Ikamet Woes and The TRAPPED IN TURKEY Tour

I’ve been quiet about something that’s consumed me.

For the last eight weeks, I’ve been legally unable to leave Turkey.

If I REALLY needed to, I could… but I’d risk a large fine and potentially a temporary ban from the country.

Let me teach you a Turkish word: ikamet.

An ikamet is a residence permit, the document that allows me and many other expats to stay in Turkey beyond the duration of the 90-day tourist visa. I’ve had an ikamet for the last year.

The process of getting one used to be frustrating but relatively straightforward. The appointments are booked solid three months in advance, so it’s necessary to plan far ahead. Since my ikamet expired at the end of April, I booked my late-April renewal appointment back in January.

Eleven days before my appointment, the law changed, and everything became a bit more complicated.

As the Turks would say, UFF YAA

In terms of the law ITSELF, there wasn’t too much that was problematic, just inconvenient. Now it’s necessary to prove you have more money than before the law change, as well as insurance (which I already had), plus there’s more notarized documents to collect. (The information about the new requirements is nicely summed out here.) It’s inconvenient, but not impossible. My appointment this year went smoothly.

I expected I’d be told to return to pick up the document in a week—that’s what happened last year. But this year, when all the paperwork was processed, the police station issued me a receipt and informed me that the ikamet would be mailed to me within three months.

And I couldn’t leave the country without it.

I moved here to travel, so this news was seriously not cool.

To make matters worse, I learned from some of the expat forums I’m a member of that people started receiving their ikamets in three weeks’ time.

Except I’d already waited three weeks. I waited for four. Five. SIX. SEVEN.

The stress has overwhelmed me. I’ve found it hard to write, hard to plan, hard to sleep. Until recently, I couldn’t even get any information about where in the process my ikamet was, and why it was held up. To make things worse, the mail system here isn’t dependable. I gnawed my nails.

I still haven’t received the ikamet but I have received news. My resident permit has been approved and it’s in the system. It’s ready to be printed and will be sent to me soon.

Still, I am unable to leave Turkey, which scrambled my original summer plans. (I’ve been aching to go to Albania.) All is not lost. The next few weeks will be a new adventure…

The TRAPPED IN TURKEY TOUR!

The details are still unfolding, but the Tour will kick off with an adventure in Turkey’s Southeast! I fly to Gaziantep next week and will venture forth from there. Everything I want to see is in different corners of this vast country, so I won’t be able to fit in all the wonderful adventures Turkey holds… but whatever route I take, it will be a pleasure to explore even more of this rich, complicated country.

I refuse to let visa bureaucracy get me down. Turkey, ahoy!