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Moving abroad is fraught with anxieties wherever you choose to settle and the bureaucracy involved in gaining and then maintaining a residency permit is high on the stress-inducing list. In Turkey, permission to stay is granted via local passport police and their "creative" interpretation of the rules is the source of much invective on the ex-pat forums. In some areas $500 a month is considered enough to support an application, recently in Bodrum $1000 a month has been required. Some places accept proof of monthly pension payments, others require you to have the whole amount in the bank for the length of the permit, and so on with the other criteria.
This situation will soon (hopefully) just be a bad memory. A new Foreigners and International Protection Law was passed in April this year and The Directorate General of Managed Migration (DGMM) is responsible for implementing this law which comes into force in April 2014. Mr Atalay Uslu from the DGMM has been touring the foreign embassies and consulates to find out about the foreign demographic living in Turkey and is open to suggestions on how the new laws can be formed to make life simpler for non-native residents. He hopes to wipe out the discrepancies and anomalies in the present system and has already announced that Migration Management offices, run by the civil service with English speaking staff and a standardised rule book, will be set up all over Turkey and abroad. Offices are set to open in Aydın in December 2013 and in Bodrum, Marmaris and Fethiye by April 2014. These offices will also be offering Turkish language courses.
This good news was imparted at a Consular meeting chaired by Ms Deniz Korkmaz, the Bodrum Pro Consul and Ms Joanne Pietsch, Consular Network Co-ordinator, based in the British Consulate in Istanbul. The Bodrum Mayor, Mr Mehmet Kocadon, also made a cameo appearance to remind us what he looks like. About 40 people attended to hear what's new and what's not but I won't bore you with the details here. If anyone is keen to know exactly what was discussed you can email backtobodrum@gmail.com and I'll give you a summary.
If you have questions or suggestions you can contact Deniz Hanim at bhcbodrum@fco.gov.uk
