Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna
Part of UK in Turkey
18th April 2013
Message from the new Consul
A guest blog by Timothy Fisher, HM Consul at the British Consulate General in İstanbul, Turkey.
With 2.5m British visitors and 40,000 British residents in Turkey, Consular work (helping British nationals in need overseas) is a key part of our work in Turkey. Therefore I was delighted to start work as Consul and Director of Consular Services in Turkey at our Consulate General in Istanbul on 18 February this year.
In the two months since my arrival in Turkey I have travelled around the country to see the work of our Consular staff in Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir, Bodrum, Marmaris, Fethiye and Antalya, first hand. I have been impressed by the compassion and commitment of the teams around the country and the close and effective working relationships they have with the local authorities.
As the tourist season gets underway the Consular teams, like all others involved in the sector, get busier and busier. Part of my role is to ensure that consular staff can spend as much time as possible assisting the people who most need their help and as little time as possible stuck behind a desk.
18 April marks the launch of the FCO’s new Consular Strategy. With its focus on doing more for the most vulnerable, preventing problems before they occur and delivering services more efficiently online, I’m confident that the strategy will support our vision for a service tailored to the needs of the people we assist.
When I met members of the British community in Didim recently, including the editor of Voices newspaper, we discussed the FCO’s registration system for British nationals overseas, LOCATE, its strengths and particularly its weaknesses.
Few people bothered to register and even fewer would tell us when they no longer needed to be registered. Various crises in recent years had demonstrated its limitations in an era of mobile phones, instant messaging and social media. It was a timely discussion as we announce today that LOCATE is to be switched off on 14 May in favour of a more responsive system for assisting British nationals in a crisis.
This is a significant change, and I would urge all British nationals to sign up to alerts and feeds from FCO travel on Twitter and Facebook and follow UK in Turkey on Facebook and Twitter as these will be key tools for communication with British nationals which we would use in the event of a natural disaster or other crisis in Turkey.
It’s been a busy start to my time in Turkey and I am looking forward to an interesting and exciting time working here and getting to know this wonderful country and its people over the coming years.
I was happy to see that recently the requirement for SGK has been removed for expats residents who are over 65. However, can you tell me if you have plans to urge the government to extend this policy to those under 65. We are currently visiting our Bodrum home on a tourist 90 day visa. However, in future, we would like to spend at least 6 months per visit and so we have been considering a residency application. However, the financial implications of SGK are significant and so we feel that we may need to revise our plans, sell our house and re-locate. We do not want to do this as we have been Turkey lovers for over 20 years. It would be good to know that a change in Policy may be possible in the near future.
In the Law on Foreigners and International Protection there is a compulsory health cover requirement for all residence permit applicants in the under 65 age group. However, for short term residence permits of less than 12 months duration this can be fulfilled by a travel insurance policy which specifically covers Turkey (this must be contained in the wording of the policy). Please see the General Directorate of Migration Management (DGMM) website for further details and a full list of documents required for each type of application http://www.goc.gov.tr/icerik6/documents-required-for-residence-permit-applications_914_1017_3605_icerik
If you wished to stay for at least 6 months at a time in Turkey then you would enter on an e-Visa and before it expires apply for a short term residence permit for the number of months which suited your purpose. Please also refer to the FAQs section of the DGMM website for more information.
Thats all very well for people who use facebook or twitter, but i would suggest that a large proportion of expats living out in turkey are retired and as of an age who do not use facebook and certainly not twitter.
You’re right. I recently had some information from the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency and figured putting it out on Facebook was not necessarily going to reach everyone I wanted to. We do make use of other communication methods. For example we work with some of the English language newspapers in Turkey who publish consular information from us and we will continue to hold community meetings around the country. Timothy Fisher – Consul
Thank you for the update but I have one question over the below statement…
“I would urge all British nationals to sign up to alerts and feeds from FCO travel on Twitter and Facebook and follow UK in Turkey on Facebook and Twitter as these will be key tools for communication with British nationals which we would use in the event of a natural disaster or other crisis in Turkey.”
In the event of a natural disaster it is highly probable that the internet will not work! So how do people in the affected areas gain access to Facebook and Twitter?
I think a little more thought is required on that problem.
You make a valid point. In the event of a natural disaster many forms of communication might be affected. We would try and use a wide variety of communications methods including radio, SMS messages and local contacts to reach people. We are also developing crisis management systems that will make it easier for e.g. friends and family to tell us about people who might be affected in the event of a crisis. Timothy Fisher – Consul
One thing that I am sure would benefit a lot of people is to keep the website more up to date…..more than the old website appeared to be.
The old website had some unanswered questions relating to the ‘Turkish Universal Healthcare Scheme’……..but the new website no longer mentions anything about them….or any additional information, which leads me to believe the questions were never addressed. Unless you can tell me differently.
I agree and thanks for bringing this to my attention. The transition to the new website has meant we have lost some of the outstanding questions on issues like healthcare. Also a number of people have raised new questions about SGK with me in recent weeks and so we will be looking at the healthcare advice again and trying to get some answers from the authorities. Timothy Fisher – Consul