A Turkish Residence Permit is an authorization to remain in Turkey for longer than three months in half a year, under purposes as settlement, working or studying.

A residence permit enables you to live in Turkey, study, get married, convert to Turkish drivers’ license, get tax number, open a bank account, purchase property, make investments, and much more.

If your purpose of moving to Turkey is working, you will only need a work permit, which also serves as a residence permit.

Every person that moves to Turkey with the intention to remain in the country for more than three months needs to get a Turkey Residence Permit upon arrival. Without a residence permit, your stay in Turkey will be considered illegal.

You will be exempt from this requirement if one of the following applies to you:

• You have a “registration certificate” for international protection application.
• You are exempt from a residence permit pursuant to reciprocal or multilateral conventions to which the Republic of Turkey is also a party.
• You are a diplomacy or consulate officer that holds office in Turkey.
• You work for representative offices of international establishments in Turkey.
• Your identity card contains one of the following tags:
  • “international protection applicant”
  • “international protection status”
  • “statelessness”
• You have a valid work permit.

Turkish Residence Permit Types:

1. Short-term residence permit

The Turkish short-term residence permit is the most sought after among all other residence permits. You can get this residence permit for any of the following purposes:

• for scientific research
• to establish commercial connections or business
• to participate in an in-service training program