“Turkey 🇹🇷 ~Pakistan Visa and the Rest of the Story”

• October 22, 2020
• By Pen
• 6 Comments

Oh Pakistan!

Three days of visa drama, with surprise after surprise, but we are rolling with it. It also pays to be determined!

We took a cab to find the ONLY bank in Istanbul that receives the Visa fee for Pakistan. No money is exchanged at the Consulate. The paper we were given, with the instructions, were all in Turkish: bank name, address and how much to pay. We did get an honest cab driver, on this second trip, but he got lost trying to find the bank! He stopped at a gas station to get directions. Finally, we found the bank. We hoped it was the right branch. Note: this bank only takes payments between 12PM and 2PM. We arrived around 1PM, only to find the bank was closed for lunch! Are you kidding me? We waited outside, while the workers inside ignored us. It was raining and blowing on us.

Eventually, after 1:30PM the door was unlocked, but a kid was waiting ahead of us. They only let him in and said no to us. Daryl backed out of the door, and they shut it. NOT joking. The kid ahead of us was from Pakistan, so we were hopeful we were at the right bank! 

Finally, I’d had enough. I walked into the bank and said we would wait our turn inside. I was told, “of course you can sit in the waiting area.” 🙄 We sat and waited. By 1:50 PM it was our turn, BUT the fee to pay for the application was to be paid in US Dollars, not Turkish Lira like we thought we were told at the first consulate visit. We then left the bank and practically ran to the closest ATM to get dollars. A man at the bank assured us, we would still be able to conduct business, upon our return, because the ATM was near…(1/3 of a mile, one way). We got our cash, and ran back to the bank! It had quit raining for this marathon, so we were happy for that!

We were relieved to have been able to pay for our Visa fees all in this trip, for the time it takes and the price of the cab, though it was by the “hair of our chin chin chins.” Since it was well past 2PM, we were unable to proceed to the Consulate to turn in our application; as they close their Visa window at 2PM. Tomorrow, if we get all the host info in time, we will head to the consulate with our shiny new receipts. We paid for the $60 pp processing fees, we thought would be the equivalent of $9 pp. We had to ask ourselves if this was in fact the cost for the Visa itself, and not a handling fee. This clarity has been hard to get, even when I called them to ask.

The Visa application questionnaire is over the top, in terms of what we are required to provide. It’s a lot of fact-gathering on our “host” in Pakistan, too, and it feels intrusive.  For us, we have to provide info on our past employment and employers, PLUS, a list of all the countries we have visited in the last two years; including “dates of.” For most people the two spaces to report on would suffice, but for us, we had to add an addendum to the application for our 39 country visits! Fortunately, I have kept an ongoing tally on all these things!

We provided more info like: where are we planning to visit in Pakistan, as well as our start and finish entry point. In addition, we had to write a paper on “why do you want to go to Pakistan?” Answering a two-word “for tourism” is not acceptable. I used my best penmanship and hoped I would get an A+. We also had to provide our family history of names of relatives; including children and their birthdates.  The standard for passport-sized pictures we need provide will not do, either. So far, India is the only other country that requires a larger than passport photo, which we had to acquire. Luckily, we had exactly one photo each, left over from our two visits to India. Whew!

Because we have not been to Pakistan before, we are unable to apply for more than a single-entry; 30-day stay. I called the Consulate again to find out how much our visa (in US cash Dollars) will cost us, and was told; “I do not know, but perhaps more than $100 pp.”  Well that was a “clear as mud” answer. 

But, in an hour or so, when we are on our way back to the Consulate with our documents, we now know when we get in line for our “turn,” if the number is 800, we know this means we are eighth in que.

Practice Makes Perfect

It would take an extra day to collect the required info on our host in Pakistan, then get our papers in order and copies made.

This morning, we headed back to the Consulate, “armed to the teeth” with what we needed to get our approvals. Like before, we had to turn our phones in at the shack with the same man, as no phones are allowed in the courtyard. There is no long lines at this time, and our number was 023 and the que window actually matched 023. It was our turn, so we began the paper push, and in about ten minutes we were asked for our phone number. I told the clerk we did have a local SIM number, but I did not know it by heart. So, we had to go back to the phone shack to “borrow” our phones to write down the number, then go back to the clerk with it.

We were surprised to learn, that in two hours, we would get our answer on visa approval or no. We read online it can take up to six weeks and we were quite concerned for that, because we have already been back in Istanbul for over two weeks. We are rested up and rearin to go! 

Because the Consulate (normally) has to keep our passports all the way up to the approvals, AND at the same time, it is against the law to be a guest in the country without your passports on hand, we were put on the fast track. We opted to walk to a coffee shop and wait. While there, I contacted our host in Pakistan to let him know I was pretty sure he could expect a phone call from the Consulate. Sure enough, the call came within ten minutes of our leaving the consulate for the waiting period.

The good news is, we will have our answer, soon. Now, assuming we get approved, activity on my part will increase exponentially! Our 30-day Visa begins upon receipt (maybe today)? With that I need to buy our plane fare (last minutes definitely bites, but it’s how the cookie crumbles). Anyway, we can’t buy our plane tickets till we find a clinic with a 24-hour turnaround on PCR testing. We must prove a negative COVID19 test, within 96 hours of arriving in Lahore, Pakistan. The clock starts ticking at the time of the test. Here’s the rub, though; we can save $100 pp on airfare if we do one stop/layover, but that will take almost 29 hours to get from Istanbul to our destination of Lahore, Pakistan, and not to mention our connecting flight might not happen, due to the many, many things which can go wrong with connecting flights and layovers. If we pay more, we can get a direct flight in about five hours. We are aware that even direct flights can have issues, but we feel like it’s our best bet. 

Incidentally, when we go back to the Consulat in another hour, we suspect we might have to return to the same bank branch to pay for the actual our Pakistan Visa, which means, another taxi to the bank on the other side of the city, where they only take the money till 2PM. Can we make it in time? If we do, this would mean needing to go back to the Consulate with our receipt of payment, before they close by 3PM. This may or may not happen. Traffic is crazy in Istanbul, and the city is quite large. We will see what happens, but it may require more days and visits to the the Consulate to actually get our Visa. Of course this is all speculation at this time.

Hurry up and Wait is the name of the game!

We returned to the Consulate after tea, and water time, and were so surprised to be told we were approved! BUT, we were not given our Visa in our passports, yet. The clerk said to come back on the 28th, and gave them our passports back, for our stamp. Disappointed, (since it’s Thursday) I pushed for Monday the 26th, instead. (No, I’m not known for being shy or overly patient) 🤣 It pays to be bold, and the clerk agreed for us to return on Monday at 9:30AM. This will take a whole page in our passports (I’m getting low on pages, but that’s another project, down the road). Anyhoo, God willing, we will walk away on Monday with our stamps! We also learned the $60 pp we already paid was, in fact, for the 30–day Visa, and we were pleased for this, too! As challenging as this has been getting back and forth to the Consulate, it really has been our saving grace, because had we been able to apply on line, it would have most likely taken up to six weeks to get approval. Online applications go a lot faster form-wise, and they do not require our passports to be in their possession, ever; just an uploaded copy. The fact we have to have our passports on us in Turkey, allowed for a faster approval!

Next up, I will buy our plane tickets and we find a clinic to get our PCR tests done, which has a 24-hour turnaround and hopefully get to Pakistan by Wednesday the 28th. We’ve got some plates spinning, now, but I’m confidant we will figure everything out! I texted our host to let him know the good news. He is a dear, sweet man, and we can’t wait to see him! 

Here is what our host told us today, after the Consulate phone call; “Thanks to Almighty. The visa councillor was quite a nice person. He just asked me for assurance, which in my local language I gave him, in pure Lahori style.😃 He laughed and said OK. Anxiously waiting for your arrival. I know the flight reaches around 4/5 AM. I will receive you at the Airport. Welcome to Pakistan.”