Turkish earthquake victims: Much frustration with simplified visas

The federal government wants to simplify the admission of relatives from the earthquake area. But in practice it still sticks. This is shown by a visit to the visa office in Gaziantep, Turkey.

A completely unnerved man runs out of the visa agency’s office into a kiosk next door. He still has to make copies quickly. Then backtrack at a run. Various counters can be seen through the door, benches with people waiting and an aerial view of Berlin. Between Gaziantep, Berlin and other German cities there is the so-called simplified visa procedure.

With the simplified visa issue, the federal government wants to accommodate earthquake victims in Turkey. That was also the subject of the visit by Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser to the earthquake area on Tuesday.

Those who live permanently in Germany and have relatives in the Turkish earthquake area should be able to bring close family members to Germany for a maximum of three months with less bureaucracy. By the time Faeser visited the earthquake area, however, fewer than 100 of these visas had been issued.

Submit all documents

Elif Mengene would like to visit relatives in Mannheim with her mother. She doesn’t find it that easy what they have to submit. “Instead of waiting eight weeks for the visa, it now takes about a week. Otherwise, you actually have to present all the documents that are otherwise necessary.” These are the application form, valid passport, health insurance, biometric photo, declaration of commitment by the inviting person and certificate from the residents’ registration office.

Luckily their house was only damaged and not collapsed, so they were able to save their identity documents. But mother Fatma can’t imagine living in the house again at the moment. “We live in constant fear here. That’s why we sleep in the car. We want to go to Germany so that we can relax mentally.”

Too short and too expensive

This is exactly what Germany wants to make possible with the simplified visa procedure. Mustafa Tohum also urgently needs a break from the catastrophe. He’s a guard at a parking lot near the visa office. Since the earthquake he has been sleeping with his wife and children in a tent in the city park. One of his sons lives in Wiesbaden, theoretically he and his family could go there.

“But now we’re being offered to go to Germany for 90 days,” he says. But for three months all the effort is not worth it, if only financially. “How should I pay for that? I work for minimum wage. The flights alone, I have five children, there are seven of us.”

Visa application “not easy at all”

Abidin Gemici says he took out a loan to fly to relatives in Stuttgart. Now he is waiting in the car with his children, three and eight years old, while his wife submits the visa application. He hopes it works this time.

“We’re constantly being told that some documents are still missing. My wife’s younger sister and aunt live there. But because it’s the aunt who sent the invitation, there are problems.” The family should prove the relationship, according to Gemici. “But the residents’ registration office here says they’re not allowed to issue such proof. We’ve been trying to get a visa for ten days. It’s not easy at all.”