Claire Reid
Anyone visiting Turkey for a holiday soon should be aware of a little-known rule that could see you arrested.
While out and about in Turkey you should make sure you always have your passport or other photographic ID with you at all times.
The Foreign office states: “It is illegal not to carry some form of photographic ID in Turkey. You should carry your passport or residence permit at all times. In some busy areas, especially Istanbul, the Turkish authorities may stop members of the public to conduct ID checks.
“There’s also a number of police checkpoints on main roads across Turkey. You should cooperate with officials conducting checks.”
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If you are planning a holiday to Turkey this year, it’s worth checking if your passport is still valid as visitors need at least six months on their passports from the day they arrive.
For many EU destinations, including Spain, Italy and Portugal, you’ll need at least three months left from the day you arrive.
And if your passport is due a renewal then don’t hang around, as the HM Passport Office is urging Brits to allow plenty of time for their passports to arrive.
Earlier this month, HM Passport Office said that travellers should allow up to 10 weeks for their new passport to arrive, but added that in many cases they are arriving sooner than that.
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A HM Passport Office spokesperson told LADbible: "Since April 2021, we have been advising people to allow up to ten weeks when applying for their British passport as more than five million people delayed applying due to the pandemic.
"We urge people who need a new passport to apply for one as soon as possible, with the vast majority of all passports applications are being dealt with well within 10 weeks.
“To deal with this demand, we have increased staff numbers by 500 since April 2021. This has helped us to handle more applications than ever before, with more than one million passport applications processed in March 2022.”
They added: “The passport advice line is being delivered by Teleperformance which is in the process of recruiting additional staff to better service customer queries.”
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Online passport renewals cost £75.50 while postal renewals will set you back £85.
Online renewals are done via the government’s online service and postal instructions can be found on the Post Office’s check and send service.