Will a visa cancelled on arrival affect future visa applications?

Question

Recently, I visited Russia and, at the airport, my tourist visa was cancelled on arrival. The stated reason was that my hotel booking was invalid, although I was not given any documentation that says this. I was returned to my home country and my visa has 'cancelled' written across it in Russian.

Now, six months later, I applied for a business visa to Turkey through my work place, and my application was rejected without any explanation. The embassy refused to tell me a reason.

Since I have to make a new application, I am not sure what went wrong. Can the previous instance be a reason for that, or do I have to concentrate on other issues?

Answer 1

While theoretically a country's decision on granting you a visa may depend on your visa application history with other countries, unless they're closely tied (as in Schengen countries) or you deliver them the information yourself (such as your passport that you use in the application being stamped Rejected), they have practically no way to get that information. If this is the case, i.e. you submitted them the passport where you have a cancelled Russian visa, yes it may have an effect, but that in itself wouldn't cause you to be rejected by Turkey.

If the embassy didn't directly tell you the reason, ask them how you can get more information on that and what you should do when applying again. If that doesn't prove fruitful, I recommend focusing on other factors, not on your problem with Russia in the past.