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I am a Turkish citizen holding a Green Card and living in the United States. I will be traveling from Orlando to Gatwick Airport, and from there, I will be heading to Turkey. I will have my immigrant visa stamped passport and Green Card with me. Do I need to obtain a transit visa for the 2-hour layover in the UK?

I have purchased a self-transfer ticket, and I've already checked in for the London to Istanbul leg of my journey. However, I need to go to the check-in area to have my documents verified. I'm feeling a bit anxious because I'll be traveling with different airlines. Furthermore, I will be traveling with just my backpack, so there will be no need for me to go to the baggage claim area.

Edit: Hello friends, I successfully completed the flight today without any issues, thanks to God. The main reasons were having my boarding pass ready for the flight and having my green card, of course. I hope it helps someone who reads this, and I'm grateful to everyone who responded.

Zeustira
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As you've noticed, UK law does not require you to have a transit visa (https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa/y/turkey/transit/somewhere_else/yes).

I'm feeling a bit anxious because I'll be traveling with different airlines.

This is indeed the source of your potential problem. The first airline may be overly cautious and refuse to accept your assertion that you have "a confirmed onward flight" and they may refuse to let you on the plane.

Even if they believe the flight is for real, they may ask themselves what will happen if their flight is delayed by two hours or more, which is not at all uncommon. If that happens you will no longer meet the criteria for the visa exemption. Will the airline be fined in that case? They probably know better than I.

(You should also be prepared for the possibility of having to buy a same-day or next-day ticket from London to Turkey in the not-unlikely event that you miss your WizzAir flight.)

I suspect that these considerations explain what you've read in Turkish forums about connecting flights. Surely at least sometimes people are denied boarding by certain airlines because of these considerations. It's possible that some airlines would board self-transfer passengers in some circumstances, but clearly they wouldn't if the transfer time were, say, 20 minutes. The longer the time, the more likely they'd accept the passenger, but two hours is somewhat on the short side.

If you can confirm with the first airline that they will board you in these circumstances, you should be fine. If not, you should get a visa if you have time.

phoog
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