The calculation of visa and customs days in Turkey is one of the most confusing topics I’ve come across so far.
These Infos are based on my personal experiences with my German passport and my in Germany registered car and what I’ve heard directly from other travelers in December 2022 up to May 2023.
I guess what makes it so confusing is this sentence from the official Turkish website about visas on Turkey: “The length of stay provided by visa or visa exemption cannot exceed 90 days within each 180 days.” (source).
From my experience this is absolutely right BUT the complexity begins when you want to stay more days after the 180 days of your initial stay have passed.
Travelers think they can calculate like the following example: You enter Turkey and the 180 days period starts. Within these 180 days you can leave and re-enter Turkey without problems. Every day you spend inside counts towards the 90 days you are allowed to stay within the 180 days timespan. So far, so good.
But now the complexity starts: One may think that when the 180 days are over another 180 days period will start and you get another 90 days in this period but that’s not the case. The Turkish border controls calculate your visa and customs days like this:
When you re-enter Turkey after your first 180 days timespan, the officials take the amount of days that you had left from your initial 90 days and add up the amount of days that have passed since your initial 180 timespan had ended. The result is the amount of days you are allowed to stay in the next 180 days timespan that starts with you entering Turkey.
One example:
You enter Turkey and use 80 days of the 90 days you are allowed in the timespan of 180 days.
You leave Turkey after these 80 days and enter the northern part of Cyprus or another country because you think it’s a nice way to get more visa days in Turkey.
After your initial 180 days timespan for Turkey has passed for 20 days you re-enter Turkey. So it’s been 200 days since you first had entered Turkey.
The amount of days you are allowed to stay in Turkey within the upcoming 180 days is: 10 days (you had left from your initial 180 days timespan) + 20 days (which you started “gathering” after your first 180 days timespan had ended).
And this “gathering of days” nobody would expect. But from my own experience and what I’ve heard from others, it’s what the officials at the border are doing.
The penalties for staying longer than allowed seem to vary a lot: One friend paid around 400€ for overdoing ten days. Another paid 30€ for overdoing 30 days.
Visiting Cyprus with your own car can be pretty interesting. Here is some info based on my stay and personal experiences from January to May 2023 with my in Germany registered car:
You can enter the northern part (aka Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, TRNC) from the Turkish mainland (most likely via ferries from the harbors Tasucu or Mersin to Girne or Farmagusta) with your own car.
Once you are on the island, your car is only allowed to leave the island via the northern part. The southern part considers your car as illegally imported and would not let it go off the island from a port on the southern part. You as a person may leave and come back without problems via the southern or northern part.
After leaving the ferry on the northern part, you have to get a customs document and a car insurance for the northern part. Both are easy to get at the harbor passport and customs control. For the insurance you can choose between several time spans and they are not very expensive. The customs document for my car was only valid for three months. They would not give me more. But when crossing to the southern part and then back to the northern part, you’ll most likely get another/ fresh three months. Or you can extend it at the “Department of Customs and Excise” (see on Google Maps). And it seems that the customs document for the northern part can run out when you are in the southern part without getting penalties for that.
On Cyprus you can cross the border between the northern and southern part (aka The Republic of Cyprus) in your own car. But because for the south the northern part is an occupied area, they don’t see it as a crossing between two countries.
When you cross the border. Make sure that you keep the customs documents you have received before. Only when leaving the south the last time, give the officers the customs document for the south. And only when leaving the north for the last time, give the customs officers the customs document for the north.
When crossing in your own car, I would not recommend taking the crossing “Deryneia Border Crossing” (see on Google Maps) because this one was the most complicated for me. But maybe just because I got to the most motivated border officers. The “Farmagusta Border Crossing” (see on Google Maps) is normally not allowed for foreigners. I made it through from the southern part once nevertheless. The other crossings are possible to take. But the “Yesilirmak Crossing” (see on Google Maps) is pretty small and I guess it could be complicated to get a customs document for the south at this one.
When crossing from the northern to the southern part, you need a car insurance. For EU citizens their homeland car insurance most likely covers the southern part. And you get a customs document for the southern part. You can have it valid for three months. When you cross from south to north and back you most likely get a new/ fresh three months. Or you can extend it in the customs office in Limassol (see on Google Maps). There should be a customs office in Nicosia as well.
If problems occur while crossing a border, I recommend just going to the crossing in Nicosia (see in Google Maps). It seems like everything is easier and less bureaucratic at that crossing.
Apart from these standard procedures there are some things that seem to happen pretty randomly to travelers.
I had to pay a road tax of about 400 Euro in the northern part. Only two out of ten other travelers had to do that. This procedure includes visiting the “Department of Customs and Excise” (see on Google Maps). I had to get a printed visa info which is only possible to get at the “Nicosia Police Headquarter” (see on Google Maps). After that Rosinante had to go through a technical inspection at this place (see on Google Maps). During this inspection a guy from that department first refused to give Rosinante the necessary permission. He pointed in the direction of the winch and just said they won’t accept that. I did not know which part he was talking about but me and a nice Turkish guy who came along thought that maybe he was talking about a metal guard which is mounted directly to the winch. We tried to remove it but did not succeed. So we just hid the part next to the engine. The guy from the department did not even check again and so I got the certificate… After that back to the first place, then to the “Vehicle Registration and Licensing Branch” (see on Google Maps) to pay the road tax and then back again to the first place to get the necessary stamp on the customs document. Easy.
When crossing from north to south for the first time the officers of the south forgot to register the car of a friend. When she wanted to go back to the north there was some confusion where her car had come in the first place. She nearly had to pay a big fee but refused and drove to the border crossing in Nicosia. There it was no problem, her car got registered, she had to pay nothing and was allowed to cross.
It’s not allowed to bring living animals from the south to the north. But a lot of travelers manage to hide and bring their dogs or cats.
The north considers some cars as military cars. If they do so, they will escort you to the border crossing in Nicosia to cross to the south but won’t let you drive around on the northern part. When you want to leave the island, they will escort you from Nicosia back to the port.
So if you want to spend some months on Cyprus in your own car, you can easily do this and it is a wonderful island.
And especially for car travelers it’s super nice because the island is not so big and most likely you will meet the same people several times.
But if you want to reset or extend your visa days with your stay on Cyprus, be aware that the calculation of your visa and customs days most likely will not be done in the way you expect it. More on another post.
From Istanbul, I went south to the region of Uludag mountain. I had loved Uludag lemonade for some time in my life, but that was not the reason for me to go there. Although, if there had been a waterfall of that stuff, I think I would have given it a try.
After visiting Istanbul, I felt like taking some time to unwind in nature and go hiking. When I reached the highest point that I was allowed to go with Rosinante, it felt pretty strange because that area was mainly characterized by large hotels. These hotels were closed for the winter season and when I was there, there were hardly any other people around. But I found a nice place to stay, and the next morning, I drove Rosinante to one of the hotels to ask if I could park her there while I went hiking. I met a nice guy and we talked about living in the hotel, the differences between the summer and winter seasons, and so on. During the conversation, I couldn’t help but be reminded several times of Stephen King’s novel “The Shining.” Not that the guy seemed to be a big fan of smashing doors and people’s heads with an axe. It was just the scenery and his description of the boredom and loneliness he felt, especially during the summer when there were hardly any people around, that made me think of “The Shining.” I guessed.
I hiked up the Uludag mountain and the feeling of just going up and up was amazing and liberating. The layer of clouds separating heaven from earth looked like a fluffy but dense bed. Seeing that dense layer of clouds below and the bright sun above me reminded me of the saying “no matter what, there is always light, but sometimes you just can’t see it.” I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to be under that cloud layer at that moment.
I reflected on what had been going on with me in Istanbul, and it was very interesting. By the end of my time in Istanbul, I had been feeling disoriented, confused, and kind of frustrated. I talked to a very good friend and she said that for her, cities are always about connecting to other people. And that made me think. At some point in Istanbul, I had felt like I didn’t belong there. Not in the city and not to the people there. I had talked with a lot of people, but I hadn’t really connected with them in a deep way. I had felt like a foreign body in an organism, like I wasn’t a part of the rest. I had let that make me feel uncertain about a lot of things and that had led me to think a lot. Being on that mountain helped me understand that I was disappointed about not connecting in a deep way to others during my time in Istanbul. Somehow my expectations had not been met and that had made me feel bad. I seemed to be unable to let go of these expectations and accepting that I could not let go as well. As I’m writing this, I feel different about all of that, but at that time, understanding this through thinking made me feel calm and positive. I felt like I understood myself again and that everything was perfectly fine.
When I got back to Rosinante, I felt hungry and tired, and I just wanted to find a place to stay for the night, eat, and relax. When I found a really cool spot, a car of the mountain rangers approached. I went to the two rangers and we talked via Google Translate about the beauty of the mountains and the wild animals. Then they said that I was not allowed to stay overnight in the national park. For me, that felt like it couldn’t be right because there were official camp sites. I asked if I could stay at that specific spot where we were standing at that moment, which was located in one of the official camps. They said I needed permission to do that. I asked if they could give me the permission, they made a phone call and told me that only managers could give me the required permission. So I asked where I could find a manager, and they said that both of them were managers. I felt a little confused about how this interaction went along and I felt my tiredness, but it was funny as well, and I was curious about where this may lead. I asked if they would give me the permission, and they made another phone call. After that, they said I would have to pay for staying overnight, and I told them I would be happy doing that. They asked me to pay via bank transfer. In Germany, a bank transfer takes hours or days to complete, so I was a bit confused and told them that I only had German bank accounts, and that an international transfer would take time. I asked if I could pay in cash, and then they asked me to follow their car to the headquarters, so we drove about thirty minutes to their headquarters. After getting there, I waited and got some tea. I explained to some police officers hanging around the waiting area that I wanted to stay for one night in the park and they told me several times that I would not be allowed to leave the car after sunset because there would be dangerous wild animals. After some time, the friendly managers brought me to the director’s office. I explained that I would like to stay one night at the spot I had found earlier. The director was friendly and approved of that. One of the managers gave me a form that I filled out, and then he asked me to pay via bank transfer again. I felt more tired, but I was still curious, and the whole process started to feel hilarious. I started to enter their bank account details into my Revolut app because I thought that one may be able to send the money way faster than my German bank. But they had no BIC code. Without the BIC code, transferring the money was not possible. The manager started to get frustrated and left me on the waiting couch again. I got tea, talked to some rangers and police officers, and waited. Some other rangers and police officers told me that I would not be allowed to leave my car after sunset again. And they told me that I was not allowed to go hiking without asking for permission. I felt reminded about the German bureaucracy. But there was one big difference: these Turkish guys were very friendly and helpful. After a pretty long time, the manager came back and took me back into the director’s office again. There I explained what I would like to do again: sleeping one night in Rosinante at that spot I had found. He filled out another form. I paid 25tl (about 2€) in cash, got a receipt, and after two hours, I was good to go. Easy.
