The objective of the project was to present the current state of play regarding the problems faced by Turkish citizens in obtaining visas; documents required and procedures applied, discretionary treatment and all other difficulties involved in obtaining visas and to report these to the authorities in charge in Turkey and at the EU level.
The project was carried out by theEconomic Development Foundation (IKV) and European Citizen Action Service with the support of Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) between 17 November 2009 and 18 January 2010. During this period, 944 visa-related calls and emails from Turkish citizens were registered through the two telephone lines and the e-mail address reserved for this project.
The complaints received throughout the project showed that Turkish nationals faced different problems at every stage of the visa procurement process.They ranged from rejection of the visa application on no apparent grounds to complaints about the quality and the quantity of the documents demanded, costs of the visa fees, the attitudes of the officials dealing with the visa application, and so forth.
IKV and ECAS successfully organised the event Presentation of the results of Visa Hotline Project in Turkey at the Maelbeek Room in the Residence Palace- International Press Centre on 14 October 2010 (16.00-18.00). The presentation of the final report was accompanied by a panel of experts. The results of the project and all the issues inherent to the visa regime between Turkey and the EU such as the readmission agreement negotiations and the Soysal Case were presented. Questions were also addressed.
