Job Discussion Forums

[gadfly]

Hey everyone time for a new season of teaching in Turkey. I was just wondering if anyone else was having problems getting work visas in their own countries or if it is just me. It is the 11th hour and no visa. I am in Canada waiting and waiting. Anyway just wanted to know if there are other victims of goverment bureaucracy out there.lool
Teskkurler Gadfly

[yaramaz]

Mine is going very oddly. I sent my stuff to Ankara and they said it'd be done by now but it isn't. They couriered my passport back to me just now so I can get back into the country. Now they want me to enter on a tourist visa which will be changed as soon as they finish processing my new ikamet. The folder for this is in Ankara, and they say it'll be done in a month and there's no problem switching from visitor to work as long as the application has started to be processed, which it has.

They are having this problem because of a new rule which states that if you are changing schools you must apply for a new ikamet 2 months before your old one expires. I didn't even have a contract for a new job two months before mine expired. The other problem is that my new job is in a new city and thus the transfer can't be finalized until I get there to sign something. They can't seem to do inter-city yabanci approvals. Really weird bureaucratic stuff. At least they say I won't have to leave the country at all.

[ghost]

Last year when ghost was waiting for his papers to be processed his Kolej sent him (ghost) to the Education office in Ankara to physically pick up the magic document. Ghost was in Ankara at the time studying at Tomer, so this was not a problem.

The person in charge of this office was a grumpy old chain smoking guy who reluctantly dug into a 10 feet heap of documents and pulled out the coveted one for ghost.....

This only happened because the Head of the school in Antalya got on the phone to the guy responsible for the foreigner work papers.

The place in Ankara reeks of inefficiency....but in the end most people are satisfied. Ghost had to visit the place three times before the right office and person were located....

[dervish]

I'm gonna guess that because a neighboring country is hosting the Olympics this summer, many spectators have made Turkey part of their travels in association with the games. Remember that Turkey is a lot easier on the budget than Greece for people travelling from unwealthy nations, and western Turkey provides much of the same Greek history. I think they've probably been overwhelmed this summer with applications. Unlike my USA passport (I think Canada is the same), where I just plop into a country and they just stamp a visa, or I buy one for a fee. People from certain nations must apply way in advance for their visa. For example, just this year, they made it so that Russians & Ukrainians have to jump through burning rings of fire just to get a visa.

Note: This was not written by Johnny Cash.