Visa Requirements for Exchange Students

Entry with consular visa or e-visa: For some countries, you may need to enter Turkey with a consular visa or e-visa if it is required for your country. In such a case, you can enter Turkey with the convenient visa type among the consular visas and e-visas.

Your visa type does not affect your university enrollment or residence permit applications. It means you can enter Turkey with student visa or touristic visa.

Entry with visa exemption: For some countries where there are visa exemptions, students can directly enter Turkey without a visa before the university registration. If your country is one of those that does not require a visa, and allows you to stay visa-free for a period of time after entering Turkey, this means you have visa exemption. In this case, you are not obliged to obtain any visa to be able to register at the university or to get a student residence permit.

Important Note: If you entered Turkey with a visa exemption before university registration, make sure that you do not exceed your visa exemption period. If you have exceeded your visa exemption period, you may be asked to enter or exit the country before or after your university enrollment by the Immigration Office. Therefore, it is important how many days you stayed in Turkey before university registration.

For more information about passport and visa rules, please visit the official website of Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs below and find your country and its entry obligation in the list.

Passport Duration: Please have a passport that is valid at least 60 days longer than the duration of your study period at Sabancı University. Make sure to enter Turkey with a passport and that your passport has an entry stamp on it.

❗Please ensure that you enter Turkey with a valid passport. For some countries, entering Turkey is possible with your national ID card but if you do this, you must exit and enter again with your passport during your education period since you will be using your passport entry records for the student residence permit.

❗Please ensure that you have a legal stay in Turkey when enrolling at the university. The valid situations for this are as follows:

·         Stay under consular or e-visa visa period (student visa or touristic visa is applicable)

·         Stay under visa exemption period according to your passport country

·         Stay under current residence permit (some students may obtain any kind of residence permit before they register at the university)

·         Turkish citizenship