Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that as of April 10, 2014, the visitor visa-on-arrival system will no longer be available. The visa-on-arrival system allowed persons of certain nationalities to purchase their visitor visas in Turkey at the airport upon arrival. As of April 10, all nationals who had used this system must use the electronic visa system instead.
The move toward elimination of the visa-on-arrival is based on the new Law on Foreigners and International Protection (Law No. 6458). This law also mentions in Article 13 that as of the same date, border authorities in exceptional circumstances may issue a visa-on-arrival for up to 15 days. So it is not clear if the announcement of the elimination of the visa-on-arrival system means that this 15-day visa option will be eliminated as well, or will be extremely limited.
Also specified in the new law is a new special visa exemption for those tourists who arrive at sea ports of entry and whose tourist activities will not exceed three days.
In April 2014, many changes are expected in entry processing, residence permits, and visas.
