Germany-based Nigerian loses job after embassy denied his passport renewal

A Nigerian man resident in Germany, identified only as Kelvin, has lamented how he lost a job offer due to the failure of the Nigeria embassy to renew his international passport in Berlin.

Kelvin told SaharaReporters that he had been in search of a job for years and when he eventually got an offer, the German company had to consider another applicant as they waited endlessly to have his passport.

According to Kelvin whose passport expired o Tuesday, it was a calculated action by the Nigerian government to upset the Nigerians in Diaspora whom they thought participated in the last year #EndSARS protest.

He further stated that he did not know what his fate would be though he had a resident permit from another country. He added that the German authorities do not respect foreigners without their international passport as most of the activities to survive depend on it.

Kelvin told SaharaReporters on Tuesday as he lamented the Nigeria Embassy asked him to call in September to know if the passport he had processed was ready or not.

“I had been searching for a job for a very long time here in Germany. And I was able to get an offer from one of the companies here. But after I spoke to the company on the phone, they told me to send in my documents but my passport at that time had five valid months more. So they told me to renew my documents and get back to them.

“So, immediately I contacted Nigerian Embassy and they booked an appointment with me. So the earlier interview was around three or four months’ time. So, I had to book it like that. I went to the embassy and I had my picture taken. My prints were taken.

“But at the end of the whole process, they told me to come back in September to get my passport which was to me ridiculous. As I’m speaking to you right now, my passport expires today (Tuesday).

“I’m stateless because I have no passport. Here, they only care about your passport, they don’t even care about your residence. This is because I have permanent residence from another country not from Germany. Even when I’m doing bank account in Germany, they only care about my passport.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen now. About the job opportunity, they had to call me that they are sorry that they have to move on with another applicant that has all the documents ready. This really devasted me. And I felt this is a deliberate action by the Nigerian government. Since the #EndSARS protest last year, we’ve started having this passport issue to renew the documents seems impossible.

“If you open the link to the Nigeria Embassy in Germany, the first thing that pops up is those who are given May 27 collection date should bother to come at all because they have no booklet. That means those people that are supposed to take their passport on May 27 must have taken pictures like three months ago or January or February. Now, they don’t have a booklet yet. They just took my own details a couple of months ago and asked me to come back in September.

“If those who are promised May don’t have hope of getting their passports, how much more of people that had their own pictures captured after. This is embarrassing. So many offices I need to go to, I will start explaining to them about the passport booklet in my country.

“I think this is a deliberate action of the government to frustrate us abroad. They think we are the ones sponsoring EndSARS, that we backed them and did a lot of go-fund-me and things like that. If they frustrate you here, you’ll have no time to reason with people in Nigeria,” Kelvin narrated his ordeal.”

While speaking he recalled that his two friends had a similar issue and expressed his displeasure as the media houses in Nigeria were not talking about the saddening issue which is ravaging Nigerians in Europe.

“Another cases in other European countries for example in Poland and Lithuania, they only give resident permits on a yearly basis or at most two years. Now, if you’re studying for a four-year course and you get your first permit a year ago which is going to expire this year, they expect you to bring in your passport to get a new one. They will never give you a residence permit or visa on an expired passport.

“This should prompt you to go home. We need to defer admission and spent a lot of money. Start going to embassies in Nigeria and reapply to come back to Europe. Maybe after you get your passport in Nigeria and I don’t know if that’s possible,” he added.