Documents

Diploma supplement

An explanatory annex describing the qualification and the system that awarded it. Where one exists it is often issued bilingually — which can remove part of the translation cost entirely.

Documents already in English

Sometimes you need less than you think. Some Turkish institutions accept English documents and others do not — and a translation made abroad is not the same thing as a Turkish sworn translation.

Documents from non-Hague countries

Where the apostille is unavailable, one certificate becomes a chain of three or four sequential steps through separate institutions. Nothing in it can be skipped or run in parallel.

e-Devlet documents and QR verification

Many Turkish documents are now issued electronically with a barcode or QR code instead of a signature. Inside Türkiye that is normal; abroad, whether it can be apostilled is the question to settle first.

Foreign bank statement and income proof

The fastest-ageing documents in a permit file. Amounts are never converted in translation — the currency printed on the document is the currency that appears in the Turkish text.

Foreign birth certificate

Asked for in permit, marriage, citizenship and inheritance files. Before ordering an ordinary certificate, ask the registry whether it can issue the multilingual form — where accepted, that needs no translation at all.

Foreign company documents

Registry extracts, articles and resolutions. They cause more delay than any other class of document, and for three predictable reasons: they expire, they are worded too generally, and their format is unfamiliar here.

Foreign criminal record certificate

The shortest-lived document in most files, and one that follows the judicial apostille route. Obtain it last, after everything slower is already in hand.

Foreign death certificate

Until a death abroad is reported into Turkish records, the registry still shows the person as living and no inheritance procedure can begin. Death is one of the events multilingual forms cover.

Foreign diploma

Recognition, work permits and academic appointments all start here. Two things decide whether the file runs smoothly: the apostille obtained in the issuing country, and whether you sent the reverse side.

Foreign divorce decree

A judicial document with two rules of its own: it needs a finalisation annotation before it can be certified, and it is apostilled through the judicial authority rather than the civil one.

Foreign driving licence

Two different questions get confused here: driving on a foreign licence for a period, and exchanging it for a Turkish one. Only the second is a document procedure, and it is the one that needs translation.

Foreign marriage certificate

Needed to register a marriage in Turkish records and in any file resting on marital status. Like the birth certificate, it is one of the documents a multilingual form can cover.

Foreign medical report

Health information is special category personal data under Turkish law. These documents are handled with restricted access and short retention — and never through free machine translation or AI services.

Foreign transcript

The document an assessment actually reads. Subject names, credits and grading scales carry the detail a diploma only summarises — and most of that detail lives on the reverse side.

How long documents stay valid

A document-by-document view: which papers describe a fixed past event and keep, and which describe a present state and go stale. Translations themselves never expire.

In which order are documents processed?

Obtain, certify, translate, certify the translation if required. Every step you take out of order has to be repeated — which is why this one page decides whether a file costs once or twice.

Multilingual civil status extracts (Formula A, B, C)

Standard international forms for birth, marriage and death records. The headings are pre-printed in several languages, so where they are accepted no translation and no legalisation are required.

Name spelling and date formats

Two small things that stop files: a name written two ways, and a date that reads as 3 April in one country and 4 March in another. Both are settled by rules, not by preference.

Population registry extract (nüfus kayıt örneği)

The document that shows what Turkish records actually say about you: marital status, parentage, children and recorded events. Foreign authorities usually want this rather than any certificate you already hold.

Power of attorney issued abroad

The document that lets someone act for you in Türkiye. Where it was drawn up decides everything: a Turkish consulate produces a document valid here directly, a foreign notary produces one needing apostille and translation.

SGK service record

The record of your Turkish social security contributions. Never translated for Turkish use — but it is the central document when a foreign pension authority asks what you paid and when.

Student certificate (öğrenci belgesi)

Issued by a Turkish university, so it is never translated for a Turkish file. It is one of the few documents in a student's permit file that costs nothing at all.

The apostille certificate itself

It is a document in its own right, with ten standard fields — and it is translated along with everything it is attached to. Checking those fields before the document travels saves the most common late failure.

Turkish birth certificate

For a birth registered in Türkiye, the record is Turkish and needs nothing here. Sending it abroad is the case that requires work — and the multilingual form usually removes most of it.

Turkish certificate of no impediment

Issued by the Turkish civil registry for someone marrying abroad. It states that Turkish records show nothing preventing the marriage — and it carries a short validity, so it is ordered against a fixed date.

Turkish criminal record certificate

Obtained electronically, free of translation for Turkish use, and apostilled through the courthouse rather than the governorate when it travels abroad. It is also the fastest-ageing document you will handle.

Turkish diploma for use abroad

The mirror image of an incoming diploma: apostilled here, then translated into the receiving country's language. What varies is whether that country will accept a translation made in Türkiye at all.

Turkish marriage certificate (evlenme cüzdanı)

A Turkish document, never translated for use here. When a foreign authority asks for proof of a marriage conducted in Türkiye, the chain runs outward — and the booklet is usually not the document you send.

Turkish passport

Written in Turkish and English, which is why it is rarely translated for European authorities. Where translation is needed, the spelling it carries is the reference every other document must match.

Turkish residence permit card

A Turkish document, so it is never translated for use here. The translation question only arises when a foreign authority asks you to prove where you have been living.

Turkish tax and residency certificates

Two different documents people ask for interchangeably: proof that you are registered for tax here, and proof that you are tax resident here. Only the second one satisfies a treaty claim abroad.

Turkish title deed (tapu)

A Turkish document that is never translated for a Turkish transaction. The requests we receive for translated deeds almost always come from abroad — a bank, a tax authority or an estate procedure in another country.

Turkish trade registry documents

Registry extracts, activity certificates and signature circulars. Turkish institutions read them as issued; the work begins when a foreign counterparty, bank or tender authority asks for them.

Which documents need an apostille?

Public documents crossing a border between Convention countries. The harder question is which authority issues it — administrative and judicial documents go to different offices, in Türkiye and almost everywhere else.