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Visa

I’m going to ask this again in its own post and it seems like a dumb question but i’m going to ask it anyway.

Our flight to Sophia bulgaria this august takes us first to IST where we have a four hr layover before our connecting flight to sophia. After our best of bulgaria tour is over we will immediately fly to istanbul for our best of turkey tour. When we apply for our Turkey visa, we dont include the earlier date into turkey IST do we since its just a layover at the airport. We wont leave the airport.

Posted by
4600 posts

If you don't exit immigration, then you haven't officially entered the country.

However, given that the VISA is good for much longer than is needed for your Best of Turkey tour, you could put the earlier date anyway. It hurts nothing on the front or back end of your trip. And you can enter Turkey anytime during the validity of your VISA. You just can't stay beyond it.

I always suggest that people start their VISA early anyway. If anything changes with your flight, you may not need to get a new VISA.

Posted by
696 posts

I would include the earlier date on your visa.

A few years ago I flew Turkish Airlines to Venice with a planned stay in Istanbul on the return trip. I set the visa to become effective on the date of my return trip. Unfortunately, the first leg of the flight, from Atlanta to Istanbul, was delayed, and I missed the connection to Venice. Turkish paid for the hotel overnight, but I had to buy a second visa. (This happened before the new Istanbul airport opened, and so there was no airside hotel option.)