In our last article we explained the process we had to follow to leave our foreign registered car that we had brought into Turkey with Customs when we left the country for a temporary period. Now we will run through all the fun of releasing it from Customs at Dalaman Airport.

The receipt Customs had given me for my car was guarded with my life whilst I was back in the UK. The last thing I wanted was to mislay it and then have all the hassle of trying to prove the car was mine when I returned.

It was Saturday morning by the time we arrived back at Dalaman airport and, of course, the main Customs office was closed for the weekend. We tried our luck with the Customs guys working at the airport to see if they would release our car but, despite one of them phoning their boss, we were told we would have to pick it up on Monday when the office next opened. So we made our way back to Fethiye for the weekend thanks to a lift from one of our friends.

We returned on Monday morning around 11:00am. However the helpful guy we had dealt with before wasn’t around. Apparently he had been transferred to the Iraq border. Great we thought, now we’ve got to find someone who can help us.

Well you’d have thought that picking the car up would be easier than leaving it wouldn’t you, but oh no! We presented the customs receipt, signed the ledger and another set of forms came out which were duly completed and stamped by the Customs staff. We made a joke about whether they wanted to know our cats name when they were asking us for our mothers name, father name and place of birth. They laughed and started to warm to us at that point. It was now 11:30am and all we needed to do was to pay the car parking charge for leaving the car in the secure compound (4.50 YTL per day). The conversation went as follows:

“Do I pay you?”, I asked.
“No, you must go to the Vezne” (cashier) he replied.
“Where are they?”
“In the airport”.
“The international airport of the domestic terminal”
“The international airport”
“Where in the airport?”
“Over by the PTT, but you’ll not make it in time. We knock off for lunch at 12:00 and don’t come back until 13:30”
“We’ll see about that!”

{mosimage}We like a challenge so we jumped into our friends car and hurtled around to the international terminal departures ramp dumped the car outside the main doors, dashed in through the security check and made our way to the PTT which is at the furthest point on the right of the building. But when we got to the PTT we couldn’t see the Vezne. We asked the PTT guy where the Vezne was, “just around the corner” he replied. We found the small office and luckily it was open. We were also lucky, the airport was empty as no flights were leaving but I hate to imagine what it would be like doing that in the busy summer season! The guy dealt with us quickly and we ran back out to the car and set off at break neck speed down the ramp and back to the Customs offices where we arrived with big smiles. It was 11:45 and the guys were amazed to see us – ‘Wow that was quick they said’. We just smiled. We handed them our receipt from the Vezne and they handed my keys back plus a new form - a certificate showing the car had been imported on a temporary visa - another bit of paper I need to look after!

We took a leisurely walk over to the compound where the car had been parked. The guys were chatting away to us. I’ll swap you my car for your’s…..Oh no someone’s stolen your car…etc…etc. They opened the gate, I got in the car and it started first time. I stopped just outside the gate to pick up my wife. I got out of the car to thank them and they said ‘pop over for tea next time you’re over’. Maybe we will!