turkey

kayabram · 12-07-2010 4:07pm #1

hey i just heard from a friend that she had to pay a fee at customs to enter into Turkey?? im going next week and its the first i have heard of it , anybody come across this??

rossie1977 · 12-07-2010 4:25pm

yes you have to pay for a tourist visa to enter turkey, it costs €15 if you hold an irish passport, this tourist visa allows you to stay in turkey for 90 days, there will be a booth near where they check passports in the airport of your arrival, you won't be allowed exit without the sticker on your passport first

wingsof daun · 12-07-2010 5:07pm

eek. I don't have visa, panic! I go to Turkey in a few days. Can I travel without and pay for when I arrive??

rossie1977 · 12-07-2010 7:18pm

if you hold an irish/british passport you can buy your visa at the turkish airport you arrive in

Pythia · 13-07-2010 7:54pm

wingsof daun wrote: »

eek. I don't have visa, panic! I go to Turkey in a few days. Can I travel without and pay for when I arrive??

Don't worry, no one gets a visa before you go. When you arrive everyone forms a big queue for the visa. You hand over the money, you get the stamp. Must be a nice little earner.

jinkybhoy · 14-05-2013 9:51am

Just an update on this - you can now get the visa online before you head

https://www.evisa.gov.tr/en/

jinkybhoy

tatli_lokma · 14-05-2013 10:50am

You always could apply for the visa before hand via the Turkish embassy, but its unneccessary. They are fairly prompt at getting people through the visa queue and usually your bags won't be out that quick anyway, so it doesn't delay you. I know that applying to the Embassy is more expensive than applying at the border - not sure if the e-visa is the same price as the border, there are no prices on the website.

Also, make sure you have NOTES for the visa, they will not accept coins. You do not have to pay the 'exact' amount as some people think, you can give a €20 and they will give you €5 change.

the visa is a multiple entry visa and lasts for 90 days, so you can leave and return as many times as you wish within those 90 days.

jinkybhoy · 14-05-2013 10:52am

Little Ted wrote: »

I know that applying to the Embassy is more expensive than applying at the border - not sure if the e-visa is the same price as the border, there are no prices on the website.
.

hi - the price is same online - 15euro or 20dollars.

tatli_lokma · 14-05-2013 10:54am

Thanks for that - good to know. Better than applying to the Turkish embassy anyway (and quicker!).

It doesn't apply to me anymore thankfully as I no longer need a visa to enter, but good to know for the rest of my family. It is handy if you are arriving late at night - one less queue you have to deal with after a 4 hour flight.

jinkybhoy · 14-05-2013 10:55am

Little Ted wrote: »

Thanks for that - good to know. Better than applying to the Turkish embassy anyway (and quicker!).

It doesn't apply to me anymore thankfully as I no longer need a visa to enter, but good to know for the rest of my family. It is handy if you are arriving late at night - one less queue you have to deal with after a 4 hour flight.

yep - we arrive at 1.30am so less queueing the better:)

tatli_lokma · 14-05-2013 11:02am

Let us know how you get on at the border. I'm just giving you advance warning that there is a possibility that some of the immigration police won't know anything about e-visas and might make a fuss. You might end up standing in front of passport control far longer than you would have queued for a visa! Hopefully this won't happen, but after a decade of experiencing turkish officials, I really wouldn't surprise me. It happened in Izmir only last month - the guard on duty had not encountered the e-visa yet, and insisted that the passenger needed to have a stamp in their passport. The chap tried to explain that it was an e-visa, but the guard said that the e-visa meant that you had been 'pre-approved' for a visa and you were supposed to still get a physical stamp! :rolleyes: Then the guard had to have a big conflab with the other guards, resulting in everyone standing around whilst they discussed it. In the end he realised that there was no need for a stamp, that once he scanned it he would be able to see the visa. Would have been quicker for the poor chap to buy 10 stamps! lol

Hopefully by now, and with the summer season kicking off they will be more familiar with it now.

zagmund · 14-05-2013 12:25pm

The one time I flew to Istanbul the visa queue wasn't terribly obvious and a lot of people missed it. They saw the big immigration queues and joined the end. When they got to the top they didn't have a visa and had to go off to queue for that and then start over. In the grand scheme of things it's no big deal as you will ultimately get into Turkey, but if it's 01:30 and you have tired & emotional kids & spouse with you then it will be a temporary big deal. The visa queue only had a handful of people in it at any one time - 5 or 10. The immigration queue had more like 500 or 1,000.

So . . . keep an eye out for the visa queue.

z

jinkybhoy · 14-05-2013 12:34pm

zagmund wrote: »

The one time I flew to Istanbul the visa queue wasn't terribly obvious and a lot of people missed it. They saw the big immigration queues and joined the end. When they got to the top they didn't have a visa and had to go off to queue for that and then start over. In the grand scheme of things it's no big deal as you will ultimately get into Turkey, but if it's 01:30 and you have tired & emotional kids & spouse with you then it will be a temporary big deal. The visa queue only had a handful of people in it at any one time - 5 or 10. The immigration queue had more like 500 or 1,000.

So . . . keep an eye out for the visa queue.

z

is it obvious where the visa queue is? flying into Izmir

tatli_lokma · 14-05-2013 2:14pm

Yes it's obvious. When you arrive into the main building off the plane you will turn right. About 100 yards or so along, on your left there are toilets, then the visa (vize) kiosk, and then there are the passport/immigration inspections. The passport checks are about 20 or so booths that you queue up for, similar to in Ireland. Trust me, with the amount of Irish that have apartments/villas/boyfriends in Turkey, there will be plenty of people who know the drill for buying a visa - so if you need a visa just follow them!

If you already have your visa, go straight to the passport check - these are manned by immigration police dressed in blue uniforms, so you will spot them no problem.

zagmund · 14-05-2013 2:26pm

Can't speak for Izmir (Little Ted already has), but in Istanbul they were reasonably visible but just a fraction of the size of the main passport desks.

The only gotcha I was flagging up was that most people (including me) trundle off the plane, follow the folks in front down the endless corridors and get to the immigration area in autopilot. It would be very easy just to continue following the folks in front into the back of the (wrong) queue or assume "ah sure I bet you can get a visa at the end of this queue".

Once you know of the visa requirement and the different queue (thanks to this thread) then you're laughing.

z

tatli_lokma · 14-05-2013 2:30pm

also, with Istanbul, if you have an onward domestic flight (i.e an onward to another part of Turkey) you still need to get your visa and clear immigration in Istanbul and then head to the domestic terminal. Bear this in mind when booking, as at peak times Istanbul is incredibly busy and you might find yourself in a mad panic to get to your connection. This will not be improved if you get on the wrong queue!

turkey

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