name and date of birth character by character.
• Pull the passport application summary from immigration.gov.ng. Read the same three fields character by character.
• Compare to your NPC birth certificate as well. The NPC certificate is the ultimate source of truth for civil identity; if NIMC has drifted from it, that is a NIMC error to fix.

Three patterns cover almost every case:

1. Form has the typo, NIN is correct. You hit submit too fast. The NIMC record matches your birth certificate. Fix the form through NIS support; do not touch NIMC.
2. NIN has the wrong data, form matches the birth certificate. The original NIMC enrolment captured your name or DOB incorrectly. Fix the NIN first at NIMC, then come back to NIS.
3. Both NIN and form are wrong, birth certificate is correct. Fix NIMC first using the birth certificate as evidence. The passport form fix follows.

NIMC modifications now happen at the self-service portal at selfservicemodification.nimc.gov.ng. Since 2 October 2024, enrolment centres no longer process walk-in modification requests. The cost depends on which field you are correcting.

The new NIN slip is typically issued the same day or within a few working days through the portal. Print and save it; the next step depends on it.

For deeper detail on each NIMC route, see how to correct your NIN name, how to change date of birth on NIN, and NIN slip vs premium slip.

Form-side corrections are not self-service. The portal locks the biographical data once you have paid; you cannot just go back and edit. The route is through NIS support.

1. Open a ticket on immigration.gov.ng. Use the Help or Support link in the footer. Include your application number, reference number, the centre you booked, the date of payment, and a clear statement of the correction needed.
2. Attach a screenshot of your NIN slip showing the correct value. Attach your NPC birth certificate where the name or DOB drift comes from the original civil record.
3. State the request plainly: "Please correct the name field on my application to match my NIN record exactly. The NIN record is the canonical reference." Or similarly for DOB.
4. Wait for a response, then re-verify. NIS support either edits the file directly and pushes it back to NIN Verification, or replies asking you to provide additional evidence.

Approval is at NIS discretion and is generally granted where the requested correction aligns the form with the NIN. Requests to align the form with a third document that disagrees with the NIN are normally refused; that's a NIMC correction, not a form correction.

Do not start a parallel application "just in case". Two open passport files attached to the same NIN cause both to stall at NIN Verification, and resolving the duplication is harder than the original mismatch.

Two things you should do while you wait:

• Keep the original support ticket open with NIS. Reply to it with progress notes — "NIMC correction submitted, awaiting new slip", "new slip in hand, please re-verify".
• Avoid further changes to either record once the correction is in flight. Editing the NIN again, or asking NIS to make a second form change before the first is verified, multiplies the workload.

Your payment remains valid for 12 months from date of payment from the date of payment, so even a multi-week NIMC correction does not expire the file.

Once the NIMC record matches the form (or the form is updated by NIS support to match the NIN), the next step depends on whether you have already attended the biometric appointment.

• If biometrics have not been captured yet, you simply continue the original application. Book the biometric appointment if not booked, attend on the day, and the file moves to NIN Verification with the corrected record this time.
• If biometrics were captured and the file then stalled at NIN Verification, you do not redo biometrics. Reply to the NIS support ticket asking for re-verification against the corrected NIN. The file should move from Verification to the Production Queue within a few working days.

Track progress via track.immigration.gov.ng using your application number and reference number. The status will read NIN Verification until it clears, then advance to Production Queue.