Job Discussion Forums

MBee · Joined: 11 Aug 2011 Posts: 68

Hi everyone, hope you're enjoying the day wherever you are out there...

I'm an American looking for work in Turkey. I've read that you must apply for a residence permit "within one month of your arrival." A couple of questions:

A) Is this true? Or can you apply at any time while on your 90 day tourist visa?

B) Does this mean within one month of the date of my arrival in the city where I'm going to live? Or the date of my arrival in Turkey?

Cok tesekkurler ve iyi gunlar. I appreciate your help!

betacygnus · Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Posts: 24

Hi,

I'm currently living in Turkey and have been working as an English teacher for several months. Here is the procedure as I experienced it:

Upon arrival in the airport in Istanbul, I was given a tourist visa (a stamp placed in my passport), which is good for 90 days. The cost was 15 Euros. The school for which I work took care of the Residence Permit (Ikamet) and the work visa. This required three passport-quality, recent photographs and several trips to the local police headquarters. If you plan on coming to Turkey without having first secured a job, I'm not sure whether or not you can apply for a residence permit, so, check that detail out and assume that you have 90 days in which to land a job. If you come here under a tourist visa and don't find a job within 90 days, you can probably leave the country and re-enter under a new tourist visa, but there may be a waiting period between visas. Again, I don't know the details, so check out that detail, too.

Best of luck and I hope my information is of some help!

MBee · Joined: 11 Aug 2011 Posts: 68

Thanks a lot--this is so helpful. Hope your life in Turkey is going well!

Kimac · Joined: 02 Apr 2013 Posts: 5

So....if a school is motivated and knows how to work the System,

AND you have giving them everything needed to get the job done,

how much time would it take them to produce your work visa if nothing goes wrong?

Obviously the school can get distracted or put things off for there own purposes, but what are the real timing limitations involved?

betacygnus · Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Posts: 24

I don't have a definitive answer but, from my experience and from what other teachers have told me, the entire process takes about 2 months.

londone7 · Joined: 07 Jun 2013 Posts: 11

do they need to see your original BA and Tesol/Celta certs?

I'm reading comments in other threads that they will take these and wont return them for several months???

betacygnus · Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Posts: 24

Londone7: My employer scanned and printed copies of my original diploma and TESOL certificate. I didn't need to hand the originals over to anyone, and I would definitely have protested if I had been asked to hand them over to someone who wanted to keep them.

Larryj917 · Joined: 25 Nov 2011 Posts: 25

Scans were good enough for my employer, and they can see the originals when you get there. I would never let anyone take my passport. If it came to that, I would look for another job.