Visa procedures for Turkish citizens to be handled by Foreign Affairs Foundation

Foreign Affairs Foundation set to undertake visa processing for Turkish citizens wishing to travel abroad, ensuring that the majority of the revenue generated will be directed to the state treasury

The parliamentary commission has approved a proposal to shift visa procedures for Turkish citizens to the Foreign Affairs Foundation.

The change, proposed by the ruling AK Party, aims to centralize visa operations under the foundation, redirecting revenue to the treasury rather than intermediary companies.

For a long time, intermediary companies managed visa procedures necessary for traveling abroad from Türkiye. With the AK Party’s new proposal, the Foundation for the Strengthening of the Foreign Affairs Organization will also manage these procedures, with most of the visa revenues going to the state.

Providing information about the proposal during the commission discussions, AK Party Balikesir Deputy Mustafa Canbey said that 1.1 billion lira was transferred to the budget from visa activities carried out by intermediary firms in 2023. Canbey noted that this amount represented 20% of the visa revenues earned by intermediary companies, with 80% of the revenue remaining with these companies. According to calculations, the annual income of visa intermediary companies in 2023 was 5.5 billion lira. Of this amount, ₺1.1 billion was transferred to the treasury, while ₺4.4 billion remained with the companies.

During the discussions in the commission, Deputy Foreign Minister Yasin Ekrem Serim also provided information about visa intermediary activities. Serim said, “As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we receive visa intermediary services from 12 companies in 58 countries.

Depending on their geographical location, these companies are either local or proficient in this field. They are usually Turkish companies. Foreign missions in Türkiye also receive services from them. The reason is that there is a very large number of applications and documents in visa applications, so these visa intermediary services are used for sorting and processing them.” Serim noted that the new proposal envisages the foundation also providing visa intermediary services.

Source: Newsroom