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First Time Family Residence Permit Application
Important Information
  1. An application can only be made after entering Türkiye. It is not possible to make it outside the country.
  2. To be able to apply, dependents need to enter Türkiye with their original passports. No other entry document is acceptable for residence permit applications.
  3. Dependent Residence Permits are issued for a maximum length of 2 years each time; however, this length is the first contingent upon the residence permit of the primary resident (benefactor).
  4. All applications must be made before the expiry date of the visa or permission to stay without a visa.  Dependents’ passports must be valid 60 days further than the applied end date of the residency (i.e. if the benefactor has a work permit until  March 1st, a dependent can only apply for a residence permit which ends at this date. Therefore, his/ her passport must be valid until April 30th).
  5. If you attempt to apply after the visa expiration date, this will not be possible and you will be asked to leave Türkiye and re-enter with a new visa or passport entry stamp.
  6. We advise you to contact us first and send us your apostilled marriage certificate for your spouse and apostilled birth certificate of your child to get them translated and notarized faster since we have an agreed notary public with a translation service.
  7. It is necessary to upload the applicant’s (dependent) headshot photograph to the online application form. Please e-mail your dependents’ headshot photographs in the JPEG version to the ICO.
  8. It is necessary to add your spouse’s mother’s and father’s names to the online application form. Please e-mail their names to the ICO.
  9. The ICO handles the family residence permit application process on behalf of dependents. Therefore, all required documents must be submitted to the ICO before the visa expiration date.
  10. Applicants can not depart from Türkiye until their applications are evaluated. Otherwise, their applications will be automatically canceled.
  11. Each dependent must collect the documents listed below and submit them to the ICO for them to check the documents. The benefactor should collect his or her documents as much as the number of his or her dependents. (i.e. if you have a spouse and a child, you should collect two salary letters).
  12. The ICO will take the applicants and the primary permit holders to their appointments at the Migration Office to submit the application files. there, the applicants will be asked to provide their fingerprints. 
Required Documents for Each Person In Family
Important: The primary resident (KU employee) must provide his/ her required documents as much as the number of his or her dependents (i.e. if the KU employee has a spouse and a child, s/he must provide two Salary Letters).

  • Please make sure that all the photocopies are separately taken to separate A4- size papers.
  • You can photocopy both sides of your residence permit card on one side of an A4-size page.
Please note:

  1. If the primary resident’s (benefactor’s) spouse is abroad, an apostilled consent letter is required (from a Turkish Consulate in their home country or a notary public) for the chid’s application.
  2. If the benefactor is divorced and is the legal guardian of the child, a notarized Turkish translation of the court’s ruling is required.

Primary Resident (KU Employee)

  1. 2 biometric head-shots in ICAO standards taken within the last six months
  2. Photocopy of the passport ID page
  3. Photocopy of Work Permit Card (Both sides)
  4. Salary Letter from HR in Turkish, with authorized signatures list (İmza Sirküleri) I
  5. Salary rolls for the last 3 months with authorized signatures list (If applicable) I
  6. Address Registration Certificate from e-Devlet II
  7. A utility bill in your name or a notarized copy of your rental contract
  8. Social Security Activation Document III
  9. Social Security Service Scheme from e-Devlet (Type SGK Hizmet Dökümü to the search box on e-Devlet)
  10. Criminal Record from Turkish authorities (e-Devlet) (Click here for instructions)
  11. Criminal Record from the country of origin UNLESS you have been living in Türkiye continuously, without interruption, with a residence permit for 5 years (Click here for instructions) VII

Spouse

  1. Apostilled Marriage Certificate IV
  2. Document showing that you are able to activate your Social Security V
  3. Photocopies of passport ID, last entry stamp to Türkiye, and visa pages (all stamped pages)
  4. 4 biometric head-shots in ICAO standards taken within the last six months
  5. Receipts of fee payments VI

Each Child

  1. Apostilled Birth Certificate IV
  2. Document showing that you are able to activate your Social Security V (No need if the child is below 18)
  3. Photocopies of passport ID, last entry stamp to Türkiye, and visa pages (all stamped pages)
  4. 4 biometric head-shots in ICAO standards taken within the last six months
  5. Photocopies of parents’ passport ID pages and work/residence permits
  6. Receipts of fee payments VI
I- You can request your Salary Letter and payrolls for the last 3 months via HR- Track- it.

Please do indicate in your request that the documents must be in Turkish with an authorized signatures list (İmza Sirküleri).

Remember: the number of documents must be in accordance with the number of your dependents. If your spouse and child are applying, you should request 2 salary letters and 2 copies of each payroll for the last 3 months.

II-Please click HERE to learn how to obtain an address registration certificate or to learn how to register your and your dependents’ address.

III- Social Security Activation Document can be obtained from the e-Devlet platform if you are already registered to Social Security. If not, you need to visit the Sarıyer SGK (Social Security Office) and register yourself with your work permit card and passport. After registering you, the personnel will print out your activation document and hand it to you.

*You may read out or hand in the following text (that reads “Hello! I came to collect my social security activation document.“) to an officer at the Social Security Office:

“Merhaba! Sağlık provizyon belgesi almaya geldim.”

IV- These apostilled certificates must be translated to Turkish and notarized.

If your country is not a party to the Apostille Convention, you have two options:

  1. Before arriving in Türkiye, you can contact a Turkish mission in your country. The Turkish mission can translate and approve your certificates.
  2. After arriving in Türkiye, you should visit the consulate of your country and get your certificates stamped. Then you should visit the Sarıyer District Governor (Kaymakamlık- 5th floor) to have your stamped documents approved. Finally, you can contact the ICO to get them translated and notarized.

List of Parties to the Apostille Convention

Please click here to see the Apostille Convention Countries (Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents).

V- The document showing that you are able to activate your Social Security (Provizyon alabilir belgesi) can be collected from the Sarıyer SGK (Social Security Office). For more information, please click here.

VI- There are 2 types of fees that a dependent must pay: Card Fee and Visa Fee (if applicable)

Since the dependents do not have their foreign ID numbers yet, they must obtain tax ID numbers to be able to pay their fees. To learn how to purchase a tax ID number, please visit our Tax ID web page. 

Visa Fee: If you entered Türkiye without a visa because of Türkiye’s visa regime, you need to pay a visa fee to apply for a residence permit. For instance; German citizens can enter Türkiye without a visa. If they want to apply for a residence permit, they have to pay a visa fee. 

Visa fee exempt countries: The citizens of the following countries do not have to pay visa fees: Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Czechia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Luxemburg, New Zeland, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Russia.

Payment of all fee types can ONLY be made to Tax Offices. The closest tax office to campus is the Sarıyer Tax Office. For directions, click here.

VII- It is better if you collect your criminal report in your country and have it translated&issued in a Turkish consulate&embassy there, before your arrival. If you did not bring that translated and approved document before your arrival, you can visit your consulate in Istanbul to request your criminal report from your country. Please note that it will take much longer if you request it from Turkey which can result in a delay in your dependent’s permit application. If they can not finish their applications within their visa or visa-free periods, they must depart from Türkiye and re-enter. Those documents collected from your consulate need to undergo the same process explained in footnote IV. 

Traveling While Your Family Residence Permit Application is in Process
After successfully applying for a residence permit and your application is evaluated positively, you are entitled to a document called “Ikamet Izni Müracaat Belgesi – Residence Permit Application Form” which can be obtained from Beşiktaş Immigration Office by going there in person with your original passport.

This document allows you to travel and stay outside Türkiye for up to 15 days after your application is evaluated and before you receive your new permit card. 

Departing from Türkiye before your residence permit application is evaluated results in rejection. Your application automatically gets canceled. 

This document becomes available after you receive a notification saying that your application has been evaluated positively. The evaluation of a residence permit application may take approximately 15 days after ICO submits them to the authorities. The system automatically sends SMS messages to the applicants’ Turkish mobile phone numbers. If you did not provide your Turkish mobile phone number in the application form, you may send an email to istanbul.duzenli@goc.gov.tr and inquire about the status of your application. It is very important to add your online application form (in PDF) and a copy of your passport ID page (in PDF or JPEG format) to your email.

If you have a valid multi-entry visa, you do not need this document. You can travel abroad after your application is evaluated.

If you do not have a valid multi-entry visa period, you need to obtain this document showing that you applied for a residence permit. With this document, you can depart from Türkiye without any issue for 15 days. If you want to stay abroad for more than 15 days without your permit card, you should obtain a new visa to enter Türkiye.

Please click here for the Turkish visa regulations.

Transit directions to Beşiktaş Immigration Office and instructions to obtain this document can be found here.