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Touristic visa

To be able to reside in Turkey after the regular 90 day visa expires, you need a short-term residence permit. You can get it with a work permit or with some short-term visas, such as the touristic visa.

This short-term visa will be given for a year at most.

Note that you are not allowed to work with the touristic visa.

Residence permit steps⚑

This is the procedure to obtain a residence permit through a touristic visa from Turkey (not from abroad). Since a rental contract and other documents are required, it might be hard to arrange everything from abroad, but it's still possible.

It is assumed that you are already in Turkey because you entered with the 90 day touristic visa.

  1. Get 4 biometric photos.
  2. Get a health insurance. You'll need the original stamped/sealed insurance policy. A minimum-coverage local health insurance policy will cost around 600 TL for a year.
  3. Fill the form for the immigration services appointment a Directorate General of Migration Management. Notes:
    • Official required documents list.
    • If the income is your savings, it's recommended to divide your saving by the number of months you are staying and fill the result as your monthly income, instead of puting just 0.
    • video showing the form filling process.
  4. Get a photocopy of your passport including the personal information page and the page where the passport control stamp is.
  5. Get a statement on having sufficient financial means through the stay. Might not be requested. Could be bank statement of a long enough period. You can open an account in a Turkish bank, for that you will need to get your tax number (vergi numarası) from the local tax office.
  6. Get a notarized copy of your rental agreement.

Wait for the appointment. A short interview will take place. If everything goes well, they will tell you to pay the residence permit fees (card and single entry fee) which add up to around 568 TL. Then you have to pay them and come back. The residence permit card will be delivered to your address of stay.

Experience⚑

I applied for the residence permit for touristic purposes for a year. I am a European citizen and this was my first application. I entered Turkey with my passport (visa exemption) on the 10/07/2021.

Process⚑

  1. 14/07/2021: Submitted the online form (https://e-ikamet.goc.gov.tr/). For which I needed a house rent contract (they don't ask for it directly but they ask for the house address), a Turkish phone number, a portrait picture and a health insurance policy.
  2. 16/07/2021: I received an email informing me of the interview appointment date (05/08/2021 at 13:00).
  3. 05/08/2021: I went to the Ankara Valiliği il Göç İdaresi Müdürlüğü (Barbaros, Binnaz Sk. No:2, 06680 Çankaya/Ankara) and arrived there at 12:30 (half an hour early). I waited in line and told the security guy that I was early and asked if I could go in anyways. The security guy answered laughing that we all had the appointment at the same time (hundreds of people) so it was ok to go early. He then asked for my pink classifier (pembe dosya) which I had never heard of. Apparently you need to bring your documents in one of those but that rule is not written anywhere. I went down the street and bought one for 3 TL and came back, they let me in without having to wait in the line again.
  4. In the reception, some workers where checking the passports and the documents and giving some stickers with a line number. Then, we went to a waiting room where there was a screen calling line numbers. At first you shouldn't wait for your number to be called but instead fill the papers with your phone number and name which are on a table in the back. Then, you should go to the cash desk (vezne) and pay the taxes stated in the printout of the online form. The cash desk opens at one and there is no order to pay. You can only pay with cash. After this, I left that room and went upstairs where I waited for an hour to be called. I waited for my turn for the interview, where I was asked for the basic documents and had no questioning or anything like that and took around 2 minutes. I had to give the notarized copy of my rental contract, the signed form printout, 4 biometric pictures, a photocopy of my passport main page and of the page where the entry stamp was and the health insurance signed policy documents. They didn't ask for the bank statement or anything else. The whole process took 2 hours. It was really messy and people did not generally respect the line order, but the workers were generally friendly and nice.
  5. 24/08/2021: I check for the status of my application online (https://e-ikamet.goc.gov.tr/) and saw that there were missing documents (didn't specify which). So I went that same day to the Göç İdaresi. A worker checked the status on the computer and told me that I had to pay for the single entry visa fee. I did it and then went upstairs to the missing document issues room, where some workers looked for my folder and added the tax receipt.
  6. 03/09/2021: I checked the status of my application and it said that it had been concluded positively.
  7. 04/09/2021: I received the residence permit card at my house from PTT.

I didn't get any notifications via SMS at all so its important to constantly check online for the status.

I asked for the residence permit to be from 01/08/2021 to the 01/08/2022 (same as the insurance) but I got it 14/07/2021 to the 09/07/2022.

Costs⚑

  • Biometric pictures: 35 TL.
  • One year basic health insurance (SOMPO SIGORTA): 85 TL.
  • Notarized copy of the rent contract: 125 TL.
  • Pink classifier: 3 TL.
  • Card and residence permit taxes: 462 TL.
  • Single entry visa: 759 TL.

TOTAL: 1,469 TL

I'm not including the Sim card costs (600TL for 3 months with internet) and the photocopy prices (few TL).

Things to do after obtaining the residence permit⚑

  • Notify my Turkish cell phone operator (updated my details from the app). Otherwise your line will be canceled after some months (source: the guy at Turkcell store).
  • Get access to e-devlet to do bureaucracy online. Go to PTT and ask for the code, you will receive it as an SMS to your Turkish phone number. The cost is 2 TL.
  • Go back to the Göç İdaresi to register your address (yes, again). You will need to bring some utility bill registered to your name. You can also go with the person you live with if the bills are under their name and they are already registered (nüfus) at that address. If they are not registered, they can try to do it from e-devlet or go to the population directorate (nüfus müdürlüğü).

References⚑