Turkey Entry Visa for Tourists

Turkey's tourist visa rules have changed more than once, and almost everything written about them before 2024 is now wrong. Here is where things stand, with the caveat that this is exactly the sort of rule that moves.

Many nationalities no longer need a visa at all

This is the big change. Citizens of the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia now enter Turkey visa-free for tourism for up to 90 days within any 180 day period. No e-visa, no sticker, no fee.

That is a reversal of the position that held for years, when British and American visitors bought a visa on arrival or an e-visa before travelling. If you remember paying for a sticker at Istanbul airport, that era is over.

Many EU nationalities have long been visa-free for 90 days in 180 and remain so.

Everyone else: the e-visa, in advance

Turkey still runs an e-visa system for nationalities that are not visa-exempt. It is applied for online, approved quickly, and you carry a printout or a copy on your phone.

The critical detail: walk-up visa desks at Turkish airports and land borders have been permanently closed. There is no longer any such thing as buying a Turkish visa on arrival. If your nationality needs one, you must have it before you board, and an airline will not carry you without it.

Apply through the official Republic of Türkiye e-visa site and not through the many lookalike sites that charge a service fee for filling in the same form.

The rules that apply either way

Your passport generally needs at least 150 days of validity remaining from the date of entry, which is stricter than the six month rule people are used to and is the commonest reason travellers are turned away.

The 90 days in 180 limit is a rolling window, not a per-entry allowance. Leaving and re-entering does not reset it. People who try to live in Turkey on tourist entries run into this, and overstaying carries a fine and a re-entry ban.

If you intend to stay longer than 90 days, you need a residence permit, applied for from inside the country.

Check it yourself

We would normally not end a page this way, but visa rules are the one thing where being out of date is worse than being unhelpful.

Turkey's entry requirements have changed twice in recent years and they are set nationality by nationality. Before you book, check the official Turkish e-visa site or the Turkish consulate for your own passport, and check your own government's travel advice as a second source. Do not rely on a travel blog for this, including this one.

What you are going for

Worth remembering underneath the paperwork. Istanbul alone justifies the trip: Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Basilica Cistern and a city that has been the capital of three empires and sits on two continents.

Beyond it, Cappadocia's rock valleys, the Roman city at Ephesus, the travertine terraces at Pamukkale and a Mediterranean coastline with more Greek and Roman ruins on it than Greece has.