Setting up a company with foreign shareholders

Foreigners can hold shares in and manage Turkish companies. Formation is handled through the trade registry, and the procedure itself is Turkish — the documents that need certifying are the ones identifying the people and entities behind the company.

⭐ Where the translation actually sits

Individual foreign shareholders: passport, with sworn translation where it is not in the Latin alphabet, and a Turkish tax number obtained here.

A foreign company as shareholder: its registry extract, articles, and the resolution authorising participation — each apostilled in its own country and then translated with notarial certification.

The Turkish side — articles drawn up here, registry filings, tax registration, the signature circular — is Turkish and is not translated.

Corporate documents from abroad

These are the ones that cause delay, and for a predictable reason: they are issued by registries with their own formats, they carry dates that expire, and the authorising resolution has to say exactly what it authorises.

⚠ Ask the trade registry what wording it needs in the resolution before it is passed abroad. A resolution passed in general terms usually has to be passed again.

Freshness

Registry extracts are expected to be recent. Obtaining them months in advance means obtaining them again, along with their apostilles and translations.

Doing it from abroad

Formation can be completed by a representative under a power of attorney naming the transaction. A consular power of attorney is valid here directly, without apostille or translation.

After formation

Tax registration, social security registration and chamber membership follow, all producing Turkish documents. If foreign shareholders or directors will work in the company, the work permit question is separate and starts from its own document list.

Where this fits

The certification of corporate documents is covered on company documents issued abroad, and the director’s signature document on signature circular for foreign directors.

Bank accounts and capital

Formation runs alongside opening a bank account, and banks apply their own identification requirements which are frequently stricter than the registry’s. Foreign shareholders are commonly asked for documents nobody mentioned during formation.

Ask the bank for its list at the same time as the registry’s, and order both sets of translations together. Discovering the bank’s requirements after the company exists means a second round of apostilles from abroad, which is the slowest way to finish an otherwise quick procedure.