It’s not so easy with cell phones imported from abroad in Turkey. After all, after a few months, your phone can simply be blocked.
Since I’m a photographer in Antalya, I can’t afford the luxury of being without a phone.
There are two parameters that can limit its use if you are not a Turkish citizen:
- Limit the usage time of the SIM card.
- Limiting the time of use of the terminal (phone).
SIM card
If you want to use a Turkish telephone number, you can buy a starter package from any Turkish cellular operator. For example, as soon as we arrived in Turkey, we visited the nearest Turkcell store and bought starter packs. But foreigners without a residence permit can only buy the so-called tourist package.
This package is valid for 90 days. After that, the SIM card will be blocked if it is not renewed. You can renew your SIM card after you receive your residence permit. To do this, simply go to the nearest branch of your operator and show him your cimlik (residence permit certificate).
The renewal process takes up to five minutes, after which you will be able to use your Turkish phone number until your residence permit expires.
Phone
How the IMEI control system works in Turkey
With telephones, it’s much more complicated. Just like a car, a telephone in Turkey is an excisable commodity and its use in the country is strictly regulated and monitored to avoid the illegal importation of phones.
If a foreign SIM card is inserted in the phone, it can be used indefinitely. However, as soon as you walk into a cell phone operator’s store and activate the SIM card in your phone, your IMEI number (a unique identifier that is specific to each phone) will be registered in Turkey and the countdown of the number of days that you are allowed to use your phone will begin.
Initially you will be given 120 days to use the phone without registration. Then, every 30 days you will receive SMS messages from the recipient YASALUYARI (which means “legal warning”) with the number of days remaining: 120, 90, 60, 30.
After this period, the terminal will be blocked even though your cellular operator’s package will be extended and active.
Update 2023: IMEI blocked without Turkish SIM
At first, reports appeared on social media that Turkey had blocked the phones, even though the users had never inserted a Turkish SIM card into it. Seeing no explanation for such messages somehow did not pay much attention to them. However, it turned out to be true. If a foreign phone with a foreign SIM card uses the Internet but does not make calls or send SMS, the phone will also be blocked.
We were recently able to read about it on the Kyivstar operator’s website at the very bottom of this page: https://kyivstar.ua/roaming/turkey. The message is verbatim as follows:
Roaming Kyivstar Turkey is different from roaming in other countries, because only here, in case of long-term use of a smartphone (90+ days in a row), purchased and registered in another country, such a device can be blocked. In order to avoid blocking, we recommend you to use calls and SMS, because it is those devices are blocked which used mobile internet only without any other services. Unlocking your smartphone is paid: take this into account if you plan to stay in the country for a long period of time.
How often and how much you need to use calls and SMS – no one tells. 🙂
What should I do if my phone is blocked?
If your phone has been locked, you will not be able to use it. So there are these options for further action:
> Wait for January
They say that during January the entire IMEI database will be reset and you will be able to use your phone again like before. We have not yet lived in Antalya in January, so we cannot confirm or deny it. There are mentions on the Internet that not all users had their terminals unlocked in January. Why this was happening is difficult to understand from the scrappy reports. Perhaps these are some special cases.
> Swap SIM cards
If you have a phone with more than one SIM card, you can move your SIM card to another slot and safely continue to use it for another 120 days. So if your phone has three SIM card slots (including e-SIM), you can use your phone painlessly for 360 days a year. You can try to live without a Turkish phone number for 5 days 🙂
> Move the SIM card to another phone
If you have two phones, each with two SIM card slots, you can change SIM card slots all year round. And in January, your IMEIs will be reset again and you will start the process all over again.
> Change phone IMEI
If you have an Android rather than an iPhone, local hackers may offer to hack your phone and change its IMEI. However, we strongly advise against it. First of all, it is illegal! In addition, you can flash the IMEI of a stolen phone or a phone that has been involved in other criminal offenses. Then there may be problems with the police.
> Extend the duty-free period online
Temporarily, you can renew your unregistered phone free of charge online at the e-devlet service site. This opportunity is provided temporarily due to quarantine and is for people who are unable to travel to their country because of the COVID-19 epidemic quarantine.
Read more about how to do it in this article.
Unfortunately, this method no longer works. The game is over.
> Officially register your phone
In fact, you have to pay a flat fee for customs clearance of the phone. As of today, May 2022, this fee is 2,700 liras. I.e. about 150 euros. In the summer of 2023, the cost of registering a phone was raised to 20,000 Turkish Liras (that’s almost 700 euros), making the procedure pointless. We were lucky, we managed to register our phones at the price of 2,700 liras.
What do I do if I can’t unlock my phone?
It doesn’t matter if you have registered your phone or not! Welcome to my photo shoot 🙂
I accept with any phone. And, believe me, the photo shoot will be great. So, you won’t need a phone!
View my portfolio and sign up for a photo session at this link: https://www.dubovaya.studio/.
I still have questions about using the phone in Turkey
Ask your questions in the comments below. I will try to answer them as quickly and broadly as possible.
Hi, thank you for the info. I received an iPhone gift from Dubai and would like to sell it . I used it since August and was given 120 days to register it .. if I sell itv, would the new owner get a fresh new 120 days?
Hi,
Of course, no. The new owner will use it for 120 days since the moment you first inserted a Turkish SIM card (since August?).
The cellular operator company does not know who is the owner of the telephone. They only control IMEI number of the telephone which is transmitted at the time of phone registration in their network.
If you have never used it with a Turkish SIM card, that’s another story. But will the new owner believe you!? 🙂