Social security registration for foreign staff

A foreign employee working in Türkiye is registered with the Turkish social security institution by the employer, in the same way as any other employee.

⭐ Almost nothing here is translated

Registration rests on the work permit, the employment relationship and the employer’s own records. All of those are Turkish documents.

People arriving from a permit file, where everything needed apostille and notarisation, sometimes expect the same here and prepare for a cost that does not exist.

Where translation does arise

Türkiye has bilateral social security agreements with a number of countries. Where an employee remains covered by their home system while working here, that is evidenced by a certificate of coverage issued by the home institution.

That certificate is a foreign official document. Whether it needs apostille and translation, or is transmitted institution to institution under the agreement, depends on the agreement itself — so ask before paying for either.

⚠ The question to ask first

Documents exchanged directly between institutions under an agreement often need no certification at all, because they never pass through your hands. Establish which route applies to your country before assuming the ordinary chain.

Records from previous employment abroad

Where past contribution periods matter — for a pension calculation, for instance — records from a foreign institution may be requested. Those are foreign official documents and follow the ordinary rules.

They also tend to be long, dense and full of institution-specific terminology, so send them as a set rather than page by page.

Names must match

Your social security record is created from your permit and identity documents. If the spelling there differs from the spelling on a foreign certificate, the two records will not be matched.

This is one of the practical reasons the transliteration chosen at the very start of your time in Türkiye matters so much.

Where this fits

The employer’s wider duties are on employer obligations, and name consistency is covered on the name equivalence certificate.

When the employment ends

Registration is closed by the employer, not by you, and within a period set by legislation. A record left open after employment has ended causes problems in later files, because it shows an employment that no longer exists.

Ask for written confirmation that the closure has been made. It costs nothing at the time and answers a question that can otherwise take weeks to resolve later.