New residency procedures

[MartynE]

Well, Fiona and I are now officially Turkish Residents!!

I know a lot of forum members have already gone through this process via the Foreigners Office in Kemer - but I believe we are amongst the first to have got residency through the new Foreigners Office in Kas. I have to say it was much, much easier than we thought and in the end it was completely hassle-free.

We were waiting for the Kas office to open for several months. It was originally supposed to be in January, and we were hoping we could get it done when we came over in February but it was still closed.... we debated whether to take the trip to Kemer in Febriuary - but we were only here for a very busy week of preparation for our final move to Kalkan in April, so we couldn't write off two days.... we returned to UK with seven days gone from our 90/180 holiday visas, hoping that we would be able to sort it early upon our permanent return to Kalkan in April.... 

April arrived, and so did we (in Kalkan) but the new office still wasn't open. Of course not... but, this time, we were getting geared up for the apartment rental season and still didn't have time to take two days out to go to Kemer.... a few nervous weeks followed... we were just thinking we would have to bite the bullet and go to Kemer anyway when we suddenly had news in early May that the Kas office was now open! Yippee!!!

Aaaargh... what's that? They are open, but not actually processing residency applications yet? Gulp. Double gulp, in fact.

Another two weeks passed and finally the announcement came - yes, they are open for business!! 

So, we went to the friendly stationer (opposite the taxi rank) to put together our pink "Dosyers" with all the relevant gubbins - application forms downloaded from the website, passport copies, TAPUs, copies of electric bills to prove address, letters from the bank to prove we have the necessary wonga etc. For a modest fee, our fab stationer put it all together (in the fashion apparently favoured by the officials in Kas), and also told us we should ask for the boss by name to ensure proper treatment... "ask for Mr Ibrahim, he will sort you out"....

So, last Thursday (6th June) we finally took the trip to the splendid new Residency Office in Kas. Well, it's just a small, plain, open plan office, actually, with a few police officers sitting behind desks. We walked in an looked for a suitable candidate for "Mr Ibrahim" and picked the guy who was not wearing a uniform.

"Merhaba," Fiona said... "we have been told to ask for Mr Ibrahim"...

Cue: laughter, mirth and merriment all around the office. The uniformed officers (both male and female) obviously thought this was hilarious.... rolling around laughing, general splitting of sides... The guy we were speaking to said... "I am Mr Ibrahim... why are you asking for me?" with a stern, deadpan expression.

We thought we must have made a dreadful faux-pas... but then his face cracked and he almost smiled...  "I guess you are here to apply for residency?  It's ok, but you don't need to ask for me. However, I will check everything for you."

From then on it was all plain sailing; everything checked out, he said. In fact, he told us that under the new procedures, UK citizens don't need to supply as much information as previously. He didn't need the electricity bills, just a copy of the TAPU for proof of address. Apparently the UK now has favoured status for residency applications. Basically, as long as you have the money and make the necessary declarations about your accommodation in Turkey, they are much more relaxed about it all than previously. All we had to do was take a couple of forms to the cashier on the next floor to pay our fees, and then take the receipt back to our new friend, Mr Ibrahim.

After that, it took a couple of minutes for him to process the information and for his uniformed colleague to do the necessary rubber stamping.

"Come back next Friday," he said, "and we will have your permits ready!

So we did. Yesterday afternoon, we went back to Kas (our second favourite town in Turkey) and picked up our two-year permits and we no longer have to worry about the 90/180 day rule. Celebrated with an ice-cold Efes in the Lola bar on Kas harbour. (Some readers might know the relevance of "Lola" to me, but that's another story...)

Phew. All in all, it was a pretty painless experience; they were actually very helpful (but efficient) and spoke pretty good English, which apparently was not necessarily the case at the old Kemer office.

Job done. We are legal!






Linkback: https://www.enjoykalkan.com/forum/index.php?topic=11176.0

[Lizilu20]

Congratulations Martyn and Fiona! I hope you will enjoy a wonderful life in Kalkan and thank you for sharing your experience re applying for residency.   

[onelove]

Hi MartynE,

We HAD to go to Kemer 3 weeks ago as my visa was due to run out the Next Day !

A bit of a nightmare, not a good experience it must be said. Left at 06:00 in the morning and
did not get back until 15:00 + still got to go back on the 20th to pick up our book, hey ho, that's life.

Congrats on obtaining yours, well done.....

[baclava]

Just missed the opening a few weeks ago, so will try again in September.

[samson]

kemer office is a nightmare. pleased we will not have to go there again. but the issued our "little blue books" on the same day. seems that was a first!

[Tatilde]

We've been to Kas this morning to apply for residency.
Only a couple of problems that were soon solved. The first being that the photos we took with us were too bıg and we had to have more taken. The second was that as the Tapu is in my name, my husband had to have a tax number issued.
As Martyn said, a lot of the paperwork we took with us was not needed.
We have to go back in a week to collect the permits.
The ease of the process was greatly helped by having a Turkish friend with us.

[MartynE]

Hi MartynE,

We HAD to go to Kemer 3 weeks ago as my visa was due to run out the Next Day !

A bit of a nightmare, not a good experience it must be said. Left at 06:00 in the morning and
did not get back until 15:00 + still got to go back on the 20th to pick up our book, hey ho, that's life.

Congrats on obtaining yours, well done.....

Did you get your Icamets in the end, onelove?

[onelove]

Yes we did thanks Martyn E.

Sat at Sydney airport waiting to catch our flight back to the uk, then got a flight back to
Kalkan, think we are going to be a tad tired for a few days 

Had a fantastic trip, holiday of a lifetime, albeit we both really miss Kalkan 

First thing we are going to do is go for a curry 

[MartynE]

Just remember you don't have to queue for a visa this time.....