Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

My son and his girlfriend have just had a costly 12 hours stranded at Istanbul airport. They decided to book the two stop trip with THY via Ankara and did not realise they needed a Turkish visa for the internal flight; but that was not all. His girlfriend had less than six months on her UK passport which is fine for TRNC but not for Turkey. By the time this was all sorted out and fines paid they had missed their connection.

the 5 P's spring to mind Lol.

We have friends coming over later in the year, their return flight is Ercan to Istanbul, Istanbul to Ankara then Ankara to Gatwick, are you saying they will need a visa to do this journey.

Yes if flying via Ankara you need a Turkish visa and more than six months on your passport. The flight from Istanbul to Ankara is a fully internal flight and you have to go through immigration at Istanbul. Unlike when going on to Ercan. It is best to buy a Turkish visa online before you go as then it is only about £10.

If you apply for a visa on line make sure you have the Turkish visa website, scams going on charge you for getting it, you have to pay by card in dollars, works out about £12

Thank you for the advice.

Yes, you have to be careful which site you use. I went into one a few weeks ago which said it was the official government site, put all the details in, and was going to be charged 70 dollars! So, I went through the British Foreign office site and found this link.(hope it works) https://www.evisa.gov.tr/ it was 20 dollars.

You mention the 6 months on the passport being OK for trnc but not for turkey. We are travelling Pegasus to trnc in September and have less than 6 months on our passports when we fly back. As we have to touchdown in turkey do you know if we will be OK or will we need new passports?
Confused!

You mention the 6 months on the passport being OK for trnc but not for turkey. We are travelling Pegasus to trnc in September and have less than 6 months on our passports when we fly back. As we have to touchdown in turkey do you know if we will be OK or will we need new passports?
Confused!

You will be ok flying with Pegasus as you stay on the aircraft when you reach Istanbul and so are not in transit.


The butlers wife

Many thanks for the advice.

In my opinion I would renew your passports.
If the aircraft gets diverted or becomes unserviceable upon landing in Turkey, you may have to disembark and go through immigration.

I would renew passports you could have a problem when arriving back in the UK with an expired passport.

If you renew with a few months left on the old passport these will be added to the ten years you get with the new one.

Thanks to all for this advice. I have decided I will renew just to be safe. I must say I hadn't realised they expired just a couple of days within the 6 months. Bad timing I suppose.