Istanbul Chinese Visa Centre Closes for One Day After Severe Rainfall

The Chinese Visa Application Service Center (CVASC) in Istanbul suspended application submissions on 15 October due to torrential rain and flooding across Turkey’s Marmara region. An urgent notice on the centre’s website said only passport-collection services would operate between 13:00 and 15:00, asking applicants to “travel safely” and reschedule appointments. The Istanbul CVASC handles visas for across the western half of Türkiye and processes around 150 applications daily, including tourist, business (M) and family-reunion (Q) cases. The temporary closure forced travel agencies to re-book slots next week, potentially delaying departures to China for trade-fair visitors heading to the Canton Fair’s third phase starting 21 October. Corporate mobility managers with Turkish assignees should anticipate minor schedule slippages and re-check flight bookings that rely on same-day visa issuance. Express-service applicants may need to upgrade to “urgent” processing once the centre reopens, incurring higher fees. Chinese consular authorities emphasised that electronic appointment confirmations remain valid and that no supporting documents will need re-validation. The incident highlights the vulnerability of single-location visa centres to extreme weather events. Multinationals with time-critical travel may wish to diversify application channels, for example by using Ankara’s CVASC as a contingency. The Istanbul centre said it is reviewing its disaster-response plan, including options for remote document intake and courier return of passports in future disruptions.