Family residence permit: which documents are translated

A family residence permit is granted to the spouse and children of a Turkish citizen or of a foreigner who already holds a permit. Everything in the file serves one purpose: proving the family relationship.

What proves the link

Marriage and birth certificates, and where the marriage or birth took place abroad, the corresponding civil registry record. Each foreign document needs an apostille from its issuing country and then a notarised sworn Turkish translation.

⭐ Ask for the multilingual version first

Civil status records — birth, marriage, death — can be issued in many countries as multilingual extracts on standard forms. Where such an extract is accepted, neither translation nor legalisation is required.

A family file typically contains four or five civil status documents. This single question to the issuing registry can remove that entire cost line. Registries issue the ordinary form unless you ask for the multilingual one.

The sponsor’s side

The person already in Türkiye supplies income, accommodation and status documents. These are Turkish documents and are not translated.

The two sides wait for each other, so obtain your foreign documents once the sponsor’s papers are ready — not before. Civil status extracts are short-lived and family files take time.

If there was a previous marriage

Where a previous marriage ended abroad, the divorce record is part of the file. A foreign court decision follows the judicial route: it needs its finalisation annotation before it can be apostilled, and that annotation is translated along with the decision.

If the earlier divorce has not been recorded in the Turkish civil registry, the Turkish record still shows the person as married. That contradiction stops the file.

⚠ Confirm the list

The exact document set is set by the authority and revised from time to time. Take it from the authority’s own current publication.

Where the file usually stalls

Two things stop family files more often than anything else. The first is a name spelled differently on the marriage certificate and the passport; you will be asked for a document showing both refer to the same person. The second is a civil status extract obtained months in advance, which is no longer considered current by the time the appointment arrives.

Both are avoidable if you check them before you order translations rather than afterwards, because a document replaced at that stage takes its apostille and its translation with it.

Where this fits

Before ordering any civil status translation, read multilingual civil status extracts. If an earlier marriage ended abroad, start from recognition of a foreign divorce.