Hello All. I will be doing a MR to Istanbul, and have learned that a Visa is required to enter Turkey. I will be in Turkey for approximately 6 hours (not leaving the aiport). My flight arrives in IST a little after midnight and I depart around 6am. Do I still need a Visa? What kind of Visa, as I am not leaving the airport? Also, any recommendations on the easiest way to obtain the Visa would help (i.e, wait until I am in IST and get it at the airport vs. get it before I leave the USA).
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Visa on arrival is easy and the preferred way to obtain it, paid for with cash in USD or Euro. My hazy recollection is that you can probably stay airside and avoid it, but I can't answer that one definitively.
VISA is $20, I didn't try to avoid but you can try first before paying.
Upon arrival stop by transfer desk (just to right before VISA area) to get your "invitation"
to Lounge in IST. and ask if you can go back thru to security.
I Paid Visa, went out of security, went back upstairs and checked into flight and got boarding passes then went to lounge. They wouldn't let me in and told me to go back to transfer desk, which is back downstairs. Took me a while to find, good luck and have fun, interesting overnight airport.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FindAWay
I had no problem paying the $20 with a visa credit card.
This is new. In the past, I had to pay cash, by handing my passport with a $20 bill over a crowd of people at the visa on arrival window. This is before you get into the immigration lines and it is worth racing to get to the visa window first to avoid a long wait. IME there has been only one official processing these things.
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If you don't intend to go into IST (go through immigration), and you have some proof of your onward flight (ticket, boarding pass), you should be able to go through Connecting Flights/Transfer security and back up to the gate area without paying for a Visa-on-Arrival. But between 11pm and 6am, I am not sure whether the connecting flights/transfer security is open though....
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FindAWay
I had no problem paying the $20 with a visa credit card.
That's nice to know. I do feel more secure with cash on-hand for these situations, when something like a network outage or broken machine could hamper ability to take credit cards, and the transaction absolutely needs to happen.
This is new. In the past, I had to pay cash, by handing my passport with a $20 bill over a crowd of people at the visa on arrival window. This is before you get into the immigration lines and it is worth racing to get to the visa window first to avoid a long wait. IME there has been only one official processing these things.
When I was there last week there were 3 officials processing these things. Total time spent in VISA line was about 3 mins.
(The actual immigration line was more like 30 mins at 2PM)
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When I arrived at 1am, there was no line at VISAs and immigration on took a couple of minutes, I came in on the KLM flight that only had abut 20 folks on flight. Yes, the transfer desk and security to flights was open 24 hours. I made the mistake of not going to transfer desk prior to going to immigration and I have to find the way back down the stairs.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by itsaboutthejourney
When I was there last week there were 3 officials processing these things. Total time spent in VISA line was about 3 mins.
(The actual immigration line was more like 30 mins at 2PM)
I've never really waited for either a visa, immigration, or customs in IST, just for check in counters to open, but I usually observe long lines behind me. Being among the first off the plane seems to help a lot.
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If you are not planning on going somewhere then there is no reason to go through immigration. No need to show anybody anything. Just follow the signs "Transit" until you come back to the departures hall with all the shops (it is a long and winding way).
When I do an overnight MR through IST, after dinner downstairs, I just head for the lounge (print return BP before I even leave home) and go to sleep next to the Russians waiting for the MOW flight at 140am. Pretty quiet until the KLM flight after that. Be sure and eat first because there is reduced menu after 1am-ish.
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The Visa is also good for multiple entries, each stay no longer than 90 days, for 180 days. For $20, it's good to have, just in case. As mentioned above, the lines for the Visa are generally very short.
In the past, especially departing from IST, despite being Star Gold and on one of the two occasions in Business, albeit on LH, I was told to wait in the regular customs line. The express customs lane is apparently reserved exclusively for Star Golds on TK or in Business on TK. I had arrived at the airport very late and almost missed the flight waiting the 40 minutes to get through. Not certain if this is common.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CHOPCHOP767
The Visa is also good for multiple entries, each stay no longer than 90 days, for 180 days. For $20, it's good to have, just in case. As mentioned above, the lines for the Visa are generally very short.
In the past, especially departing from IST, despite being Star Gold and on one of the two occasions in Business, albeit on LH, I was told to wait in the regular customs line. The express customs lane is apparently reserved exclusively for Star Golds on TK or in Business on TK. I had arrived at the airport very late and almost missed the flight waiting the 40 minutes to get through. Not certain if this is common.
IIRC A3 offers some sort of fast pass benefit at IST. Their *Golds might be allowed to use this line too.
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