- Erbil officially opened a new Turkish visa application center on September nineteenth, twenty twenty-six.
- VFS Global is handling about one thousand two hundred applications a day, with peaks reaching two thousand.
- Turkey named VFS Global its sole authorized intermediary for visa applications in Iraq on April seventh, twenty twenty-six.
Erbil opened a new Turkish visa application center on Saturday, September 19, 2026. VFS Global runs the site. The office had already been operating since April 2026. Turkey had designated the agency the sole authorized intermediary for Turkish visa applications in Iraq on April 7, 2026. Officials said the center is meant to simplify procedures and expand access for residents of the Kurdistan Region. The move placed Erbil inside a nationwide process. The system was already moving.
Turkey’s Erbil Consul General, Erman Topçu, formally inaugurated the center. Erbil Governor Omed Khoshnaw and Kurdistan Region Minister for Minority Affairs Aydin Marouf attended, along with the Erbil mayor, a Turkish office representative in the regional foreign relations department and business figures. The opening brought together regional and Turkish officials in one room. It was a broad list. Topçu stood at the center of it.
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Demand is already heavy. Visa-company officials said the center is handling about 1,200 applications a day across Erbil, Sulaymaniyah and Duhok, rising to 2,000 at peak times. The count stretches across three cities. Peak periods push the load higher. The figures showed the scale of the service.
The center also sits inside a wider Iraq-wide arrangement. Turkey designated VFS Global on April 7, 2026 as the sole authorized intermediary for Turkish visa applications in Iraq. The arrangement covers Erbil, Duhok, Baghdad, Mosul and Basra. The network spans five cities. It reaches across the country.
Officials said the center is intended to handle applications for residents of the Kurdistan Region, including Erbil and nearby cities. That regional reach was part of the point. The office is not built for one neighborhood. It serves a wider catchment.
A location listing places the office on Kolan Street, in AB Commercial Complex No. 1, opposite Sami Abdul Rahman Park. The address is specific. It gives the Erbil center a fixed place in the city.
Topçu said at the opening that they were pleased to inaugurate the "new Türkiye Visa Center." The phrase now identifies the office.
