Thursday, 5 February 2015

What you can't live without in Turkey


Folders, dossiers and a decent filing system.  We can manage with an irregular water supply, sporadic electricity and no Marmite but you won't last long here without a way of accumulating official paper work.  The general rule of thumb is to photocopy thrice every bit of paper that is issued to you from a government office and keep them all.  I am a lazy filer but I have a drawer where important papers are shoved and it can usually be relied upon to produce what I'm looking for, even though it does have to be completely emptied before I find it.  My husband periodically gets fed up with this and buys more folders which we fill with the contents of the magic drawer.  Six months later however, I guarantee I'll be back stuffing the drawer.  I've been reading the exasperated comments on Doc Martin's surgery for ex-pats from foreigners living here about the hoops they are having to jump through to get or maintain their residency and several seem to think that this extra bureaucracy is laid on especially for the immigrants, but dealing with government offices is just as complex for a Turkish national. I went to check I'd paid my environmental tax to be told that my council tax hadn't been paid since 2009.  We were presented with a computer printout with an impressive list of zeros in the "paid" column and a frightening figure in the "owing" one. I was confident it had been paid it but I now had  to prove it. This involved spreading the entire contents of the drawer over the living room floor and driving to the village house which also has "a drawer". Eventually every receipt was in place and we headed in triumph to the Municipality to hand over our proof.  The documents were whisked upstairs and 10 minuted later the official returned empty handed to say that we didn't owe anything.  I was extremely glad we'd photocopied all the receipts because I'm sure if this can happen once, it probably will again.

19 comments:

  1. Very impressive BB, so so glad you got it sorted. I am a sort of drawer - or folder- stuffer and one day wish to have a more proper filing system- huge benefits :) Selamlar, Ozlem

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    1. i have a lovely filing cabinet, but its almost empty. One day...

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  2. Sounds vaguely familiar! My husband is good at predicting what some bureaucrat will demand or mess up and has managed to keep track of all that's required. This does include keeping copies of more than I think is necessary but he's usually right! Axxx

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    1. Us Brit's aren't good at paper work as we aren't expected to keep reams of paper

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  3. I also have a "drawer" which I periodically empty and transfer to folders. I have learned from past experience to keep receipts for everything...for years...something I have to nag my husband about because he will often come away without receipts and I know that sod's law, these will be the ones that will be needed sometime in the future.

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    1. From experience you only ever need the paper you threw away

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  4. . . this really rings a bell in this household. When the house was built we slotted in an office (that is a great place to store bits from my radio-controlled planes) with a built in desk and a filing cabinet we brought with us from UK. In the cabinet and mostly in order are papers going back to the beginning of our life here. We do weed-out stuff from time to time, but this trove has proved its worth on several occasions. On the subject of the 'persecuted' foreigners - I pass on the excellent advice of my dear Turkish friend Emine, 'Alan' she would say as I bounced up and down in frustration and fury at the system, 'you must have acceptation!'

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    1. People here are born "with acceptation" it takes a while to acquire

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  5. Whoa! B to B. As an unrehabilitated drawer-stuffer, that sent a chill up my spine! Thank heavens, like you, I married someone who watches over and picks up after me. (I do find it amazing how many times one is called upon here to produce paper evidence of things that should be recorded in a computer somewhere.)

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    1. Strangely at work I am a very good filer, but I only do it when paid.

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  6. I left all that paperwork to Liam. I still worry that when we next touch down in Turkey, we'll be arrested for non-payment of some obscure bill that we left behind!

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  7. It seems quite a few of us have a filing system like the drawer you describe....it's always there somewhere....Well done for finding everything you needed.

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  8. I feel better to know that others have a drawer too.

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  9. Glad you got that sorted. :) Barry's the admin guy in our house and everything is in files. It is astounding how much photocopying goes on in Turkey...oh, and having passport sized photos taken, too. Never have I sat in the tiny back room of a photographer's shop so often to have numerous photos done and then they just get handed over...to someone...to go somewhere, who knows where. :D

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    1. It would be an interesting statistic to find out how many of out photos are in circulation. We could probably give the Kardashians a run for the record.

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  10. I try to keep a system up and running but in our house it's basically TT that is in charge, him being Turkish and all!

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  11. Our problem is that neither of us keeps on top of the paper work until we have to, and then there is 30 minutes of panic as we search.

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  12. I symapthise, BtoB. DH deals with our British paperwork, while I'm the one responsible for the French paperwork which fills the bottom drawer of my filing cabinet, as I daren't get rid of anything. Thankfully French bureacracy is gradually becoming quite efficiently computerised which helps.

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