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I am an Indian citizen living in the US. I am planning to travel to Turkey in November. My US visa is expired but I have a valid extension document (I797A) until July 2019. At the Turkish consulate they confirmed that I am eligible for an e-visa.

Has anyone entered Turkey with an expired US visa but valid I-797? Looking for real-life experience if you have lived through it. Any pointers will be helpful.

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    I have no experience of it, but I suspect that you are right to be skeptical.
    – phoog
    Commented Oct 2, 2017 at 18:58
  • Hey man - do you mind closing the loop on this? Did you go through with this and what your experience was like
    – Parijat Kalia
    Commented May 6 at 17:30

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From the e-visa Website:

I have a valid Supporting Document (Valid visa OR valid residence permit from one of the Schengen Countries, USA, UK or Ireland). E-visas are not accepted as supporting documents.

It's a self-check based application, meaning you have to cross the checkboxes to proceed. If you don't fulfil all of the criteria (in this case, because your US visa is expired), youe e-visa won't be valid, and if you get a strict officer (particularly likely at Istanbul-Atatürk airport), you will be refused entry and sent back, and the airline will be heavily fined for transporting you.

Turkish border police do not mess about, and a lot of them speak zero English at all, meaning they'll hardly understand what an I-797 is, nor will they bother to find out.

So, in essence, you need a regular visa, despite what the embassy says.

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