We have been planning a Middle East trip which included the following countries: United Arab Emirates, Oman, Egypt, Jordan, and then Turkey. To our surprise on October 8th, 2017, the United States and Turkey agreed due to political issues that both countries will stop issuing visas for their citizens. We were saddened to hear the news of the Visa Ban and thought our dream to visit Istanbul, Turkey was out the window. We vowed to hold off on canceling our hotel in Istanbul and our travel plans to Turkey. We figured since this news was about a month before our trip that it would be resolved when we got to Turkey. Unfortunately the Visa Ban still stands against Americans wishing to travel to Turkey, but we were able to enter the country through a loophole.
We had been hearing rumors on a loophole to enter Turkey with a United States passport. The rumor was that you have to be originating from a country other than the United States. That means you are starting your trip from somewhere other than the USA and not connecting through. We were set to depart Amman, Jordan on a Turkish Airlines flight November 12th, 2017. We were very nervous as to what was going to happen upon our arrival into Turkey. At the checkin counter no questions were asked on our United States passports and we were cleared for our flight! We both knew that the biggest hurdle was not over and we would have to wait on our 2 1/2 hour flight to Istanbul to find out if they will let us into the country.
After sleeping through the flight from Amman to Istanbul on a Turkish Airlines Airbus A321 we touched down into Istanbul Atatürk Airport. We taxied to the gate and started to walk to passport control to see what our fate was. Most of the passengers on our flight were Turkish citizens and the few Americans who were on our flight were just connecting to head back to the United States which was allowed. We decided to scout the area before approaching anyone. We both witnessed one eager American who had a long layover get yelled at for asking about getting in. I turned to Sierra and told her “It’s now or never”.
We first walked up to the visa counter and before we could speak to the agent she said “Americans go over to the far counter”. We both looked over and noticed an immigration control counter with several officers. We walked over to the officers who seemed less pleased to see us. We showed them our United States passports and they immediately began questioning us. We stated we came in from Amman, Jordan. They looked closely at our stamps and saw we only spent 2 nights in Jordan, they then handed our passports back and told us that we will not be allowed in Turkey due to only staying 2 nights in Jordan. The officer told us that we would have had to stay in Amman for 3 nights. We quickly explained that before our time in Jordan we spent 8 days in Egypt. He took our passports back and looked puzzled while glancing at our stamps. He then begin questioning on our exact days in Egypt and what day we arrived and left the country. Once we told him we arrived November 2nd and left November 10th he seemed as if we beat his game. He started talking to the other officers in Turkish and then he handed us a small piece of paper with a stamp. He told us to go back to the visa counter and gave us back our passports.
Since their currency (liras) was not accepted for payment of the visa, we went over to the ATM by the visa counter and got $60 USD ($30 USD per visa) to pay for the visa fee, then walked back up to the counter. The agent working was very surprised to see us again and took our cash and passports to place the visa sticker. She handed our passports back and did not say one word to us. Our biggest hurdle was now completed but we still had to go through passport control to get our stamp of approval into the country. We went straight to the officer at the passport control desk and again, he was surprised to see a United States passport. Once he saw the Turkish Visa he stamped our passports with no questions asked. We wanted to jump for joy but decided to keep professional since we did not want to risk anything!
For those of you who want to visit Turkey during the visa ban you will need to follow the following steps.
- You must originate from a country other than the United States
- You have to stay in a country other than the United States for at least 3 nights
- Upon arrival into Istanbul Atatürk Airport head straight to the visa desk
- You will then be directed to the officer desk where they will ask you a series of questions
- If you answer the questions to their standards and follow the rest of the rules you should get a small piece of paper with a stamp which you will then hand over to the visa agent
- You have to pay for the visa in USD which is $30 per visa and they have ATM’s by the visa desk that supply USD
- Hand over the small paper with a stamp, the visa fee, and your passport to the visa agent where they will place the visa in your passport
- Head over to passport control where they will stamp your passport (Not all cases are as easy as ours, you may be questioned here as well so be prepared!)
- Enjoy your time in beautiful Turkey!
