Hi everyone,
Not been in a position to add lately, Came back from turkey mid June and have been living in a caravan (no phone and certainly no ADSL!!) for the last few months. so appologies as usual i promise to add more stuff when things settle down but here is my exploits on trying to get a 5 Year multiple entry visa.
I followed a post on this forum that took me to a page that showed that it is available to UK pasport holders here's the link
http://www.turkishconsulate.org.uk/en/visafees.htm
Its not that i'm tight (read that as its because im so tight) i dont want to spend £4,000 for a residence visa if i could use a 5 year multiple entry visa which would cost me £375 for the whole family as I beleive children have to pay full price on the residence visa.
So I decided before I left Akbuk that one of the tasks was to attain this visa before I came back. I spent one month phoneing (every couple of days) the consulate and not once did I get through to a human. I had no choice if I wanted to find out if I could save myself £3,500 i would have to go personally.
In the end I decided to bite the bullet and make an appointment on their fancy automated appointment system (this last statement was going to read awful system but inbetween me booking 1 month ago and today they have completely changed the system and its now quite nice). So I had a morning appointment and went up the night before printed out all the forms etc and was ready roll.
I turned up 1 hour early and was let in through the security intercom, the foyer reminded me of a turkish bank on pay day, very busy and quite chaotic. anyhow I went through to the Information desk and started to ask the gentleman my questions and before I could get anywhere he refered me to Visa/naturalisation desk (i'm not sure what info he was giving other than what desk to go to?).
Waited in line and listened to the stories etc, one lady got told to go back to the back of the que as her appointment was 1hr later although the guy infront of me didnt tell the woman what time his appointment was just "Yes I have an appointment" he was served. well as my appointment was 1hr later I decided to not give my appointment slip and just announce that I had an appointment. No problem she was happy, smiled at me when I gave the photo's in and the 5 sets of application forms, the smile disapeared when I asked for a 5 year Multiple entry visa.
She said "We dont do 5 year multiple entry visa's",
I said "On the web site it says 3 month, 2year and 5 year".
she said "nope, never had one not got one!"
I said "What about your website?"
she said (Very authoritive voice) "I am the Visa official for this office and if there was a 5 year visa I would know about it!"
I said "Oh!"
she quickly followed up with "Thats just silly having a 5 year visa, you cannot stay in one country for 5 years, thats not a holiday, I suggest that you get a residency visa"
I said "But i'm not in turkey all the time"
she said "Well why do you need a 5 year visa then?"
I said "Well sometimes I want to stay longer than 3 months"
she said "Even if we did a 5 year visa you would need to leave after 3 months, what you need is a residence visa!"
I said "Thank you very much, I will conscider her information and maybe apply for a residence visa when I get Back to Aydin"
she said "You cannot do that, you can only get a residence visa before you go to turkey"
At this point I started getting really confused and thought maybe I had wandered into a post office or the foyer of my local DSS office as I felt she was missing the plot a little.
I said "My friends had just got their shiney new 3 year residence visa from Aydin not so long back and many others I know have done the same"
She seemed to chang into a hologram for a second before retorting "You cannot get a residence visa from Turkey after you arrive only before you leave from me here! and if your friends have told you different then they must know better than the official visa and naturalisation officer of the Turkish consulate"
I should of said "Well you said it, not me!!" but I didnt want any black marks coming up against my name when I return at the end of the month.
So what did I learn.
-Dont always beleive what you read on their website as she was adamant that it was not available.
-You dont neccesarily need an appointment for the visa desk just be forceful in your "Yes I have an appointment to get a ....."
-Maybe avoid using them altogether
I havent decided what i'll do when I get back, whether to get a residence visa or continue to do the 3 month tango to KOS we'll see, If I get any updates on this i'll let you all know.
Take care
Marc
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