Mass exodus of liveaboard boats from Turkey

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dod

dod

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Following on from last year and as a direct result of the new 90/180 day visa law enforced by customs. Every 'real liveaboard', ie spending at least 9 months of the year on board, will now be leaving Turkey.
Many who were planning to visit Turkey have now changed their plans. This all looks good for the GREEKS. Of course there may be other reasons for leaving or staying.
Cruising in the 'Med' is becoming a challenge with various other countries imposing or enforcing new laws (legally or otherwise).
Is the cruising life being squeezed to extinction?
 
NOpe - only living in a country wihtout jhoining in is...

dod said:
.......
Is the cruising life being squeezed to extinction?
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IMO NO but living in a country without participating in society is being squeezed. If you spend a long time in ANY country then you should follow their laws and get the paperwork. Try staying in the UK for more then 180 days a year and you automatically become resident.

Surely cursing involves moving from place to place staying only a short time in each? if you are really cruising the MED then none of this is an issue. If you are living in Turkey using a boat as accommodation then that's another story.:rolleyes:
 
A resident's permit lasts as long as your marina contract, so if you want to stay year round you have to pay the price of annual contract. This means if you want to go cruising in Turkey throughout the summer it's rather an expensive way to stay in the country don't you think.
 
Carmel2 said:
A resident's permit lasts as long as your marina contract, so if you want to stay year round you have to pay the price of annual contract. This means if you want to go cruising in Turkey throughout the summer it's rather an expensive way to stay in the country don't you think.
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.... the Turkish Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs have now confirmed that they have agreed to the British Ambassador’s request to reduce the residence permit fees for British nationals to 60 Euros/$80/year from 1 April. Fees will be charged at $25 for one month and $5/month for each subsequent month. Further information is available from the Alien’s Department in your local area.

No ties to any contract but you need to show you have means and accommodation. Not that much different from the rest of Europe.
 
"Is the cruising life being squeezed to extinction?"

No; one of the greatest freedoms that our lifestyle affords, is the option to cast of the lines/up anchor and take ourselves and our homes somewhere else.

It seems that almost every year there's some 'scare' regarding cruising in Turkey, but the bottom line is that they're shrewd businessmen and there always seems to be a last-minute amendment/easing of the regulation to ensure the income from visiting and overwintering yachts isn't lost.
 
temptress said:
.... the Turkish Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs have now confirmed that they have agreed to the British Ambassador’s request to reduce the residence permit fees for British nationals to 60 Euros/$80/year from 1 April. Fees will be charged at $25 for one month and $5/month for each subsequent month. Further information is available from the Alien’s Department in your local area.

No ties to any contract but you need to show you have means and accommodation. Not that much different from the rest of Europe.
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I am not on about RP visa costs! You have to have an address as you say, and a marina contract is enough. But if you want to stay in Turkish waters as a full-time liveaboard you will have to have an annual marina contract as they will only issue RPs for the duration of the said contract, and to only use the marina for say 6 months out of 12 is a large waste of money.
 
Carmel2 said:
.....if you want to stay in Turkish waters as a full-time liveaboard .....
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So you want to live in Turkey is in effect what you are saying. So as with the UK, France, USA and most other countries in this worls you have to have paperwork and to get that you have to have an address. So find a way to get an address until you have the paperwork or go cruise and end up somewhere else. And yes it all costs money just less in Turkey than say the UK.:rolleyes:
 
I don't have any problem with paying and having the correct paperwork in order to stay in a country, I'm not expecting to get it all for free! (Believe me I know about paperwork, I was resident in France for 10 years!) I'm happy to contribute towards local services etc, but paying a private marina for a place that is not in use in order to get a valid visa seems ludicrous.
 
Carmel2 said:
I am not on about RP visa costs! You have to have an address as you say, and a marina contract is enough. But if you want to stay in Turkish waters as a full-time liveaboard you will have to have an annual marina contract as they will only issue RPs for the duration of the said contract, and to only use the marina for say 6 months out of 12 is a large waste of money.
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We have a 1 year contract with our marina - but we were offered up to 5 years residents permit provided we had suffucient funds to support our application.
 
tonybannister said:
We have a 1 year contract with our marina - but we were offered up to 5 years residents permit provided we had suffucient funds to support our application.
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I think different provinces do things in different ways, and as they say in Turkey, if you stand still for 5 mins everything will change! Certainly in Marmaris they required a copy of the marina contract and a letter from the marina reiterating the end date of the contract. We were also told to provide proof of funds without any specification of length of time they were meant to cover. My understanding also is that the RP books are either valid for 1 year or 5 years' worth of renewals, but each entry is only valid up until the end of the contract (in the case of marinas; of course if you have a property then it would be indefinite for 1 or 5 years). Ours is a 1 year one, we were never offered the option of a 5 year.
 
temptress said:
So you want to live in Turkey is in effect what you are saying. So as with the UK, France, USA and most other countries in this worls you have to have paperwork and to get that you have to have an address. So find a way to get an address until you have the paperwork or go cruise and end up somewhere else. And yes it all costs money just less in Turkey than say the UK.:rolleyes:
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personal visa is 90/180 maybe???? but boat transit log is 1 year.

Does this not seem a bit odd??
 
dod said:
Following on from last year and as a direct result of the new 90/180 day visa law enforced by customs. Every 'real liveaboard', ie spending at least 9 months of the year on board, will now be leaving Turkey.
Many who were planning to visit Turkey have now changed their plans. This all looks good for the GREEKS. Of course there may be other reasons for leaving or staying.
Cruising in the 'Med' is becoming a challenge with various other countries imposing or enforcing new laws (legally or otherwise).
Is the cruising life being squeezed to extinction?
Click to expand...

Is this based on fact or are you just making it up ?
 
It is suggested that a RP cannot be applied for until after a marina contract is signed. So when applying for the RP it will already have less than a year to run. In our case our annual marina contract started in June - our application was in October.

We had sufficient funds in our joint current account for us both to have a one year permit. We had sufficient funds in our savings account which was in my name only (this account could not be joint) for five years. So we were offered 1 year for wife 5 years for myself - we went for 1 year.
Amounts and periods are 2000 euros per person per year applied for.

RP's can be 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 years. This is the same as for people who rent property in Turkey. They must provide a tenancy agreement but could change address frequently. If they change address they must advise the authorities. We should do the same if we change marinas. If we do not renew our marina contract in June and still have a RP we presumably have to advise the authorities.

You are expected to maintain your residential and financial status throughout the period of your RP duration. Checks may or may not be made, with us the local police have already done so.

Yes region by region may differ in interpretation of the law. I am purely laying before you facts as per our experience in Izmir. The law is the same throughout Turkey.
 
Carmel2 said:
Can you let me know where you shop because 166 Euros per month doesn't go far for one, I don't think it would pay for a week's mooring let alone a month.
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The Turkish regulation states if you choose to offer a Turkish Bank account as proof of your financial stability they require you to have on deposit 2000 euros per person for each year applied for.

They did not require me to prove that I actually live on that amount if they had I certainly could not have done so.

I am trying to stick purely to facts.
 
tonybannister said:
We had sufficient funds in our joint current account for us both to have a one year permit. We had sufficient funds in our savings account which was in my name only (this account could not be joint) for five years. So we were offered 1 year for wife 5 years for myself - we went for 1 year.
Click to expand...
If you wanted a 5 year RP, especially on the basis that everyone has 90 days before applying for a RP, you can apply at different times, then transfer the money between you, into her name just for the day of application!

There are agents throughout Turkey that will actually lend you the money for the purpose of getting a 5 year RP! For a fee of course! ;)
 
satsuma said:
If you wanted a 5 year RP, especially on the basis that everyone has 90 days before applying for a RP, you can apply at different times, then transfer the money between you, into her name just for the day of application!

There are agents throughout Turkey that will actually lend you the money for the purpose of getting a 5 year RP! For a fee of course! ;)
Click to expand...

Quite so. It is something we did not realise until we were in the Izmir office. They would have also accepted a notorised copy of our marriage certificate to prove the funds in my account were joint marriage property. We could simply have put the funds in our current account, photocopied the statement and then transferred it back again. We learn as we go.
 
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