Wintering in Turkey

[daveg45]

Hi all,

I am considering leaving my boat in Turkey for 6 months for the usual winter visit to the uk. However the place does seem a bit of hassle. An enquiry to the customs official at Marmaris yielded the following information.

british citizens can stay 90 days in 180 days by 20 pound visa. your check in clearence with visas will be 250 euro.. when you come here you can apply the RESIDENCE vısa wife.

The residency bit required proof if income and health insurance and some other stuff.

250€ seems a bit steep just to check a boat in given my partner can only stay for a month. Is this the going rate for a 12.6m yacht British flagged?

 

[sailaboutvic]

Hi David
if it any help , Katie and Steve on ROB have been there for a few years now , if you want some info I sure they can help , if you havent got there email address i have it , just need to ask them if it ok to past it on , PM me or email me if you need it .
www.bluewatersailorcroatia.webs.com

 

[daveg45]

Hi Vic.

PM sent thanks

 

[daveg45]

Hi Vic.

PM sent thanks

 

[macd]

Hi all,

I am considering leaving my boat in Turkey for 6 months for the usual winter visit to the uk. However the place does seem a bit of hassle. An enquiry to the customs official at Marmaris yielded the following information.

british citizens can stay 90 days in 180 days by 20 pound visa. your check in clearence with visas will be 250 euro.. when you come here you can apply the RESIDENCE vısa wife.

The residency bit required proof if income and health insurance and some other stuff.

250€ seems a bit steep just to check a boat in given my partner can only stay for a month. Is this the going rate for a 12.6m yacht British flagged?

€250 is steep, even if it includes an agent's fee. Consider arriving somewhere you can do the formalities yourself, or at least where agent's fees are cheaper. Our last check-in, including cruising permit and agent fees (but no visa fees) was €140.

An Ikamet (residency permit), even under the new regulations, need not be as onerous as you've been told. As you may know, the letter of the rules seems to make these stipulations:
1) You must show a permanent address rather than a marina.
2) You must have an account of monthly 500 USD in one of Turkish Banks to cover living costs;
3) You must have health insurance.
My Ikamet has some years to run, so I've no immediate worry. However, I've been advised by Setur marinas (with whom I have a contract for next winter) that they have extracted the following interpretation from the authorities on behalf of overseas yachties:

Rules 1 & 2 have now been "cancelled";
The last I heard, a decision on Rule 3 was pending, but "we expect them to understand what a foolish enforcement they demand."

 

[Squeaky]

Hi all,

I am considering leaving my boat in Turkey for 6 months for the usual winter visit to the uk. However the place does seem a bit of hassle. An enquiry to the customs official at Marmaris yielded the following information.

british citizens can stay 90 days in 180 days by 20 pound visa. your check in clearence with visas will be 250 euro.. when you come here you can apply the RESIDENCE vısa wife.

The residency bit required proof if income and health insurance and some other stuff.

250€ seems a bit steep just to check a boat in given my partner can only stay for a month. Is this the going rate for a 12.6m yacht British flagged?

Good afternoon:

Yes, 250 Euros is a massive rip-off. Suggest you ask around for prices or even consider clearing in at Datca or Bozburun prior to arrival in Marmaris.

I have heard of a number of yachtsmen clearing into Turkey without employing an agent but I suspect that they have found a friendly official who have taken care of the on-line part of the clearance procedure. In reality there is a nice little scam going on which requires a Turkish ID number in order to complete the clearance on line providing a number of Turks with a nice little earner. It was once possible to complete the clearance personally if one was prepared to travel quite long distances between the various offices involved however technology caught with this and produced a system which foreigners could not navigate alone.

You can spend very large sums of money on line but not something as simple as clearing into Turkey but why should the authorities make it easy when if put a lot of agents out of work?

I suggest you check the Marmaris Bay Cruisers blog for up-to-date information on residence permits as they try to keep the information as up to date as possible. Check these links: http://cruisingtips.net/mbc/?cat=43 and http://cruisingtips.net/mbc/?p=1403

Why can your partner only stay one month? Citizenship in another country with limited terms for visas perhaps?

Before making firm plans you might check that you can find a berth in one of the marinas as they were turning yachts away last winter.

Cheers

Squeaky

 

[daveg45]

Hi thanks for the info Squeaky. I will check out the links you have sent me. My partner is Latvian and although European I understand from the customs guy at Marmaris that they can stay for 30 days and no cost for a visa.

 

[Squeaky]

Good afternoon:

I decided to check out the information on the MBC site and found it rather difficult to locate the one I wanted but the following includes just about everything concerning the residence permit that is known locally - http://cruisingtips.net/mbc/?m=201406

I think the whole business is a bit chaotic now because of the creation of a new department but hopefully will settle down and become easier or at least more certain as to how to obtain the permits in various areas.

Cheers

Squeaky

 

[Marsupial]

Good afternoon:

I decided to check out the information on the MBC site and found it rather difficult to locate the one I wanted but the following includes just about everything concerning the residence permit that is known locally - http://cruisingtips.net/mbc/?m=201406

I think the whole business is a bit chaotic now because of the creation of a new department but hopefully will settle down and become easier or at least more certain as to how to obtain the permits in various areas.

Cheers

Squeaky

Yes Squeaky absolutely correct, residency rules are changing almost hourly at the moment, total chaos reigns, every office says something different. Currently its impossible to determine what the requirement is all you can do is apply and see, but don't expect the requirement you are told at the beginning of the process to be the requirement you will have to fulfil at the end! NOT a very satisfactory situation and many Brits (those living in houses here not only yotties) have had enough and are leaving at the moment. IT will get sorted but its far from sorted now. The high price asked COULD be to reflect the difficulties the agents are having at the moment, instead of getting the job done in half a day its taking many days (sometimes) at the moment. No-one is happy, the local officials are unhappy because they are loosing their jobs, the agents are unhappy because they don't know what the rules are and the customers are unhappy because often they are unable to comply with the latest set of rules often dreamt up on the spot.

Its chaos!

 

[sailaboutvic]

Hi Vic.

PM sent thanks

just sent you a PM but I am not sure if it was sent , if you don't get it email me at my address and I will resant it from there .

www.bluewatersailorcroatia.webs.com

 

[Chatelaine60]

Bozburu is no longer a port of entry. You have to go to Datca, Bodrum or Marmaris in tha area. Altilla at Cine Tour Agents
in Dium marina told us last week that the rules are being relaxed again and the need for the medical over has been cancelled
but it all depends which office in Turkey you deal with.

 

[NornaBiron]

Wechecked in at Gulluk a month ago. No agent required (14.6m boat). Total cost, including a taxi to and from the customs office, was TL180. So, yep €250 does sound a bit steep!

 

[akyaka]

Marsupial, yes there are differing interpretations of details between offices, was it not ever so,but the rules aren't changing hourly and chaos most certainly does not reign . We recently renewed our Ikamets and from submission, to what is accepted by many as the most onerous polis office, Mugla, to receipt by PTT Kargo from Ankarra was 6 working days and that included the usual vist from the jandarma as we live in a village. The cost was 178 TL ( varies as based on a US dollar price) for the permit and 50 TL for the actual card.The only thing that was different from previous Blue Book renewals was the requirement to have full health insurance. For a year long permit they will not accept travel insurance but will if only applying for a 6 month permit but I believe that the policy will need translating and notarising.You need to ignore the advice of anyone who got a Blue Book and has not been in Turkish waters since the 11 April when the new rules came in . For anyone using a tourist 90/180 E visa the rules have not changed and essentially follow those of Schengen countries with need to do a convoluted countback to ensure that the 90 days in the previous 180 days are not exceeded. The good news is that they are separating the time spent on an E visa from that on an Ikamet, so you are able for example to leave on the last day of an Ikamet and return the next day with an E visa with a full 90 day allowance

 

[Squeaky]

Wechecked in at Gulluk a month ago. No agent required (14.6m boat). Total cost, including a taxi to and from the customs office, was TL180. So, yep €250 does sound a bit steep!

Good morning:

Would be very interested in learning the details as to how you obtained your transit log and especially who entered the information into the on-line system and printed the actual transit log. Who or which department did you pay for the actual transit log?

Cheers

Squeaky

 

[crisjones]

In Gulluk the info entry and printing is done by the Harbour Master, we added 2 crew to our transit log 3 weeks ago in Gulluk, all very friendly and efficient and no charge whatsoever for the change.
Not the same story in Bodrum though, we went to the Harbour Office today to remove the same 2 crew and were told we had to see Ali at the Mariners Association Office, Ali entered the changes and printed the new pages and charged 50TL for less than 5 mins work, then back to the Harbour Master for him to sign and stamp the document (no further charge).
We also witnessed three Gulet skippers having their logs updated with new crew (guests) by the Harbour Master with no recourse to Ali and his agent fees. The same crew change last year in Finike cost us only 10TL to the agent and we probably could have gone direct to the Harbour Master but we were not aware of that at the time.
It is obvious that some Harbour Masters basically franchise out the work so somebody else can charge an "agents fee" for very little work.
It would be almost acceptable if the charges were set by the government and were identical everywhere, but the current system of outrageous agent fees in most places is basically extortion for a service that the Harbour Master should carry out for free.

 

[Marsupial]

Marsupial, yes there are differing interpretations of details between offices, was it not ever so,but the rules aren't changing hourly and chaos most certainly does not reign . We recently renewed our Ikamets and from submission, to what is accepted by many as the most onerous polis office, Mugla, to receipt by PTT Kargo from Ankarra was 6 working days and that included the usual vist from the jandarma as we live in a village. The cost was 178 TL ( varies as based on a US dollar price) for the permit and 50 TL for the actual card.The only thing that was different from previous Blue Book renewals was the requirement to have full health insurance. For a year long permit they will not accept travel insurance but will if only applying for a 6 month permit but I believe that the policy will need translating and notarising.You need to ignore the advice of anyone who got a Blue Book and has not been in Turkish waters since the 11 April when the new rules came in . For anyone using a tourist 90/180 E visa the rules have not changed and essentially follow those of Schengen countries with need to do a convoluted countback to ensure that the 90 days in the previous 180 days are not exceeded. The good news is that they are separating the time spent on an E visa from that on an Ikamet, so you are able for example to leave on the last day of an Ikamet and return the next day with an E visa with a full 90 day allowance

Akya, if you don't think the rules are not changing b the hour come to fethiye and enjoy!! There are people here who have been given lists of documents they need to produce only to find the list has changed 1 hour later. There are people who have been asked to take out a specific health insurance only to find that the same official won't accept it a day later. My post did say people with houses, and sorry but at the moment it is absolute chaos - here - NOW. I have highlighted a couple of the main issues, there are many others like if you are over 65 go home! Yes we see that a lot, also one poor guy was refused because his papers were not presented in a plastic file in the order they were listed by the official. The list is endless shall I keep typing all night? However you are quite right I don't know what is going on all over Turkey but I am savvy enough to know what is going on here. And I'll say it again ITS CHAOS!

NOTHING CHANGES ON THIS SAD FORUM, THIS IS VERY DEFINITLEY MY LAST POST

 

[akyaka]

Marsupial unless you have gone through the system I would suggest you are reporting anectdotal evidence. Taking your main points if you are over 65 take out insurance the same as people below that age, Ankara Sigorta takes you to 70 as I am sure you are aware and SGK takes you at any age.Oh and yes I have a house and a boat and ours came through within two weeks and all we did was follow the rules as interpreted by our local office Mugla rather than just belly ache.

 

[NornaBiron]

Good morning:

Would be very interested in learning the details as to how you obtained your transit log and especially who entered the information into the on-line system and printed the actual transit log. Who or which department did you pay for the actual transit log?

Cheers

Squeaky

We went to the Harbour Master, told him that we needed to check in, he invited us to sit down, offered tea, completed all the forms and relieved us of TL145. We then visited the other officials. The police weren't able to see us until 1pm (it was 10am) so we went to 'health' and then customs. The customs officer asked where our agent was, shrugged when we said that we didn't have one, joined us in a taxi and took us to look at our boat from the quay (we were anchored off) and then to the police.

All forms stamped and returned to the harbour master within 2 hours of going ashore with no hassle and lots of tea.