One of the main consular responsibilities of the Netherlands Embassy is to protect and promote the interests of Dutch nationals. Consular work includes among other things the legalisation of foreign documents, the issuance of Dutch travel documents, visa and statements; to conduct whenever required investigations on nationality and identity. In addition, the Netherlands Embassy takes care of Dutch nationals who are in prison in Nigeria.

What are the tasks, which are not covered by the consular responsibilities of the Netherlands Embassy?

To arrange better care in a hospital and prison than the local standard;

To pay the bill of the hotels, restaurants, medicines, doctors, etc.;

To pay the airline or train ticket for a return journey to the Netherlands;

To arrange for accommodation, work, work permit, reservation, etc.;

To get someone out of prison;

To pay solicitors or barristers fees or to pay a bail or guarantee;

To mediate in civil disputes;

To take charge of money, luggage, etc.;

To assist Dutch dual nationals who are in the country of that second nationality;

The opening hours of the consular section are as follows:

Opening hours for visa: 
The Netherlands Embassy advises visa applicants to read carefully the  checklist of required documents for visa applications. Failing to hand over the required documents may affect the decision of the Visa Officer on the visa application.

a) Website:
To make an appointment to hand over visa applications we direct you to the following website:  http://nigeria.embassytools.com. If the chosen time slot is green, it means that no appointments haven been made yet and that appointments can still be made. If it is orange, there is still room for more appointments and if it is red, the time slot is fully booked. It is only possible to make appointments a few weeks in advance. If there are no more slots available, you are requested to wait until new slots have been made available. Each week, on Monday morning, a next week is made available for appointments.

b) Counter:
08.30 till 11.30 for intake visa applications
13.45 till 15.00 to check status visa applications and to submit additional information

c) Telephone (number +234- (0)9-4612500):
13.00 till 15.00 only to check status visa applications

d)  ABD-STATUS@minbuza.nl to check status visa applications

Opening hours for legalisation (and for Dutch travel documents):

a) Counter

08.30 till 09.30 for making appointments

09.30 till 12.30 for intake legalisation applications

13.00 till 14.30 for payment and collection of legalised documents

b) Telephone for appointments (number +234- (0)9-4612500):
09.30 till 11.30 for appointment to hand over legalisation applications
13.00 till 14.30 to check status legalisation applications

Tariffs
Please see :  consular fees. The fees are to be paid in Nigerian Naira's according to the Embassy's spotrate.  
All payments have to be made by ATM Interswitch Debit Card.

Embassy hard to reach by telephone
The telephone lines of the Netherlands Embassy are regularly "rerouted" or blocked by touts. Sometimes the Embassy is therefore hard to reach when telephone lines are rerouted or when other persons pretend to be Embassy staff. Those touts often offer to connect you with the Embassy or that they will take care of the approval of the visa if you pay. They also promise you priority when making an appointment.

Please DO NOT get into this kind of practice but keep on trying to reach the Embassy. Our Embassy staff will not ask for money only with the intake of visa-applications at the counter according to the official fees as mentioned on the "Notice Board" outside the office. These intake costs can only be paid with a debit card.

The Embassy can not prevent the touts and persons blocking telephone lines. The Nigerian authorities are frequently requested to assist in the fight against the touts and others who are misusing the telephone lines for their own purpose, but without the expected result.

The Embassy is trying to counter the sub-mentioned problems daily.