Travel Buzz

So I’m set for my Europe trip with a few more days before my departure date. Schengen visa (check), euro money (check), plane tickets (check), and hotel bookings (check) are all in place. Then I realized that since I’m planning to go to Turkey, I will need a visa as well. As you know, Turkey is not a Schengen member state and I believe this beautiful country rich in culture and history has been lobbying for a while to become part of Schengen. But as to whether there are politics involved or not (your guess is as good as mine), I’ve been following this dictum that there are two topics that should not be subjects of conversation to avoid conflict: politics and religion.

So I googled “Turkey Visa” and found that the easiest way to get one is to apply online for the Turkey e-Visa. How glad I was to go thru the application process since it was the easiest and fastest visa application I had so far. I was done in probably less than 10 minutes with an instant e-Visa on hand. So here’s how it went.

1. Go to https://www.evisa.gov.tr/en/
2. Input your country, choose your type of passport, and your expected date of arrival in Turkey. For Philippine passport holders, you will get a validity period of 180 days (counting from the expected date of arrival in Turkey that you have indicated in your application) with a 30-day stay period. Not bad if you want to visit the country again within 6 months or go explore the whole country in 30 days. I chose the date of my arrival in Athens as my expected arrival date so that in case of any hiccups, I have the option to go directly to Turkey from Athens (since you can’t go there earlier than your visa effectivity).
3. The next page will ask you to tick the following boxes:

‡ My passport covers the period that I will be staying in Turkey.

‡ I can prove that I hold a return ticket, hotel reservation and at least 50 $ per each day of my stay.

‡ I am travelling for the purposes of tourism or business.

‡ I have a valid Supporting Document (Valid visa OR valid residence permit from one of the Schengen Countries, USA, UK or Ireland). E-visas are not accepted as supporting documents.

4. Then it will bring you to the next page where you will fill in your personal details, including your e-mail address where they will send you an e-mail verification that you need to confirm within an hour.

5. Once you click ‘Approve’ in the verification e-mail, it will direct you to the payment page where you are going to enter your credit card details. Cost of the e-Visa is 20.55 US dollars. There are several mode of payments other than credit cards, so you have a lot of options.

6. After the payment is processed, the next page will now have the link/button to download your e-Visa. A separate e-mail will also be sent with the same link/button.

See, no brainer. Writing this article even took more time than the actual visa application. With my e-Visa, I’m now really set. Europe, here I come.