Power of attorney issued abroad

A great deal can be done in Türkiye without being present: property transfers, inheritance procedures, company formation, civil registry matters. What makes that possible is a power of attorney the receiving institution accepts.

⭐ Two routes with very different costs

A Turkish consulate. The document is drawn up in Turkish by a Turkish official. It is a Turkish official document, valid here directly: no apostille, no translation, no further certification.

A foreign notary. The document is foreign. It needs apostille in that country, sworn Turkish translation, and notarial certification here.

The consular route is almost always faster and cheaper. Where people take the other one, the reason is usually consular appointment availability — which is worth solving rather than working around.

⚠ Scope decides whether it works

Turkish institutions read authority narrowly. The land registry wants to see that this transaction is authorised; a notary wants the specific act named. A broadly worded general authority is regularly refused.

Ask the institution what wording it requires before the document is drawn up. Redrafting means returning to the consulate or the foreign notary, which is the expensive part.

Photographs

Certain transactions require a photograph of the grantor on the document itself, property matters among them. It cannot be added afterwards, and a document without one may be refused although everything else is correct.

What is translated

All of it: the operative text, the notarial certification, the apostille and any annotations. Where it was drawn up in another script, names follow the passport spelling.

Revocation

A power of attorney continues until it is revoked or a stated period expires, and Turkish institutions act on it without going behind it. Understand how revocation works before granting broad authority to anyone.

Where it fits

The domestic equivalent is on power of attorney at a Turkish notary, and the transaction that most often needs one on title deed transfer.

Who the representative should be

A power of attorney transfers real authority, and Turkish institutions act on it without going behind it. The person named can complete transactions that are difficult to reverse.

Where the matter is significant, name a lawyer or someone you would trust with the asset itself, keep the authority as narrow as the transaction allows, and ask for confirmation once the transaction is complete rather than assuming it was.