Turkey–saudi Coordination Council Eyes Visa-Free Travel Deal as Intelligence Chief Hakan Fidan Meets

(ANKARA, TURKEY) – Turkey and Saudi Arabia are set to sign a visa-free travel agreement on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, during high-level talks in Ankara that officials say will abolish visa requirements for citizens of both countries.

The signing is scheduled to take place during a meeting of the Turkey–Saudi Coordination Council, co-chaired by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan. Officials have framed the accord as a measure to “ease travel and strengthen people-to-people and business connections” between the two countries.

Diplomatic sources from May 5, 2026 said the agreement is expected to apply broadly, covering holders of ordinary, special, and diplomatic passports. Earlier reports had suggested the arrangement might be limited to narrower categories, but the latest accounts pointed to full bilateral coverage.

The deal marks another step in the rebuilding of ties that were badly damaged after the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Ankara and Riyadh have moved closer since 2021, as both governments placed greater emphasis on what officials described as “regional ownership” in responding to Middle East crises.

That shift has unfolded through a steady normalization process rather than a single breakthrough. The planned Ankara signing places the visa accord inside a broader diplomatic format, with the coordination council serving as the venue for senior-level talks on bilateral relations.

Turkey had already moved in that direction in late December 2023, when it unilaterally exempted Saudi citizens, along with citizens of the U.S. and Canada, from visa requirements for tourism stays of up to 90 days. The 2026 arrangement goes further by making the policy reciprocal and formalizing visa-free entry on both sides.

Once signed, the accord is expected to allow ordinary passport holders to travel between Turkey and Saudi Arabia for tourism and business without obtaining pre-arranged visas or e-visas. Fees that previously reached $78.50 in some cases are expected to disappear for eligible travelers.

That change removes a routine cost and an administrative step for travelers moving between two of the region’s largest economies. It also gives formal backing to travel flows that both governments have sought to encourage as tourism and commercial activity recovered during 2024–2025.

Business travel stands to become easier under the new arrangement, particularly for short-notice trips tied to trade meetings, investment talks and commercial visits. Tourism operators also stand to gain if the agreement reduces friction for weekend travel, family visits and seasonal movement between the two countries.

The timing places the bilateral agreement against a wider backdrop of stricter global border controls. As of May 5, 2026, neither U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services nor the Department of Homeland Security had issued any statement directly addressing the Turkey-Saudi deal, though both agencies have set out broader policies on screening and international coordination.

USCIS issued an alert on March 30, 2026, titled “Strengthened Screening and Vetting,” that stressed what it called a commitment to “national security and public safety.” In that update, USCIS said, “Our top priority is ensuring that all individuals seeking immigration benefits are properly vetted, particularly those from identified high-risk countries.”

DHS activity from May 2025 – May 2026 has also focused on information-sharing agreements with regional allies aimed at combating “illegal immigration and crime.” During the same period, the United States expanded its own “2026 Travel Ban” to include additional countries, fully or partially restricting entry for nationals of roughly 39 countries as of January 1, 2026.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia remain outside that U.S. restriction framework and continue to be treated as strategic partners by Washington. That makes the Ankara accord part of a regional pattern in which governments are opening some travel channels even as other states tighten vetting and entry rules.

Officials in Ankara and Riyadh have presented the visa move less as an isolated travel measure than as a practical extension of the diplomatic thaw that has taken shape over several years. By removing visa requirements across multiple passport categories, the agreement goes beyond symbolic repair and enters day-to-day mobility.

The breadth of the expected coverage matters. Diplomatic and special passport exemptions are common in bilateral arrangements, but extending the policy to ordinary passports changes the effect on tourism, retail travel and small business exchanges, where visa procedures often shape demand more directly than formal political statements do.

Saudi travelers already benefited from Turkey’s unilateral 2023 decision for tourism visits, but Turkish citizens did not receive a matching arrangement in return. The new accord closes that gap and turns an uneven system into a reciprocal one.

Reciprocity has long carried political weight in visa policy, especially between governments trying to signal trust after a period of tension. In practical terms, it means the same headline rule now applies to citizens on both sides, rather than one government offering concessions without a mirrored benefit.

The agreement also arrives as both countries pursue wider commercial and diplomatic engagement in the region. Easier movement for executives, officials, entrepreneurs and tourists can support those efforts, particularly where investment and trade discussions depend on repeated short-term travel rather than one-off state visits.

High-level diplomacy will frame the formal signing, but the first visible effects are likely to appear at airports and border counters. Travelers who previously had to secure visas or pay e-visa charges before departure are expected to face a simpler process once the agreement takes effect.

Turkish and Saudi foreign ministries have each maintained public channels that track bilateral developments, including the [Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs](https://www.mfa.gov.tr) and the [Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs](https://www.mofa.gov.sa). U.S. agencies have also published broader travel and screening updates through the [DHS Newsroom](https://www.dhs.gov/news) and the [USCIS Newsroom](https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom).

In Ankara, the signing is set to put one of the clearest practical outcomes yet on the table from the recent improvement in ties: citizens of Turkey and Saudi Arabia, including holders of ordinary passports, are expected to gain the right to travel between the two countries without visas once the agreement is finalized on May 6, 2026.