Turkey Travel Restrictions June 06th Update

New Updates: 

• Entry and Exit Requirements: 
  • Passengers departing from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, South Africa, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and those who are understood to be in these countries in the last 14 days will be requested to submit a negative PCR test report 72 hours before entering to Turkey, and these passengers will be quarantined for 14 days in places determined by the governorships. If the PCR test result to be made at the end of the 14th day of the quarantine is negative, the quarantine measure will be terminated. Passengers whose PCR test result is positive will be taken into isolation and the measure will be terminated with a negative PCR test result which will be made at the end of the 14th day. The flight bans to Brazil and South Africa ended within this framework. 
  • Passengers departing from the United Kingdom, Iran, Egypt and Singapore will be required to submit a negative PCR test result which has to be made maximum 72 hours before entry. 
  • When entering Turkey from countries not included in the first two paragraphs above, passengers will not be required to submit a negative PCR test result if they submit a document issued by the relevant country’s official authorities stating that they have been vaccinated at least 14 days before entrance to Turkey and/or have had the disease and cured within the last 6 months. Quarantine measures will not be applied for these passengers. If passengers departing from these countries cannot submit a vaccine certificate or the documents proving that they have had the disease according to the stated rules, submission of a PCR negative test result made maximum 72 hours before the entrance to Turkey or negative rapid antigen test result made maximum 48 hours before the entrance to Turkey will be deemed sufficient.
  • Except for passengers departing from the countries listed in the second paragraph above, people entering Turkey may be subjected to PCR test on the basis of sampling at their destination. In this context, passengers will be allowed to go to their final destination after the test samples are taken, and if the test results are positive, they will be treated in accordance with Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health COVID–19 guidelines. Passengers with positive test results will be quarantined for 14 days at the addresses they shared and if the PCR test results to be made at the end of the 10th day are negative, the quarantine conditions will be terminated. The quarantine conditions of those who are found to have an Indian variant will be terminated with a negative result of the PCR test at the end of the 14th day.
• On May 31, 2021, the Government of Turkey (GoT) announced a gradual normalization period to stop the spread of COVID-19, imposing a curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. from Monday through Saturday, and a full lockdown in effect during Sundays beginning at 10 p.m. on Saturday and ending at 5 a.m. on Mondays.
• The COVID-19 related restrictions apply to all citizens and residents of Turkey. Tourists are exempt from COVID-19 restrictions.  
• Hotel/Lodging/Accommodation Reservations: 
  • A hotel/lodging/accommodation reservation during curfew and weekend lockdowns will provide exemption from the curfew and/or intercity travel restrictions.

Country-Specific Information: 

• Tourists/Non-Citizens: 
  • Foreign travelers who are in the country for short trips and tourism are exempt from the curfews. 
  • Foreigners who are in the country as residents, under protected status, or international status, are subject to the curfew restrictions. 
• Grocery and Other Food-Related Shop Curfew Operating Hours:  
  • During the Sunday curfew supermarkets, green grocers, bakeries, and butchers will be open from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., individuals may shop for their essential needs at the closest store within walking distance (driving is not allowed).
• Dining Establishments: 
  • Dining establishments such as restaurants, patisseries, cafés, and cafeterias will be open for in-person dining and delivery services with the following restrictions:
    • In-person dining outdoor seating up to three (3) persons per table permitted
    • In-person dining indoor seating up to two (2) persons per table permitted.In person delivery pick-up (takeaway) service during 7 a.m. until 9:00 p.m on weekdays and Saturdays. Restaurant delivery
      • Monday – Saturdays: service available during 9 p.m. until 12 a.m.
      • Sundays: service available during 7 a.m. until 12:00 a.m.
    • Dining establishments in all accommodation facilities (hotel, motel, hostel, etc.), including tourist facilities, will only be able to serve guests with accommodation reservations. Only up to two people per table will be permitted indoors and up to three people per table will be permitted outdoors.
• Smoking in public spaces is banned.

COVID-19 Testing:

• Are PCR and/or antigen tests available for U.S. citizens in Turkey? Yes 
• Are test results reliably available within 72 hours? Yes 
• PCR testing while staying in Turkey for foreigners is limited to those who have symptoms, or those who may have an entry requirement back to their home country. Testing is paid for by the traveler.   
• The government of Turkey has updated their website with the list of facilities in Turkey that perform COVID-19 tests.  
• PCR testing is available at Istanbul Airport. There is no need for an appointment to visit the airport’s testing center, as it is open 24 hours a day and seven days a week.  The testing center is in front of Entrance 14 in Arrivals Hall. The test fee is 250 TL or about $35 for all ages. You must arrive at the airport at least 6 hours prior to your flight with a valid ticket and a valid passport, test results take up to 5 hours. 
• PCR testing is now available at Ankara Esenboğa Airport. There is no need for an appointment to visit the airport’s testing center, as it is open 24 hours a day and seven days a week. The testing center is located in the International Departures Terminal, past the checkpoint, on the ground floor by the First Aid Office. The test fee is 250 TL or about $35 for all ages. You must arrive at the airport at least 7 hours prior to your flight with a valid ticket and a valid passport, as test results take up to 6 hours.
• Passengers in transit, with less than six months validity left on their passports will not be allowed to depart the airport transit areas in order to obtain a COVID test.  Passengers who are unable to exit the transit area and require a COVID-19 test can request it at the transit area information desk.

Entry and Exit Requirements: 

• Are U.S. citizens permitted to enter Turkey? Yes
• Is a negative COVID-19 test (PCR and/or serology) required for entry? Yes
  A PCR test is required.
• Are health screening procedures in place at airports and other ports of entry? Yes
  COVID-19 control measures for air, land, and sea travel continue. Passengers arriving in Turkey will be required to complete an information form and will be checked for symptoms. Anyone suspected of having COVID-19 will be transported to a hospital for examination or to a dormitory to self-isolate. If an individual on a particular aircraft/vehicle/vessel is found to have COVID-19, the information forms completed upon arrival will be used to identify others have been in contact with them; those individuals will then be subject to 14-day isolation/quarantine.    
• Effective January 26, 2021, the United States requires all air passengers, including U.S. citizens, arriving from a foreign country to get tested for COVID-19 infection no more than 3 days before their flight departs and to provide proof of the negative result or documentation of having recovered from COVID-19 to the airline before boarding the flight.  The link at the bottom of the page in Local Resources has testing centers listed by each province in Turkey.
  • For information on limited humanitarian exemptions to the CDC requirement for a negative-19 test prior to entering the United States, please review the following page: 
  • https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/ea/covid-testing-required-us-entry.html 
• Passengers departing from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, South Africa, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and those who are understood to be in these countries in the last 14 days will be requested to submit a negative PCR test report 72 hours before entering to Turkey, and these passengers will be quarantined for 14 days in places determined by the governorships. If the PCR test result to be made at the end of the 14th day of the quarantine is negative, the quarantine measure will be terminated. Passengers whose PCR test result is positive will be taken into isolation and the measure will be terminated with a negative PCR test result which will be made at the end of the 14th day. The flight bans to Brazil and South Africa ended within this framework. 
• Passengers departing from the United Kingdom, Iran, Egypt and Singapore will be required to submit a negative PCR test result which has to be made maximum 72 hours before entry.   
• When entering Turkey from countries not included in the first two paragraphs above, passengers will not be required to submit a negative PCR test result if they submit a document issued by the relevant country’s official authorities stating that they have been vaccinated at least 14 days before entrance to Turkey and/or have had the disease and cured within the last 6 months. Quarantine measures will not be applied for these passengers. If passengers departing from these countries cannot submit a vaccine certificate or the documents proving that they have had the disease according to the stated rules, submission of a PCR negative test result made maximum 72 hours before the entrance to Turkey or negative rapid antigen test result made maximum 48 hours before the entrance to Turkey will be deemed sufficient.
• Except for passengers departing from the countries listed in the second paragraph above, people entering Turkey may be subjected to PCR test on the basis of sampling at their destination. In this context, passengers will be allowed to go to their final destination after the test samples are taken, and if the test results are positive, they will be treated in accordance with Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health COVID–19 guidelines. Passengers with positive test results will be quarantined for 14 days at the addresses they shared and if the PCR test results to be made at the end of the 10th day are negative, the quarantine conditions will be terminated. The quarantine conditions of those who are found to have an Indian variant will be terminated with a negative result of the PCR test at the end of the 14th day.
• As of March 15, all passengers arriving in Turkey (except the transit passengers) are now required to fill out “Travel Entry Form” at “http://register.health.gov.tr” within the last 72 hours before their flights. 
• Direct flights from Brazil and South Africa remain cancelled:  
  • All passengers traveling through another country who have been in Brazil and South Africa in the last 10 days will continue to be quarantined in places determined by the governorships for a period of 14 days following their entry into Turkey. 
  • PCR tests will be performed on the 10th day of the quarantine period and the quarantine of those who have negative test results will be ended at the end of the 10th day, the treatment of those who have a positive PCR test will be carried out in accordance with the Ministry of Health COVID 19 guidelines; the quarantine of those who do not have the PCR test will be completed after 14 days. 
• As of April 22, 2021, all passengers arriving to Turkey who visited India within the last 10 days will be quarantined for 14 days at places selected by the Turkish official authorities following their arrival. On the 14th day of the quarantine period, passengers are required to undergo a second PCR test and if the test result is negative, the isolation period will end. 
• Passengers of 6 years and older who have been to India within the last 10 days are required, before boarding, to submit a negative PCR test result with a sample collected within the last 72-hours prior to departure. 

Movement Restrictions: 

• Is a curfew in place? Yes
  • On May 31, 2021, the Government of Turkey (GoT) announced a gradual normalization period to stop the spread of COVID-19, imposing a curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. from Monday through Saturday, and a full lockdown in effect during Sundays beginning at 10 p.m. on Saturday and ending at 5 a.m. on Mondays.
• The Government of Turkey announced a four-tier system on local COVID-19 related restrictions. Provinces are now divided into 4 different risk groups: low (blue), medium (yellow), high (orange), and very high (red) based on infection and vaccination rates.  To view the map, please visit the following page: https://covid19.saglik.gov.tr/.  
• Tourists/Non-Citizens: 
  • Foreign travelers who are in the country for short trips and tourism are exempt from the curfews. 
  • Foreigners who are in the country as residents, under protected status, or international status, are subject to the curfew restrictions. 
• International Flights: 
  • International travel during lockdown hours will be allowed. 
  • Valid travel permits will not be required before airline, bus, train, ship tickets can be issued. 
  • If you are taking a domestic flight to connect to an international flight you do not need a travel permit. You do need to have information on both flights available to show local authorities if stopped. 
  • If you are travelling overland to another city to take an international flight, you no longer need a travel permit for the intercity travel portion, provided you can show proof of your purchased international ticket(s). 

Quarantine Information: 

• Are U.S. citizens required to quarantine? No
  If they have not submitted a PCR test within 72-hours of boarding their flight, or arrived via land border or sea port without a PCR test, they will be required to quarantine where they planned to stay.
• Foreign passengers who test positive for COVID-19 on landing flights will be referred to a private hospital by the Ministry of Health – Border Health Unit, whereas Turkish passengers will be referred to a state hospital.

Transportation Options: 

• Are commercial flights operating? Yes
  • Passengers should check with airlines for up-to-date schedules, work with them to address flight changes, and be prepared for possible cancellations. Passengers should also carefully review transit information and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) landing requirements when booking connecting flights to the United States from Turkey.
• Is public transportation operating? Yes
  • Buses, ferries, and trains are operating but there are limits to passenger capacity on buses and all passengers must wear a mask.  
  • During the weekday and weekend curfew, those aged 65 and over and young people under 18 and children will not be allowed to use public transportation vehicles (metro, metrobus, bus, minibus, minibus, etc.). 
• Transit passengers are not required to submit a PCR test in Turkey however they are advised to review the flight restrictions applied by the destination country regarding the PCR test requirements, age limits and the duration. 
• Passengers failing to submit a digital or paper copy of a negative PCR test result are not permitted to board the flights. 
• Given the strict travel and transit restrictions in the Schengen Zone, U.S. citizens who wish to transit via the Schengen Zone must have onward tickets to the U.S., and meet the Schengen Zone and U.K. exceptions as passengers in transit.  
• Some of the more common transit hubs for direct flights to the U.S. are Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, and Paris. For information on travel restrictions and transit regulations, please visit the relevant U.S. Embassy website in the country in which you will be transiting. Additionally, the European Union has created a website for researching transit and travel restrictions for all E.U. countries.  
• U.S. citizens traveling via passenger airplane are now able to enter the U.S. via any port of entry. For more information, please review the official Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announcement.  Air travelers are advised to include their travel document (Passport/I-551) information in their reservations to help ensure they do not encounter issues when boarding their flights. 
• Turkey lifted the ban on importing and exporting of pets as of May 1, 2020. We refer you to the airline websites for more specific details.
• The Government of Turkey requires everyone traveling in Turkey to present a Hayat Eve Sigar (HES) code. All persons must request a HES (Hayat Eve Sigar) Code for domestic and international flights, while staying in hotels, using inner city public transport, and at inter-city bus travel rest stops. This does not apply to foreign tourists.
• Information on how to obtain this HES code is available at Hayat Eve Sigar web portal. The procedure is as follows:
  • FOR THOSE WHO HAVE TURKISH CITIZENSHIP: Send a text message to phone number 2023 that includes:
    • the letters “HES”
    • your Turkish Kimlik number
    • the last four digits of the series number of your ID
    • the number of days you will be traveling, (we recommend adding 7 days as a safeguard)
      NOTE:  Put a single space between each item (e.g., HES 1234567 1234 09).
  • FOR THOSE WHO ARE NOT TURKISH CITIZENS BUT ARE RESIDENTS AND POSSES A KIMLIK: Send a text message to phone number 2023 that includes:
    • the letters “HES”
    • your Kimlik number
    • your year of birth
    • the number of days you will be traveling (we recommend adding 7 days as a safeguard)
      NOTE:  Put a single space between each item (e.g., HES 1234567 1972 14).
• On November 12, the government announced that obligatory HES codes are required for entering Usak and Zonguldak provinces.
• Airlines also have information on their websites in English about the HES code including:
  • Turkish Airlines
  • SunExpress
  • Pegasus

Fines for Non-Compliance:  

• We understand that a fine of 900 TL will be imposed on those who do not comply with the requirement. Similar to a traffic fine, these fines will be mailed to the individual’s home address, and be payable only at the following government-affiliated banks: Halk Bank, Vakif Bank, and Ziraat Bank.