Passport Police

[mercury]

We have just had reason to visit Mugla Police Staion which is huge. We had nothing but pleasant treatment from the guard on the door to all the counter staff. They couldnt have been more helpful despite no one speaking English. Is it a Fethiye thing then?

[patwev]

Have been to passport police to renew our residency .....no problems at all.In fact it was completely painless. There is a new man there who speaks English and just deals with residencies.They are now processed in Fethiye and your passport is only away for 2 weeks.(although I suppose that will depend on how busy he becomes)You need to take your residency book with you in case you have 4 entries in it ...in which case you must pay for a new book (149 lira),which he will put on your application form together with the price of how many years you are applying for.This form you take to tax office and they will know how much you have to pay !Easy peasy

[brianthegardener]

i had no problems at all with the passport police with regard my residency .. very helpfull ... very polite ...no problems at all .. 9 days from submitting paper work to picking up the residency permit .. im well pleased with there service.

[corbindallas]

In my opinion a passport police office that is responsible for dealing with large numbers of English speaking customers should have some English speaking staff, likewise they should have information sheets in English to assist them/us for when we do trouble them for information.It is rubbish that you take their salary amount into account to their return of service, Fethiye passport police, especially the Sgt there have a very bad reputation for customer service, go to Mugla passport police and it is chalk and cheese fantastic staff very helpful and non language barriers are sorted, problem yok!

Those who state well it's Turkey if you don't like it learn the language or leave, I would point out in the UK we would and do supply this multi language service at Council Offices and Police stations up and down the country, I for example had a team of police officers (27) who between us could speak 13 different languages and this is not as unusual in these days across all front line services, and if we did not cover your language we have 24 hour access via phone to language line, we also have a very good, documented, complaint process for poor customer service (Tony Jenkins!).If you don't like the result you can even go independant for a second moan, sorry I mean opinion!

I love Turkey, rough edges and all but I do expect to be assisted at all levels when trying to ensure I follow the process they have set especially when it relates specifically to outsiders like us!

[tony jenkins]

Who do you complain to, for them being 'miserable gits'  because that is what they are.

[minimoo]

I can see both sides of the argument here. Yes, of course we are trying to do the right thing and get our residency, and should be able to expect good customer service, help and advice from those doing the job. Having said that, job training in Turkey does not seem to be anywhere near as comprehensive as the standards we get in the UK, and you have to think about how often the laws change here. If we find it frustrating ourselves, imagine how difficult it must be for those doing the job to keep up with all the changes. Added to that, because of the new lower residency fees, there are so many more applications being made, and I would think the powers that be have not thought about the fact that more staff might be helpful at this time. I think I might be abit stressed and miserable if I was doing that job right now.

[peecee]

that's fine Minimoo but don't take it out on your 'customers', take it out on the people responsible.

[Denton]

sorry to go against the grain of this discussion but I totally agree with Patwev`s comments.  Did residency last week and was seen by a man who spoke excellent English, was happy to help, & importantly was a nice human being.  We could not thank him enough for making our life so much easier, as official documentation in Turkey is usually not easy.

[simpsons]

Just to update. Went back to the Passport police on Thursday. Saw a different man, who was dressed in civies,doing the residencies. He spoke good english, and was helpful. Got the forms and was in and out in 10 minutes. Do you think they have been reading CBF?