Visa for Turkey
 

I have read in a few guide books and online that a three-month tourist visa is $20. So last week, I dragged my kids with me to the Turkish embassy in Washington to get visas for our family of 5. When I got there, they said that the visa is $35 each. When I asked about the $20 three month visa, they said they are only available upon entry into Turkey and they can't be purchased at the embassy. I didn't feel like wasting the extra $75 for the visas so it looks like we will wait until entry.

Again, I just find this a bit of a pain that I couldn't purchase the three month visa in advance.

Hi dlwalt,

I do not know how much time it took you to gather the kids and go to the embassy and ask your questions, but getting the visa at IST last month took us about 4 minutes. We did sit towards the front of our plane ( just plain ol economy class).

You probably know this, but go to the visa line FIRST with 20 dollars US in hand per person, it is just a sticker they put in the passport and voila it is done. We saw folks that were sent back from passport control to get the sticker because they did not stop first.

Because it takes under 5 minutes at the airport to get it and I was sitting in the last row of the plane and got very late to the visa booth. You don't need to fill out anything just hand in 20$ per person and you get little stickers you put in your passport.

Just remember to do this before you get in line for the immigration control. At Atatürk Istanbul Airport the office for the Visa is on the left side of the immigration stations. It is clearly marked.

I have entered Turkey dozens of times both by land and air and have never been to a Turkish Embassy. It takes just a few minutes at the airport and is more efficient than you'd imagine - most of Turkey is like that.

The wait can be longer if you arrive into a gateway that has a lot of charter flights (e.g. Antalya) - but you'd still have to wait for your luggage to come out - so it's not much of a loss even if it takes 15-20 minutes or more.