Local Guides World
Reviews — 8
I came to do bvn alongside my wife which they told us its going to take 7-10days , and up till this moment we haven't gotten the bvn and all my efforts to call their office line prove abortive. This is not too good and our first time coming there with a terrible experience.
Best experience. First time applying for Nigerian visa and both ladies were exceptional with there customer service and knowledge assisting with my matter. I would refer anyone to them.
Today, we came with a family friend to OIS office in New York to apply for a Nigeria visa. The two staff members on duty Ms. Udoka and Ms. Phephe were amazingly helpful, respectful, friendly and above all very knowledgeable about their duties. They smile and have great customer service personality. I wish meet them again in my return trip. Thank you.
The experience was interesting. There were 2 ladies working in the office. The lady in the far right corner desk with an afo, was most helpful and displayed the best customer service. The lady at the middle desk, who assisted me wasn't rude, but had a flat affect. She seems sad and depressed, spoke extremely low, and I had to have her repeat herself several times, it was ridiculous! Like girl! Seek help. Don't let a job take you out like that! Anyway! She looked at my overnight express envelop that I purchased at the pst office and asked " did you do this?" I'm like do what? She said there are no stamps on the envelope. I said it's a $30 dollar overnight express envelope from the post office, which had the tracking and everything printed on the sticker lol. I'm like the post office have different types of shipping and you'll be shocked! So as we wrapped her this lady said you will receive an email 1-2 days before you travel. I'm like why would they email me 1-2 days before I fly lol whay nonsense is that? I said ummm my package will be mailed in that envelope right? This lady said I guess lol. I had to move on over to the lady with the afro for further clarification, be cause I felt my IQ dropping interacting with her. So the other lady clarified and said yes it will be mailed in my envelope provided and the email is just a automated email updating on the process. I said okay cool! Thank you! If possible seek help from the lady with the afro. That other one is too depressed to help anybody, hell she can't even help herself.
The sheer incompetence and lack of responsibility of this OIS office is very concerning. Where to even start, I wish I could give them negative stars because a 0-star rating is honestly too good for them. I have never given a negative review on anything in my life, but this situation is diabolical, and this is my resort to get some attention as they don't seem to understand the severity of their incompetence.
This began as an awful experience for a visa application. I, along with 2 other friends, went into the NewYork office for a visa application. The office employees had us running around the street to print documents, which, to be honest, was partly our fault as we did not have all our documents printed out. After putting everything together, we got an envelope from the post office clearly labeled with our information for our passports to be mailed to us since we live 6 hours away and would not be able to go back to the office to pick them up. We were supposed to receive our passports on February 17th at the latest as they were processed on the 15th and were to be shipped out in a day.
A week after we received the update that our passports had been processed and were ready to be picked up, we did not receive them. Mind you, this was a priority envelope that would only take a day to be delivered to us. We called the office to make them aware that it had been a week and we had not received our passports. After calling the office about 6 times, they finally picked up and claimed they had mailed the passports. The worker, and I quote, said, "this is why we don't answer our phones because we have to have these long, long, long conversations… I don't have time and it is rude as there is a client sitting in front of me," and then ended the call.
A week later, now two weeks after our visas had been approved, I received a call that my passport, which was supposed to be mailed alongside my friends', was still at the embassy and needed to be picked up. My passport was not mailed with theirs because it was processed later, and the worker claimed she had mailed out my friends' passports on the 17th of February, about two weeks ago, and claimed that it had been delivered. They communicated with her that it had not been delivered and that the tracking of the envelope had not been updated since February 5th when we bought it. It is now March 1st with no updates. She claimed she had mailed the envelope, which obviously is a lie as we haven't received it and the tracking number shows no updates. For all we know, she never mailed the envelope, mailed it to the wrong address or sold it. Mind you, she sent us a different tracking number with a different address, showing that the package had been received, proving that she sent their passports to someone else. Going back and forth with her, she now says the tracking number she gave us was wrong and that it was someone else's package that was delivered to them and that our package was delivered to us. Now our trip is in less than a week with no location on their passports, leaving us with no choice but to try and file for an emergency passport for them and try to get a visa from another embassy location within less than a week.
This is a complete violation of their personal data security policy, putting my friends' identities at risk as we don't have a location on their passports, and the huge financial burden this places on us since we have spent so much money already on our visas, flights, hotels and vaccinations all together about $10,000 in costs. This trip is a lab trip for school to Nigeria for our research on malaria fully funded out of pocket with some money raised from a gofundme and some support from our college president's office.
This is very frustrating as they are lying to us and have no idea where the passports are and we fly out in 7 days. We entrusted our passports to them believing that they would be returned to us safely; now my friends' identities are at risk of being stolen. We hope the office employees are held accountable and provide us with a solution ASAP!!
This began as an awful experience for a visa application. I, along with 2 other friends, went into the NewYork office for a visa application. The office employees had us running around the street to print documents, which, to be honest, was partly our fault as we did not have all our documents printed out. After putting everything together, we got an envelope from the post office clearly labeled with our information for our passports to be mailed to us since we live 6 hours away and would not be able to go back to the office to pick them up. We were supposed to receive our passports on February 17th at the latest as they were processed on the 15th and were to be shipped out in a day.
A week after we received the update that our passports had been processed and were ready to be picked up, we did not receive them. Mind you, this was a priority envelope that would only take a day to be delivered to us. We called the office to make them aware that it had been a week and we had not received our passports. After calling the office about 6 times, they finally picked up and claimed they had mailed the passports. The worker, and I quote, said, "this is why we don't answer our phones because we have to have these long, long, long conversations… I don't have time and it is rude as there is a client sitting in front of me," and then ended the call.
A week later, now two weeks after our visas had been approved, I received a call that my passport, which was supposed to be mailed alongside my friends', was still at the embassy and needed to be picked up. My passport was not mailed with theirs because it was processed later, and the worker claimed she had mailed out my friends' passports on the 17th of February, about two weeks ago, and claimed that it had been delivered. They communicated with her that it had not been delivered and that the tracking of the envelope had not been updated since February 5th when we bought it. It is now March 1st with no updates. She claimed she had mailed the envelope, which obviously is a lie as we haven't received it and the tracking number shows no updates. For all we know, she never mailed the envelope, mailed it to the wrong address or sold it. Mind you, she sent us a different tracking number with a different address, showing that the package had been received, proving that she sent their passports to someone else. Going back and forth with her, she now says the tracking number she gave us was wrong and that it was someone else's package that was delivered to them and that our package was delivered to us. Now our trip is in less than a week with no location on their passports, leaving us with no choice but to try and file for an emergency passport for them and try to get a visa from another embassy location within less than a week.
This is a complete violation of their personal data security policy, putting my friends' identities at risk as we don't have a location on their passports, and the huge financial burden this places on us since we have spent so much money already on our visas, flights, hotels and vaccinations all together about $10,000 in costs. This trip is a lab trip for school to Nigeria for our research on malaria fully funded out of pocket with some money raised from a gofundme and some support from our college president's office.
This is very frustrating as they are lying to us and have no idea where the passports are and we fly out in 7 days. We entrusted our passports to them believing that they would be returned to us safely; now my friends' identities are at risk of being stolen. We hope the office employees are held accountable and provide us with a solution ASAP!!
The young lady, which whom was helping me, was very unprofessional. She sat directly across from the waiting room.To describe her she is light skinned; had a black head band with Afro out. I think her name is Uokoye or name printed on their Desktop monitor. This organization is a whole scam!!!! I highly recommend going to vsf or some other organization not through a third party company!!!! These individuals can’t be trusted. Not after I have been scammed! I’ve filed a police report after the young lady made purchases through my bank account. Thankfully I’ve checked my account immediately after receiving notifications from my bank. Never ever again. I had an appointment and they persisted to charge me a walk-in fee of $55. On the companies website, it does not indicate or disclose a fee if you have an appointment all of these unknown charges were all surprises to me. On top of that prior to coming, I’ve made multiple attempts to contact the office the phone number does not work. Messages are backed; Plus, no one responds to your email or phone call. To print one piece of paper they charge $25 dollars, It’s best if you go across the street to FedEx. From what the young lady informed me a walk-in fee is $150.00 I’ve asked for a receipt nowhere on the receipt does it indicate why you are being charged? I was charged $55.00 I had an appointment. It doesn’t make sense. They are all full of rubbish. In reality, they don’t deserve any STARS.
This place honestly deserve 0 stars. Not even for the way they treated me, but they way they treated others who came for their services. I have never experienced such unprofessionalism in my life and this was my 3rd time applying for a Nigerian visa. There was no order in the office, regardless if you have an appointment or not. I was there for a 10am appointment and was addressed until 12:30pm. I had to go up and down to FedEX so many times, I cannot count. Instead of instructing persons once and clearly, it was as if they found joy in you going in and out the office. The website does not detail all you'll need for your appointment. So much was unclear. It was truly a disappointing experience; especially being that some persons have to drive from very far to visit their official, there should be more professionalism and more consideration taken.
No one answers the phone at all. The voicemail is full. Nor do they respond to emails. They have had my passport almost a week now and still have not mailed it. I do not live in NY so this is extremely distressing as my flight is in a few days. Very disappointing as there was no issue last time. (NYC office)