Ireland Visa for Nigerians Living in the UK: 2026 Guide

TL;DR

A Nigerian passport holder living in the UK needs an Irish short-stay C visa for any visit to Ireland, whatever UK status they hold. Nigeria is visa-required and not on the waiver list. You complete AVATS, pay £51 for a single journey, and lodge your documents and fingerprints at a VFS centre in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham or Cardiff. London targets 45 days. Since 1 June 2026 there is no appeal, so the file must be right first time.

Yes, you need a visa

Nigeria appears on Immigration Service Delivery's list of visa-required nationalities, and the requirement follows the passport, not the address. The Embassy of Ireland in London states on its visas page that possession of a residence permission in the UK has no bearing on the requirement for a visa to travel to Ireland. Indefinite leave to remain, a skilled worker visa, a student visa, a spouse visa or settled status: none of them replaces an Irish visa.

Nor does the Short Stay Visa Waiver Programme help. That programme lets nationals of 22 listed countries who entered the UK on a UK visit visa travel on to Ireland without an Irish visa. Nigeria is not on the list, and ISD says plainly that no other nationals may travel to Ireland using a UK visa. Our waiver programme guide explains who it does cover. The British Irish Visa Scheme covers Indian and Chinese nationals only.

One more thing an Irish visa does not do: it does not let you cross into Northern Ireland or anywhere else in the UK. You come home on your own UK permission. Keep your eVisa share code or BRP with you on the way back.

Where you apply, and who cannot

If you live in England, Scotland or Wales you apply to the Embassy of Ireland's London visa office by lodging your application at one of five VFS Global centres: London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham or Cardiff, by appointment only, in person with your fingerprints. If you live in Northern Ireland you post the application to the Embassy's Visa Office in London by tracked mail. Our appointment guide explains the day.

The Embassy accepts applications only from people legally resident in the UK. If you are here on a visit visa, or you are waiting for a first decision from the Home Office, you cannot lodge in London. Both ISD and the Embassy's own checklist also require that your UK permission is valid for at least three months after the date you plan to leave Ireland. If your leave runs out sooner, extend it first; the file is likely to fail on that point alone, and nobody honest should sell you an application that starts with a known defect.

The fee

ISD's fees page sets the fee at EUR 60 for a single entry and EUR 100 for multiple entries. The London office charges £51 and £86 respectively, in sterling, with the figures moving when exchange rates do. The fee is an administration fee and is not refunded if the application is refused or withdrawn. Nigerian nationals are not on the fee-exemption list, so the fee applies to every adult and every child. VFS charges its own service fee at the centre, shown on the VFS booking page. You pay all of it directly; none of it passes through us.

Since 28 September 2026 the Embassy says applicants either claim an exemption or pay the fee online when creating the AVATS application, selecting United Kingdom as their current location if they will lodge through VFS UK. The same page says payment is taken at the centre when you submit, so carry a card either way.

The documents that matter most

The full list is in our document checklist and comes from ISD's how-to-apply page and the Embassy's London visit visa checklist. For a Nigerian applicant living in the UK, five items carry most of the weight.

Every passport you have held. ISD asks for a photocopy of each page of every previous passport and says your application will be delayed if you do not provide them. The Embassy's checklist asks for copies of all visas and stamps for all travel, not only UK and Irish. If an old passport is lost, say so in writing and include any police report.

Proof of UK permission. The Embassy's checklist lists a stamp, sticker or original BRP card valid for at least three months after your intended departure from Ireland, plus a photocopy. The checklist predates eVisas, so include the share code printout as well as any BRP you still hold.

Money that reads as yours. The London checklist wants statements for the three months immediately before the application, original or branch-stamped, showing your current address, your salary and enough for the trip, and warns that lump sum lodgements shortly before the application will not be considered. ISD's wider guidance asks for six months and a written explanation of any large movement. We collect six months. A spouse or relative in the UK who is paying provides a signed support letter and their own statements.

Ties to the UK. The officer must be satisfied that you have strong family, economic and social ties to the country you live in and will leave Ireland on time. ISD's own examples: your three most recent payslips and an employer letter on headed paper with how long you have worked there, your leave dates, your return date and your annual salary, dated within four weeks of the application. Students bring a college letter confirming the course and the return. Add a tenancy agreement, a mortgage statement or your children's birth certificates if those are what hold you here.

Every previous refusal, anywhere. ISD says not disclosing a previous refusal will result in your Irish application being refused, and the Embassy adds that an appeal is then not permitted and a bar of up to five years may follow. A UK refusal years ago, a Schengen refusal, a US refusal: declare each with its letter and a short explanation. Declared refusals are weighed; hidden ones are fatal.

Everything must be original, in English or with a certified translation, and nothing on a USB stick or shared link is read. Nigerian official documents such as birth and marriage certificates must be attested by the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be accepted. Travel insurance is not required with the application but can be requested, and you must hold it when you arrive. The Bundler and Compressor help you prepare clean copies for your own records.

Changing planes in Dublin

Nigeria is also on Ireland's list of nationalities that need a transit visa to pass through an Irish airport on the way to another country, as Citizens Information sets out. The London office charges £21 for it. A transit visa does not let you leave the airport. If you are flying to the United States or elsewhere through Dublin, check this before you book, and if you plan to stop in Ireland at all, apply for the visit visa instead.

Timing

The Embassy's processing times page gives a 45-day target for complete visit visa applications submitted to the London office, starting from the day the file reaches the Embassy, usually one working day after a London VFS appointment and two after the other four centres. ISD's general guidance says to expect a decision within approximately 8 weeks, longer if documents are missing or need verifying. You may apply up to three months before travel and ISD recommends doing so three months ahead. Both say not to pay for tickets before the decision, and ISD says it does not expedite applications, with rare evidenced exceptions such as a hospitalised relative in Ireland.

If you are refused

The refusal letter gives the reasons. Since 1 June 2026 there is no appeal against a short-stay refusal, apart from applications by family members of EU, EEA or Swiss citizens under the Free Movement Directive. The route forward is a new AVATS application, a new fee and a pack that answers each reason, with the Irish refusal now declared. Our page on what a refusal means now goes through it.

Doing it yourself, or with us

You can do all of this yourself for the official fees alone: the AVATS form is free to complete, the visa fee is £51 or £86 at the London office, and VFS charges its service fee. You pay each of those yourself, and the visa office alone decides.

Our prepared-for-you Irish visa service does the preparation for a £99 service fee, plus £69 for each additional applicant on the same trip up to five. We complete the AVATS form with your answers and give it back to you to check and sign, draft the letter of application with you, build the pack to the ISD list and the London checklist, flag anything that will fail on the official rules before you lodge it, and book your VFS appointment in your own name within 3 working days of your complete file, subject to availability, or your fee back. Your file is prepared within 24 hours of your complete documents and details, or your fee back, and you get a full refund if you cancel before we start work. We do not attend, give fingerprints, pay fees, advise on your UK status or promise an outcome. Start at the plan step. findmyvisa.co.uk is run by WayaNerd Ltd, company number 16269713.