Turkey. How to arrange the stay of a foreign car

Those who want to buy real estate in Turkey are thinking not only about how to buy an apartment from in Turkey inexpensively and safely, but also about how to properly apply for a car.

The leading branch of the Turkish machine-building industry is the production of passenger cars, minibuses, buses, trucks, special equipment and their components.

Cars in Turkey are much more expensive than in the CIS countries. At the same time, the Turkish authorities are pursuing a strict policy to protect the domestic market and producers. For this reason, the prices for “customs clearance” of cars imported from abroad are very high and can amount to 100% of the cost of the car. In addition, the age of the car should not exceed 3 years.

The stay of a foreign car in Turkey, except for some exceptions, is limited by time limits. When a car enters the country, you will be stamped with an entry stamp in your passport. Your visa-free period of stay depends on the country of citizenship. It varies depending on your status – whether you have a residence permit or citizenship, or do not have anything yet, but cannot exceed 2 years.
After the expiration of the permitted period of stay (see the date in the stamp) You must take the car out of the country for at least six months. At the same time, the person himself must stay outside Turkey for the same period. If this condition is not met, it is no longer possible to re-enter the machine.

If you are legally in the country, before the expiration of the date of stay of the car indicated in the stamp, you can extend this period, but, as mentioned above, the car cannot stay in Turkey for more than 2 years.

If you have applied for citizenship (this is done over the Internet, and you print out the relevant papers for yourself), you can first extend the period only until the date on which you are scheduled to rendezvous (the procedure for issuing you documents with a residence permit)

After obtaining a residence permit, you can, on the basis of this document, extend her stay for a year, until the date of the next rendezvous. And then – until the end of the period remaining until the expiration of 2 years from the date of importation of the car.

But for this you need to collect and issue a number of documents.

If you have just arrived in the country and you do not have a residence permit, but only a rendezvous date:

First, you need to go to göçıdaresi Müdürlügü (an analogue of our migration service. In Istanbul, located in the Fatih district) and provide there a printed electronic document on the date of the rendezvous. (You may also need additional documents, for example, a real estate document (Tapu), or documents on the basis of which you are assigned a rendezvous date)
At the same time, you must explain to the official that you need a letter for the customs service (Oto Gümrük Müdürlüğü). They know what it is.
Officials check whether there is information in the electronic register about the date of your rendezvous and give you a confirmation letter. It may take several hours to wait for this email.
After that, you need to go to the special customs service – Oto Gümrük Müdürlüğü.

In Istanbul, it is located in Bakirkey, near the Ataturk Airport. Phone: +902124658015

There, after presenting your passport, car insurance (do not forget about it!), documents for it and a letter from göçıdaresi Müdürlügü, you will receive the long-awaited stamp in the passport with the new period of stay of the car.

All documents and procedures are free of charge.
Polite and courteous officials will tell you themselves – in which office you can make photocopies, where to take them to the chief for signature, where to stamp and where to hand over all photocopies for the office.

In Turkey, all officials are polite and courteous. Get used to it!