Having a visa vignette embossed on your passport is not a sure guarantee that you would successfully clear immigration and customs when you travel abroad. The Nigerian passport is regarded as ‘high-risk’ ranked together with countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen. It is only wise that extra caution and preparation is put in place on your part to ensure you cross borders hitch-free.
I will provide some very useful tips from my travel experiences for you to consider for border entry whether in America, Europe, Asia, or the Pacific.
1. Have the documents used for your visa application handy. Borders are characteristically tense and immigration officers do not make it any easier. Border control officers can request for certain documents and if you do not have it, you can be subjected to a removal process or outrightly denied entry. In Slovenia, the immigration officer kept me for over one hour just to confirm my itinerary from all the countries I had visited in Europe. In Japan, the immigration officer had to call my Professor host at Nagasaki University before I was allowed entry.
2. Be prepared for longer screening as your passport may be excessively scrutinized and scanned. As far your documents are legit and you can coherently state the purpose of your travel, without prevarications, you should be fine. In Chengdu China, despite having a valid entry visa, I was unnecessarily detained for two hours because the border control officers doubted the purpose of my travel. I was allowed entry after I took it up with the Head of border control.
3. Expect and be prepared for random checks. In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia when I mentioned I was from Nigeria, I was taken to a room and thoroughly searched for drugs. In Schiphol, Netherlands myself and a guy from Pakistan were not allowed to board our flight to Houston, USA till we were checked for explosives. The flight was delayed by 20 mins. Also, in Zagreb Croatia, I was strip searched by 7 heavily armed immigration officers because they suspected I was a drug mule. My passport was temporarily seized and only returned after 45 mins of excessive checks.
4. Understand that border Police officers are also Immigration officers. In Oslo, Norway I asked a Police officer a question when I was trying to clear immigration. He asked for my passport and went away for over 1 hour. He came back afterwards and said he needed to run a comprehensive background check on me because of my Nigerian passport.
5. Check your bags once you collect it from the baggage carousel. Whether you are one that packed it or not, double check to be sure that nothing extraneous is in your bag. As a Nigerian, you are more likely to be stopped for dog sniffing inspection especially in Asia, Middle East, Europe, and many English-speaking countries.
6. Do not make new friends before clearing border control. For your safety, do not attempt to make new friends before approaching border control. This is because if the person turns out to be a drug mule or trafficker, you are likely to roped in as a suspect or collaborator. I will never forget my experience in Australia, where a Spanish guy I met and declined his friendly overtures, was nabbed shortly after with cocaine, marijuana, and crystal meth by Police officers.
7. If your friends gave you something to give someone, double check. When travelling the US for example, there is always an extra pre-screening check done from your country of origin. If any illegal substance, whether given to you by family or a friend is found on you in the US, you will face the law. If you are travelling to Asian countries, as much as possible do not carry any item for anyone. Ask them to courier it themselves instead. Asia is very unforgiving.
8. When your bag is taken for extra search. ENSURE it is searched in your presence. If it needs extra forensic screening, use a padlock or lock code to safely secure it. When clearing borders, it is usually your words against theirs.
9. When travelling within Europe, always have your passport even if it on a night train or bus. Apart from clearing borders when flying into countries, there are land borders too. If you are allowed travel only within Schengen area, do not accidentally cross into EU countries. This is because border patrol officers often stop trains and buses to check the passport of all the travelers on board. I travelled from Vienna to Slovakia without my passport and that experience was not so pleasant.
10. If you get into trouble do not be quick to bring out your passport first. Choose to pay a fine instead. In Milan Italy, I slept on the subway train and woke up at the last stop. On disembarking, all the passengers were screened by border control officers in police uniforms. They requested to see our ticket or hand in our passport. I asked to pay fine than to hand in my passport. I was fined 250 Euros If I had given them my passport, this would have impeded my future travels.
I hope you find these tips useful.
Safe travels.
