The Thai embassy in Ankara is the only visa post for Türkiye, and it has not announced the 31 August rule at all. The DTV page on its site is dated 16 July 2024 and matches the archived February copy word for word. The rule lives in the e-Visa form alone. We opened the site on 4 September; here is what it means for a Turkish citizen and for a foreign national with an ikamet.
What changed
| Before 31 August | From 31 August |
|---|---|
| a document showing the applicant’s current location | proof of permanent residence in the country of filing |
| no criminal record certificate | a certificate from the country of citizenship or the country of filing |
| a resident permit request could be closed with “I am here visa-free” | citizens and permanent residents only; who the post counts as a resident has not been announced |
What did not change: the $400 fee, the 5 to 10 working days per the post’s site, and the finances of 500,000 baht. Ankara has no DTV requirements of its own; the page carries only the ministry infographic from 2024.
One post for the whole of Türkiye
There is no visa post in Istanbul: e-Visa applications from all of Türkiye go to Ankara, and the honorary consulate in Istanbul does not handle the DTV. You do not need to travel to Ankara — the whole cycle is online. The post’s district covers five countries: Türkiye, Georgia, Azerbaijan, North Macedonia and Turkmenistan. The embassy site is in English and Thai only.
One Turkish blog was still advising in March that people file from Vietnam, Malaysia, Laos or Indonesia. Since 31 August that route is closed: a Turkish citizen files through Ankara only, and only while in Türkiye.
A citizen and an ikamet: two different conversations
A Turkish citizen files on a passport from Türkiye. The right to file is not in question; the only questions concern the certificate.
A foreign national with an ikamet. Türkiye has no status called “permanent residence”. There is the kısa dönem ikamet izni, a short-term residence permit for no more than two years, which is what most relocators live on. There is the uzun dönem ikamet izni, open-ended, granted after eight years of continuous residence. And there is the Turkuaz Kart.
The form asks for permanent residence. If Ankara reads that literally, the way London and Prague do, only citizens, uzun dönem holders and Turkuaz Kart holders get through. If it reads it the way Frankfurt and Vienna do, where a valid residence permit with address registration is enough, an ordinary ikamet with a yerleşim yeri belgesi from e-Devlet gets through too. Which reading the post has chosen, it has not announced.
“I have a Turkish residence permit for a year. Has anyone filed from Türkiye on a residence permit after 31 August?” — applicants’ chat, 2 September 2026.
Nobody has an answer. The chats are already discussing the short-term ikamet on a rental contract as “the key to Ankara”; until there is a first decision, it is too early to build a plan on it.
The certificate: adli sicil kaydı and a chain without an apostille
The post’s site is silent about the certificate; the form requires it. Ankara has set no shelf life, so we hold to the general one: no older than three months.
- 1.The adli sicil kaydı through e-Devlet: instant, free, with a barcode. But in Turkish only.
- 2.The English version is issued only by Turkish consulates abroad: to citizens abroad and to foreign nationals who have already left Türkiye.
- 3.An apostille will not help: the Hague Convention only enters into force for Thailand on 28 February 2027.
- 4.The legalisation chain, as described by Ankara itself in June 2026: a notarised translation into English, the Valilik or Kaymakamlık, the Turkish foreign ministry, the embassy. $15 per signature, in cash, one to three working days.
Whether this chain is needed for a DTV certificate the post has not announced. On other document requests Ankara’s “please legalise” has been satisfied by a notarised translation, but for the certificate there is no such practice. A foreign national with an ikamet obtains the same certificate through e-Devlet, with the password issued in person at a PTT branch on the ikamet card; the form also allows the certificate of the country of citizenship.
The fee: $400, not 10,000 baht
The whole Turkish internet writes “10.000 THB, yaklaşık 400 USD”. Both halves are wrong for Ankara. The post charges $400 by the embassy’s official schedule of fees: about 19,300 lira or 13,200 baht at the ECB rate on 3 September 2026. And 10,000 baht is about 14,650 lira. The gap is nearly 4,700 lira, and nobody mentions it. It is charged to the card in dollars and is non-refundable.
Finances: no less than 500,000 baht, about 732,000 lira, not the 420,000 to 470,000 one Turkish blog calculated in March. Before 31 August Ankara was the only post that did not require the sum to be held for three months; statements from Turkish banks in English with a stamp went through. We show three months of movement anyway.
Timelines: what there was, and what there is not yet
Per the post’s site, 5 to 10 working days. In cases before 31 August, 4 to 15 days; one Turkish citizen in 2025 had to wait 35 to 37 days, and her application was pulled out of its stall by a call to the Istanbul office. There have been no DTV filings from Türkiye under the new rules at all: the market is waiting for the first decisions.
Pending applications filed before 31 August were decided by Ankara erratically: two filings from Georgia without a residence permit were refused, one identical filing got a visa in five days, and another drew a request for a resident permit. Two families had their decisions split: visas for the children, refusals for the mother and a third child — the first refusals to dependants in the post’s history. No reason is given in a refusal. In Ankara you cannot promise that “filed before 31 August means the old rules”.
Family and 15 September
A spouse and children under 20 with proof of relationship. Per the form a child needs the certificate too, and the post has announced no age exemption.
From 15 September 2026 visa-free entry for Turkish citizens drops from 60 to 30 days. For anyone who used to live in Thailand for months on a stamp, thirty days is no longer an option, and the five-year DTV becomes the only calm answer.
What to do now
For a Turkish citizen: get the adli sicil kaydı from e-Devlet and have it translated by a notary, keeping the chain through the Valilik and the foreign ministry in reserve in case of a document request; gather statements in English, budget 19,300 lira for the fee, and stay in Türkiye until the decision. With an uzun dönem or a Turkuaz Kart, the same. With a short-term ikamet: wait for the first decision, or start with the Preflight Check, which shows where the package will stumble over the form before you pay the fee. The details and the open questions are on the post’s page, and the state of every consulate is on the board.
If you are not sure whether your residence status qualifies or where to start collecting documents, message Mira: she will check your citizenship and status, tell you which consulate is yours and send you the preparation steps. A package you have assembled yourself can go through the Preflight Check — $300, a written report within two working days; full support all the way to the visa is the Solo Route and Family Route.