Travel and Visa

Travel:

The main airport in Istanbul is Ataturk airport. A vast majority of the airplanes that come from abroad land in this airport. The distance from Ataturk airport to the campus is about 50 km. We will arrange to have a mini-bus shuttle between Ataturk airport and the campus twice on June 19th and once on June 23rd. One of our students will be at the airport to meet you and arrange for your transportation to the campus and Fuat Paşa Hotel. In order for us to determine the most convenient timetable for the minibus, we need to know your arrival and departure times and the flight information.

If you arrive at an odd hour you should take a taxi. The subway from the airport has stops in the city center which are also far from the university and using public transportation to reach the campus from the city center would be very difficult if you are not familiar with Istanbul.

The cost for a taxi ride from the airport to Fuat Paşa Hotel and the university campus are respectively about 25$ and 30$ between 6:00am and midnight.  After midnight you will be charge %50 more. In any case you will pay the amount shown on the taximeter.

In case you take a taxi to the campus, please print and give the following instruction (in turkish) to the taxi driver. You can pay the taxi driver in US$ or in Euro. After some point on, there are very few houses on the way to the campus; this should not worry you, you can trust the taxi drivers of the airport. Istanbul is much safer than any other comparable large city in the world. We suggest that you change in one of the banks or exchange offices in the airport about 50$; you may need some turkish money.

Instruction to be given to the taxi driver to take you to the campus:

Söför Bey,
Bu Bey/ bayan Koc Üniversitesinin misafirleridir. Koc Üniversitesine gitmek icin, TEM den Sariyer'e gidin; Sariyer den Rumeli FENER köyü yolunu alin. Koc Üniversitesi bu yol üzerindedir, isaretleri takip ediniz. Tesekkür ederiz.

Here are Ali Mostafazadeh's phone numbers. "0212" is the area code of Istanbul. If you are on the European side of Istanbul, you do not need to dial the area code. (The Ataturk airport is on the European side of Istanbul). If you call from abroad you should dial the country+area code: "90-212" first.

Office:  338-1462    Fax: 338-1559
Home:  338-3134
Mobile:  (0535) 637-3770
Address of Koc University is
Koc Universitesi
Rumelifeneri Yolu,
34450 Sariyer, ISTANBUL.
 

Sariyer is the name of the nearest town to our campus. Fuat Paşa Hotel is within 10 minutes walking distance from Sariyer.

For further information on local transportation during the workshop see here.

Visas:

For the citizens of most countries, there is no visa requirement. At any case, if needed, you can get a 3 month visa at the airport in 5 minutes against a small payment. As Turkey is a much visited country by tourists, the visa requirements are reduced at a minimum. Here is the most complete information that one can get on this matter.
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NATIONALS OF THE FOLLOWING COUNTRIES DO NOT REQUIRE A VISA :

Type of Passport : Ordinary Passport
Period of Visa Exemption : 3 Months
Argentina, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Denmark, Ecuador, El Salvador, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece Grenada, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (only passports of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region), Iceland, Iran, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Monaco, Morocco, Norway, New Zealand, Oman, Qatar, St. Lucia, St. Marino, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad-Tobago, Tunisia, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Vatican

Type of Passport : Ordinary Passport
Period of Visa Exemption : 2 Months
Bosnia- Herzegovina, Croatia, Indonesia, Macedonia, Romania

Type of Passport : Ordinary Passport
Period of Visa Exemption : 1 Month
Costa Rica, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, South Africa

Type of Passport : Official Passports
Period of Visa Exemption : 3 Months
Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belarus, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Finland, France, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Holland, Hong-Kong Special Administrative Region(only passports of Hong-Kong Special Administrative Region), Iceland, Iran, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico (only diplomatic passports) Monaco, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Portugal (only diplomatic passports), Qatar, Russia (only diplomatic passports), St. Lucia, St. Marino, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Trinidad-Tobago, Tunisia, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, Uruguay, Vatikan

Type of Passport : Official Passports
Period of Visa Exemption : 2 Months
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Indonesia, Macedonia, Romania

Type of Passport : Official Passports
Period of Visa Exemption : 1 Month
Bulgaria (only diplomatic passports) Costa Rica, Estonia (only diplomatic passports) , Hungary, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia( only diplomatic passports), Maldives, Moldova, Mongolia, People's Republic of China, Philippines, South Africa, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, Vietnam (only diplomatic passports), Yemen

ORDINARY PASSPORT HOLDERS OF NATIONALS OF THE FOLLOWING COUNTRIES MAY OBTAIN STICKER TYPE VISAS AT THE TURKISH INTERNATIONAL BORDER GATES TO ENTER INTO TURKEY

Type of Passport : Ordinary Passport
Duration of Stay : 3 Months
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil,Canada, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, United States of America

Type of Passport : Ordinary Passport
Duration of Stay : 1 Month
Albania, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Yugoslavia,

Type of Passport : Ordinary Passport
Duration of Stay : 15 Days
Georgia

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for more information and contacts, see:
http://www.mfa.gov.tr (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs)