Employment of foreign citizens in Turkey

Foreign investors who choose to open a company in Turkey may need to hire, besides the local professionals, foreign citizens, so they should know the main formalities related to these procedure. Every foreign citizen needs a work permit in order to be allowed to work in Turkey. This permit can be obtained from the Turkish Ministry of Labor, on demand of the employee or the employer, who must send an application. More details you may find in the Law on Work Permits Issued to Expatriates that came into force in 2003.

Besides the work permit, a foreign citizen who wants to be employed in Turkey needs also a working visa and a residence permit. There are a few exceptions from this rule in the Turkish law, so you need to ask a Turkish lawyer if you can benefit from this provision.

Before you start working in Turkey, you should obtain firstly the work permit and you need to send an application to the Turkish authorities from abroad – at the embassies or consulates – or to the Turkish Ministry of Labor.

The work permit will be issued within 15 days after you send the application if you are considered “key personnel” according to the Turkish law. That means that you occupy one of these positions at a company which is considered a foreign direct investment in Turkey:

- shareholder,
- chairman of the board,
- board member,
- manager or similar.

Only after you obtain the work permit, you can ask for a working visa from the embassy in the country you live in.

The next step is obtaining the residence permit which is issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Turkey, after you send an application to the Turkish embassy in your country or directly to the Ministry.

If you are not part of the “key personnel”, your application will be analyzed by the Turkish authorities that will decide if they will give you the requested permit.