Before anything else: the Nigeria Immigration Service does not call this card a green card. Its own pages, read on 24 October 2026, call it the CERPAC, and the one fee it publishes for a working expatriate is USD 2,000 for employed foreigners. Almost every naira amount and every processing time that circulates for this card comes from somewhere else.
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The name, because it changes what you search for
There is no Nigerian green card. The phrase appears on no Nigeria Immigration Service page we could read — not the CERPAC page, not the e-CERPAC page, not the application portal. If you search for one you will land on agents rather than on the Service.
The Service is not entirely consistent with itself, and that is worth knowing before you compare documents. Its CERPAC page gives the acronym in the body as Comprehensive Expatriate Residence Permit and Automated Cards (CERPAC) while the same page's title reads Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Aliens Card (CERPAC). Two expansions, one authority, one page. Quote the acronym and let the Service spell it out however it likes.
The fees the Service publishes, and nothing more
The payment step on the CERPAC page reads Pay the applicable fees online, and it ties each amount to the group it applies to. Read on 24 October 2026, and held in our reference data with a measurement date of 21 October 2026, those amounts are:
- USD 2,000 for employed foreigners
- USD 600 for Students
- Gratis for foreigners married to Nigeria citizens
Three things about that list matter more than the numbers. The page carries no effective date, so the date above is a reading date and not the date the fee was set. No naira amount is published at all, which is why you will not find one here and why we give no conversion: the rate that applies is the rate on the day you pay. And zero is a rate, not a gap — for a foreigner married to a Nigerian citizen the page says nothing is owed, which is the whole answer rather than a missing figure.
Our reference data records that third-party guides quote anywhere from USD 140 to USD 2,000 for the same card. That spread is the reason to work from the Service's own page.
And a conflict inside the Service that we are not smoothing over. If you are a student, the two official sources disagree. The CERPAC page says USD 600. The e-CERPAC portal lists USD 400 plus a USD 20 card delivery fee for the R7A student permit. Both are the Nigeria Immigration Service, and nothing we read resolves it.
Do not average them and do not pick the cheaper one. Open the portal for your own permit class, read the amount it shows for that class, and pay what the portal asks. If the two still differ, ask the Service in writing which applies to your class before you transfer anything.
There is no published deadline after you arrive
This is the claim most likely to be wrong in whatever guide you were reading, and it is wrong in a specific direction. The e-CERPAC page says the document eliminates the need for post-arrival regularization, because as it is processed and issued before the expatriate enters the country.
So a rule of the form "apply within so many days of landing" is not merely unsourced; it contradicts what the Service publishes about its own current product. We give no such period. What the e-CERPAC page does name are the visa classes it attaches to: R2A Employment (Expatriate) Visa – dependant on Quota and R3A Employment (Expatriate Free Zone) Visa. Those strings are what an employer's immigration adviser should be able to match to your offer letter.
Who the Service says may apply
The eligibility sentence is short and it has a threshold in it: Foreigners who wish to reside in Nigeria for a period not less than one (1) year may be eligible for a CERPAC. The categories listed are business owners, employees, students, dependents, and retirees aged 65 and above.
Read the threshold carefully. It is framed around an intended stay of at least a year, which is the test a short assignment is most likely to fail. If your contract is for less than a year, the question to put to your employer is not how to shorten the CERPAC but which permit class actually fits, and the Temporary Work Permit the Service lists separately is where that conversation usually goes.
The published steps, and the ones nobody publishes
The Service sets out five steps: submit an online application through the NIS portal; upload the required documents; pay the applicable fees online; provide biometric data, meaning fingerprints and a photograph, at a designated NIS office; after which the NIS processes the application and verifies the documents. The documents it names are a valid passport with a Nigerian visa, proof of employment, business registration or student status, and Other supporting documents as required.
That last phrase is doing a lot of work, and the honest reading is that the document list is open-ended. Now the part that is not published, and that we have removed rather than kept:
- No processing time. Periods such as four to eight weeks circulate widely. The Service publishes none, so we state none.
- No renewal fee. The page does not give one. Guides that repeat the application fee as the renewal fee are assuming, not quoting.
- No renewal deadline. Advice to file a set number of weeks or months before expiry is not on the page.
- No appeal route. There is no published procedure for a refused application.
Validity and renewal, in the Service's own hedge
There is no fixed validity period on the page. What it says is usually One (1) year and above, subject to renewal. That is a hedge, not a term, and it is the Service's hedge rather than ours. It also means there is no published two-year card and no published two-year price.
Practically, this makes the card in your hand the only document that tells you when your own permission ends. Photograph it, note the expiry, and start the renewal conversation with your employer well before that date — not because a published deadline says so, but because no published deadline exists to protect you.
What expats should know
- There is no Nigerian green card. The Service calls it the CERPAC.
- USD 2,000 for employed foreigners is the published fee, read on 24 October 2026.
- Students should check the portal. The Service's two pages say USD 600 and USD 400 plus USD 20 for the same class.
- A spouse of a Nigerian citizen pays nothing. The page says Gratis, and that is a rate.
- No naira amount is published. Treat any naira figure as somebody's conversion on an unstated day.
- Do not plan around a post-arrival deadline. The e-CERPAC is issued before entry.
- Eligibility starts at an intended stay of at least one year. Shorter assignments need a different permit class.
- No processing time, renewal fee or renewal deadline is published. Ask the Service in writing and keep the answer.
Where to check
The fees, the eligibility sentence, the steps and the documents are from the Nigeria Immigration Service's own CERPAC page. The pre-entry issue and the visa classes are from its e-CERPAC page. The amount for your own permit class should be confirmed on the CERPAC application portal. All read on 24 October 2026; none of those pages carries an effective date, so confirm before you pay.
AI-Generated Content: This article was created with AI assistance and may contain inaccuracies. Please verify important information with official sources.
Primary Sources
Last updated: October 2026
