Getting a Syrian Visa...

Istanbul, Turkey

 

Interested in what it takes to get a Syrian visa in Istanbul? If so, read on...

 

I left the hostel this morning around 7.30am to head across town to the Syrian Consulate. Like with anything government related, I figured I'd get there as early as reasonably possible so that I could avoid any potential lines. I also didn't really know how to get there, so I figured I'd be walking a good amount since I didn't want to pay for a taxi and the public transportation that I did take, only took me about 2/3 of the way there.

 

I actually found the office building fairly easy, the consulate is nothing more then a small office in an office building in the "new" part of Istanbul. Unfortunately, when I got there around 8.45am, I learned that while the consulate opens at 9am, the visa application desk does not open until 9.30am, so with about 45 minutes to burn I wandered around looking for quick bite to eat for breakfast.

 

By 9am, I was back in the visa "waiting room" with about 4 other Turkish men, figuring I would just sit out the 30 minutes until they opened. One thing with getting a Syrian visa is that technically speaking you need a "Letter of Recommendation" from your home embassy. I had read some conflicting reports online as to whether or not the consulate in Istanbul was enforcing this. Since I couldn't get a letter before they opened, I figured I'd just try getting my visa with a "Letter of Application", that I typed up in Word the night before. I didn't try and make my letter to official looking, for fear of getting caught in some sort of "impersonating the consulate" scheme, but it did at least sound official... ;)

 

So at 9.30am, the Syrian women opens the blinds to her office and starts accepting applications. When I get up there, I present my passport, two photos and my letter. My letter almost passed, it got a pretty good inspection, but she was concerned that there was no letterhead and in the end rejected it. I suspect if I had just typed "CANADA" across the top, I'd have been fine. So, it's 9.45am and I now have to race down to the Canadian Consulate to get this damn letter. Like most government offices, the Syrian Consulate keeps crazy hours. In the case of visa applications, they are open from 9.30am to 11.00am .. . Yes, just 90 minutes a day, gotta love it. Since the Canadian Consulate is a few kilometers away, I decide to hop in a taxi to speed things up. Problem is, the taxi can only go 3/4 of the way there because the consulate is down a pedestrian only street, and at the "wrong" end from where I was coming from. So I hop out of the taxi and start speed walking down the pedestrian mall looking for the office building that houses the Canadian Consulate.

 

A quick detour in the story to state the following:

 

Umbrellas should not be allowed in crowded areas.

 

Since it's raining out, the street is a mess of mud and puddles and is fairly busy with people walking around with umbrellas. If you've ever been in a hurry to get somewhere, having to deal with people is hassle enough. Having to deal with people toting umbrellas, in the rain, on a muddy and slippery cobblestone street is just a pain in the ass. If I was mayor, I'd outlaw umbrellas within the city limits... But I'm not mayor at least no yet.

 

Anyways, I end up finding the Canadian Consulate, run up a few flights of stairs and politely ask for a letter of recommendation. In a bout of bureaucratic amazement, the friendly Canadian working, who happens to be Turkish and has never visited Canada, is able to *type* up the letter in less then 10 minutes while I wait... Simply amazing. The downside? For her quick work I was charged 57 Lira, which is about 57 Canadian dollars or 40-something US. (Note the letter is about 4 sentences long and simply says, "Mr Carruthers is a Canadian.") Sadly, she was almost too friendly and starting striking up a conversation with me. Sorry, no time for that, gotta get back to the Syrians. So it's out the door, back down the wet umbrella packed street, this time taking a side street a few blocks over in hopes of catching a taxi on an adjacent main drag, which I do and get whisked back up to where the Syrian Consulate is.

 

Back at the Syrian Consulate, I present my new "official" letter, two passport photos and my passport. This time I get a bit further and get handed two identical application forms asking for things like "Name, DOB, Passport Info, Addresses, etc..." As the Syrian hands them to me she says "These need to be typed out, not written..." Now, I suspect most people would probably look in disbelief at her but I had been warned of this. I replied, "Right, and where is the typewriter office?" to which she simply shrugged her shoulders. Ok, remain calm. I run back downstairs, outside and across the street to a photo development lab and simply ask "Where can I find a typewriter?". Clearly, these guys have been asked this before because without much pause or hesitation he simply replies: "Around the corner at the bookstore at the end of the street." Right, now it's off to the bookstore.

 

Well the bookstore turns out to be a semi subterranean stationary store. You know, the kind packed with pens, papers, paper supplies and a few photo copiers. But wait, what's that in a table no higher then my knees beside the main photocopier? Well, it's a vintage typewriter, no doubt used exclusively for Syrian visas. I tell the clerk what I need done, he's familiar with the process and has me fill out one of the two application forms, which I then hand back to him and he uses the information from that form to type it all into the second form. By now, it's about 10.35am and I'm feeling pretty good that I'm going to get back to the consulate before 11am... That is until the phone starts ringing, the fax machine starts going off and people keep coming in asking for quick little things to be done...

 

If not for the looming 11am deadline, I probably would have been laughing. The clerk was actually trying his best to get the letter typed, the fax machine just wouldn't stop ringing. (Has anyone ever correctly received a fax on the first attempt?) He's got one of those fax machines that rings really loud, you answer it, presumably hear that squealing noise, then hit the "Receive" button. Will, he did this about a half-dozen times, each time having to get up from his knee high table with the typewriter on it to answer the phone, only to hear the fax noise, but never get the fax. You could tell he was getting agitated because while I don't know what "Hello" is in Turkish, I do know that he said the same thing every time he picked up the phone and every time his tone got harsher.

 

So, after playing phone/fax tag, helping the various customers who would come in and purchase things, the poor clerk finally got the application typed around 10.50am, photocopied it (so that I had the second copy), charged me 5 Lira and sent me on my way.

 

It's back down the block, across the street and up a few flights of stairs to the Syrian Consulate, this time handing the officer the typed letters, my passport and the photos and... 80 Lira!!! (That's 80 Canadian, or about 60-something US!) She looks it over, typing mistakes and all (I was born in OTTOWO) and then tells me to come back between 3pm and 3.30pm to pick up the visa....

 

So I burn a few hours wandering around the neighborhood, though mostly I just hang in a cafe since it's raining. Sure enough, at 3pm the consulate re-opens for 30 minutes and my visa is good to go. At least for 80 Lira it's a big visa. Takes up an entire page in my passport, pretty impressive I must say, but I sure hope the country is worth it because it's costing me around 160 Lira just to cross the border! (Actually, it's more my stubbornness to say that I traveled over land from Barcelona to Cairo that has me wanting to go through Syria, but that's another story...)

 

With visa in hand, I decide to make my way back to the hostel but not before one last incident. I go to purchase a tram ticket to get back to my hostel and the ticket agent won't change my 20. Seems somewhat appalled that I would give him a 20 for a 1.10 ticket. Well, that's all I have and he's having 20's and 10's at me telling me he can't make change. I think he could have made change, because I'm pretty sure he had at least a dozen 1 Lira coins on the counter in front of him, but I suspect he was saying that if he gave me the change then he wouldn't have any more... Whatever, I cross the street and purchase a chicken kebab for 1.5 Lira from some very friendly Turks who were intent on teaching me some basic phrases. Not exactly sure what I was being taught, but no doubt something like "Thank You, Thank you very much or Yes, I'd like to purchase rug with this kebab..." With me new found change I'm able to get a tram ticket and make my way back to the hostel.

 

So... I'll most likely catch a bus tomorrow night bound for Goreme, Turkey. Which is in the middle of the country and on the way to Syria. I'll spend a day or two there, then catch a second overnight bus to Aleppo, Syria, then make my way south through Syria towards Jordan. At least that's the plan for now...

 

Kenny