The European Commission has extended Greece’s visa-on-arrival program for Turkish nationals visiting specific islands until April 2026. The extension, which takes effect on April 1, 2025, is expected to increase the number of Turkish visitors, .
The program allows Turkish nationals to obtain a visa upon arrival for short stays of one to seven days on 12 designated Greek islands. It offers a quicker alternative to the Schengen visa process and was first implemented on April 1, 2024, following an agreement between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The islands included in the program are:
- Kalymnos
- Kastellorizo
- Kos
- Lesbos (Lesvos)
- Leros
- Limnos
- Rhodes
- Samos
- Symi
- Chios (Hios)
- Patmos
- Samothrace
Since November 2023, Greek authorities have worked to maintain and extend the visa-on-arrival scheme. According to Greece’s Minister of Shipping, Christos Stylianidis, over 100,000 express visas were issued between April and November 2024. During the peak summer season, approximately 400,000 Turkish tourists traveled to the Greek islands.
Figures from the General Police Directorate of the North Aegean show that by the end of August 2024, more than 54,000 visas had been issued on just three islands in the Northeast Aegean.
In 2024, a total of 1,153,727 Turkish tourists traveled from Türkiye to Greek islands on 8,629 ferry routes, marking a 93% increase from 2023. The rise in visitor numbers is attributed in part to the visa-on-arrival program.
