Dalaman immigration authorities stamp tourist visas with key words to clear up confusion.

Last June 2010 the Turkish immigration authorities started issuing new style tourist visa stickers at all their ports of entry to Turkey. The stickers contained new wording that suggested that individual visa holders would be restricted to a stay of 90 days in a 180 day period.

The issue of the new sticker created a month of speculation, gossip and conspiracy theories as to what the wording would mean.

On 14 July the reason for the change was officially announced and new restrictions were brought in for holders of the new style stickers. The changes would restrict the stay of citizens from 58 countries in Turkey.

However, the Turkish authorities had failed to consult on the changes and foreign embassies including the British embassy met with the Turkish government following complaints they had received from their foreign citizens.

The meetings resulted in a u-turn and a promise that if changes were introduced in the future a notice period of 3 months would be given.

So when in May this year the immigration authorities resumed the reissue of the controversial new tourist visa stickers at Dalaman and Istanbul airports fears were once again raised.

The British Embassy said then that they had not been notified of any changes and we guessed that it just the immigration authorities using up their large batch of the new stickers that had been printed.

But why issue an official document with wording that isn't valid?

Well the authorities have now clarified the position with the introduction of new wording stamped onto each visa sticker.

The wording says: 'Multiple Entry Visa' and 'Valid 90 days' in feint blue ink. See the image below.

This will be welcome news to regular visitors to Turkey or to those who can't/don't want to buy a residence permit, for whatever reason, as it seems that visa holders can continue to enter/exit Turkey as many times as they like and renew the visa when it expires.