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Pathway

Türkiye Work Visa and Work Permit

Türkiye (Turkey) Residency
Pathway overview

At a glance

Türkiye's Fixed-Term Work Permit is the usual route for a foreign citizen with a specific job and employer there. The Ministry of Labor and Social Security checks the job, your qualifications, the employer, and any rules for that industry before deciding the application.

Job offer required?
Yes
Salary requirement
From the gross minimum wage to 5 times it, depending on the role
Employer and qualifications
Employer filing and applicable staffing, finance, and professional-license requirements

Summary

A fixed-term work permit lets an approved foreign employee live and work in Türkiye under a qualifying contract for a particular employer and role. The Ministry reviews the employer's staffing and finances, the applicable salary level, and any occupation-specific qualifications, licensing, or restrictions; exceptions depend on the relevant category.

The permit therefore needs employer participation and does not serve as a general job-search or freelance permission. Renewals depend on continued eligibility. Permanent work permission requires its own application based on the specified legal-work history or long-term residence, rather than an automatic conversion after years in the country.

Worker and employer each have a part in approval
  1. Confirm the role is eligible Obtain a specific contract and check qualifications, restricted occupations, and any required professional recognition.
  2. Check the employer’s conditions Assess the applicable staffing, finance, salary, and sector rules, including any documented exception.
  3. Coordinate the correct filing channel Use the consular reference and employer filing process from abroad, or the qualifying domestic procedure.
  4. Work within the approved permit Complete employment registrations and work for the employer, workplace, and role stated in the permission.

A job search alone cannot support this application. Extensions and employer changes require the applicable process. This fixed-term category is separate from independent work permission for a freelancer or business owner.

Could this pathway work for you?

Eligibility

The applicant and employer normally need:

Current general employer criteria

For a workplace subject to balance-sheet accounting, the general staffing rule is at least five Turkish citizens employed at the workplace for each foreign worker requested. A workplace with net sales of at least TRY 50 million in the preceding year is exempt from that staffing criterion for up to five foreign workers.

For a newly established balance-sheet workplace that has not yet produced year-end financial statements, the current general financial criterion is at least TRY 500,000 paid-in capital. For an operating balance-sheet workplace, the employer generally needs at least one of:

These figures are application criteria, not salary amounts, and the official page should be checked again when the employer files.

Current salary criteria

The promised gross pay must be at least the following multiple of the gross minimum wage in force on the application date:

These replace older published multiples that still appear in private guides. Sector rules can add requirements. For example, professional health roles need Ministry of Health pre-authorization, and education roles can require Ministry of National Education or Higher Education Council approval.

Important exceptions

The five-worker and financial criteria are not universal. The Ministry publishes exceptions for specified sectors, public projects, high-technology work, people with particular residence histories, certain family or protection statuses, and other categories. For domestic applications, a person with at least one year of legal stay in the preceding three years under a work permit, residence permit, or international-protection status may qualify for a staffing and financial exemption. This covers up to three qualifying foreign workers, and the workplace generally cannot employ more foreign workers than Turkish citizens. An exception from evaluation criteria is not a guarantee that the work permit will be granted.

More about this route

The worker needs a real employment or service contract, and the employer must participate in the application. A first permit may be issued for up to one year and cannot exceed the contract period. It is tied to the approved employer, workplace, and job.

For most ordinary applicants, the work-permit document also serves as a residence permit while valid. Exceptions apply to permits issued to certain people under temporary or international protection, whose work document does not replace residence status.

What This Route Allows

An approved fixed-term permit allows the holder to work in the job, workplace, and employer recorded on the permit and to reside in Türkiye during its validity. The employer must complete social-security and employment obligations.

The first extension can be granted for up to two years and later extensions for up to three years, provided the worker remains with the same employer and the application is approved. A move to a different employer is treated as a first application rather than a continuation of the old permit.

A person with at least eight years of legal work permits, or a person who holds long-term residence, may apply for a Permanent Work Permit. Meeting that filing condition does not create an absolute right to approval. A permanent work-permit document must be renewed every five years even though the work authorization itself is indefinite.

What This Route Is Not

It is not a speculative job-search permit. Interviewing or focusing a search on Türkiye may make this a future option, but the ordinary fixed-term application needs a specific contract and employer filing.

It is not permission to work in every occupation. Some professions are reserved to Turkish citizens, while others require recognition or preliminary permission. The employer should check the Ministry's current restricted-professions list before committing to a role.

It is not an Independent Work Permit for a freelancer or business owner working on their own account, and it is not a Work Permit Exemption for a short or specially listed activity. Those are separate legal categories. A foreign company shareholder may also face the current company-partner capital, ownership, and Turkish-employment criteria.

Eight years of residence does not automatically convert this permit into permanent work authorization. The official permanent-work rule is eight years of legal work permits or already holding long-term residence, followed by a separate application decided case by case.

Dependents do not receive work rights from the employee's permit. A spouse or child must qualify separately for family residence and obtain their own work authorization if they intend to work.

Next Steps

  1. Secure a written offer and contract identifying the Turkish legal employer, workplace, job, duties, pay, and intended term.
  2. Have the employer check the current staffing, financial, salary, sector, pre-authorization, and restricted-profession rules on the Ministry website. Document any exception relied on.
  3. Decide the correct filing channel. A person abroad applies for a work visa at the Turkish mission and receives a 16-digit reference number for the employer's electronic filing. A qualifying person in Türkiye may use the domestic process if the residence-permit conditions are met.
  4. Prepare the contract, passport, photograph, diploma or professional evidence, and employer trade, tax, financial, and social-security records required in the e-İzin system.
  5. Do not start work until the required permit or exemption is valid. Unauthorized work can lead to penalties and immigration consequences for both worker and employer.
  6. After approval, make sure the actual job, pay, employer, and workplace match the permit and that social-security registration is completed.
  7. File an extension starting 60 days before expiry and no later than the expiry date. A change of employer requires a new first-application analysis.
  8. Keep all permit and payroll records if planning ordinary naturalization, long-term residence, or a later permanent-work-permit application.

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