Visiting Turkey? Make Sure to Print out Your E-Visa

Here is a little piece of (ironic) advice to keep in mind while you plan your summer travels: if you're visiting Turkey, print your e-visa.

The Turkey e-visa system is supposed to allow visitors into the country via "soft" copies, or visas purchased and presented on smartphones or computers. However, recently, that hasn't quite been the case.

The Telegraph has reported a series of stories in which passengers were turned away at their departure gates in the UK, as they did not have a hard copy of their visa on them. One of these incidents involved more than 30 passengers at a UK airport blocked from boarding an easyJet flight to Bodrum after being told that that they needed to print out their documents.

"Technical problems" might just be the root cause of all the visa confusion. The official website for Turkish e-visa applications advises visitors "to keep your e-visa with you either as a soft copy (tablet PC, smartphone, etc) or as a hard copy in case of any failure on their system.”

US travelers, who are not eligible for visas upon arrival in Turkey and need to secure e-visas before departure to enter the country, should also heed this advice.

The validity period of a Turkish e-visa begins from the date specified in your application to the next 180 days. Within that period, you can enter at any date for up to 90 days. If you plan on getting an e-visa online, the application costs $20 and should be purchased from the official site at least a week to 48 hours prior to traveling. And don't forget to print.

Visas on arrival, currently available to travelers from select countries, could soon be phased out all together. In fact, in 2018, Turkey announced a plan to remove e-visa kiosks from all airports in the country in the near future.