How to Get a Turkish Residence Permit

Step Two: Collecting What You Need

1- Your passport

2- Photocopies of your passport’s information and photography page and the page with visa stamp from your last entry into Turkey

3- A colour printout of your online application

4- Four recent passport-sized photos

5- A currency exchange slip or an account statement from a Turkish bank showing that you have enough money to support yourself for the duration of your residence permit. The required amount is $500 per month. By the way, all foreigners are able to have a bank account in Turkey. It’s easy and can even be done from abroad through banks such as HSBC. Firstly, you need to obtain a tax number from the local tax office and then you can go to any bank to open an account. You just need to give your passport and your tax number to them.

6- A Proof of health insurance (Sağlık Sigortası): This is a new requirement from April 2014. Your insurance must cover inpatient and outpatient treatment (ayakta ve yatarak tedavi). Emergency insurance from your home country won’t be accepted. Full insurance is a requirement and if you have full insurance from your home country, you must get the documentation of your plan translated into Turkish and notarised. (This can be done at any official notary – Tercüme bürosu). If you don’t have any full insurance, you can get a plan in Turkey. AXA Sigorta, Acıbadem Sigorta and Allianz Sigorta are good bets. You’ll need your passport and tax number to sign up for a plan. The amount you pay will depend on a number of factors. (400 TL – 2500 TL)

Important warning about health insurance:

There are rumours that police officers don’t ask for health insurance paper and just make you sign a document recently in 2015. It’s true that officers making you sign a paper but the paper you sign is all about your word to commit your health insurance in future. So please don’t think that you could get rid of it just signing that paper.

Even after signing this you will have to bring health insurance. Otherwise your appointment will cancelled and you wont get your permit.

7- A proof of address: This change also dates from the new law from April 2014.  If you are leasing an apartment, you must get a notarised copy of the signed contract between you and your landlord. If you are subletting, there are a few different options. You need to go with your flatmate to the notary and get a notarised statement that you’re subletting from them at the specified address. The other option is to go to your local Nüfus Office or the Muhtar in your neighbourhood with your flatmate and register yourself. They will give you a document proving your address. To do that, you’ll need a copy of your rental agreement and your passport.

8- Erasmus (değişim) belgesi: If you are going to be an Erasmus expat in Turkey, this is proof paper of your situation. In 15 days before your appointment day you should take it from your international office of your school (called Öğrenci Belgesi in Turkish). Your name, the term that you will be studying, and the logo of the university must be on the paper. It must be signed and stamped as well.

And there is one thing which is funny but also unfortunate. You have to prepare a document completely in Turkish. It should be about your expenses will be covered by your family during your stay in Turkey. It should also say that you are not here for working. Your name your passport number nationality and your sign must be in this document. You can ask help from your Turkish friends to prepare it.

9- Ikamet Beyanname Formu: Actually this is second page of your appointment print out. But in case you make some mistakes during filling the form this can be very helpful. Here is the link that you can download this form:

Link: e-ikamet.goc.gov.tr/Ikamet/BasvuruFormuOrnegi/BasvuruFormuBos?tur=0

Step Three: Go to Your Appointment at the Police Station (Emniyet)

Before the law changed, you used to have to go to Emniyet Fatih for the residence permit. Now, there’s no mention of needing to go to Emniyet Fatih. It is possible to apply for your first short-term residence permit at the Foreigner’s Department of your local police station.

At the police station you give the police officer all your documents for processing. There, you’ll also learn how much you need to pay. The amount changes depending on your citizenship. The place you’ll pay may be in the same building or it may be in a separate office which is further away. After having paid the fee, you need to pay 50TL more for the residence permit itself. After you get your receipts, you need to take them back to the officers at the Emniyet. If there’s any missing document, the officer will process your application but ask you to bring the missing documents the next day directly to him.

Step Four: Wait for the post!

Your application will now be sent to Ankara where an ID card will be printed and posted to your address. For this reason you really should provide the correct address. One of the latest announcement of the ministry says that if the residence permit ID cards which are not received in 1 month are going to be cancelled.

On the other hand it’s said that once your application has been processed in Ankara, you’re in the electronic system and can leave and enter Turkey without any problem. However, things are not necessarily enforced in a uniform manner at this time. That’s why it’s still a big risk…

Oğulcan Yılmazcan