I had a bit of an anxious moment earlier this week which seems (crosses fingers) to be unfounded.
After checking our passports, I realised that our daughter’s expires in May 2015. I’d read that in order to get a 12-month residency in Turkey, you needed 14 months left on your passport – which means we’d need to apply for hers in March next year at the latest. As that might not be possible, we obviously need to renew it first.
Except when I looked into it….. Well, to me at least, this page on the Government website makes it pretty clear. You can’t renew a child’s passport until there’s nine months or less left on it. That means we can’t renew until September 2014.
Hence the panic. She wouldn’t have enough time left on her passport to qualify for residency, but her three-month tourist visa would have expired before we could get the renewal.
I decided to call the Passport Office. After all, we can’t be the only family that has ever been in this situation. The chap I spoke to was lovely and I can’t fault the service. He told me that I can apply for her new passport any time and they’d add on up to nine months, the same as for an adult document.
“You’re sure?” I asked. “Even though she’s under 16?” Yes, he replied. It was something that a lot of people got confused about.
Having looked at the website, I’m not surprised. It’s certainly how I read it.
But as it seems my fears are unfounded, I’m headed for the Post Office this weekend to pick up a renewal form. Might as well get it done quickly while turnaround times are shorter.
The next task might prove more difficult, though. I need to persuade my daughter to get her hair out of her eyes in order to get an acceptable photograph taken…. Wish me luck.
RP
The Parsleys At Large 