Your first weeks in Turkey: which clock runs out first

What should you sort out first in your first weeks in Turkey? The application for your residence permit, the ikamet. You submit it via e-İkamet within the period in which you may be in Turkey without a visa. The migration authority decides within ninety days, and in that time the other clocks are already running. The finding at the source is in the list of documents for the ikamet: anyone insured through the treaty with a Dutch pension needs no private health insurance, but does need a document from the provincial office of the Turkish social security institution, the SGK, showing that their healthcare runs through that treaty. Without that paper your file is not complete.

Which clocks are running?

Clock	Deadline	From when
Residence permit application	within your visa-free period; online up to 10 days after is still assessed	your entry
Decision on the permit	90 days by law	the complete file
Address registration	20 working days	the day you receive the permit
Phone from the Netherlands	works 120 days without registration	your entry
Household goods free of customs duties	within 6 months	your arrival
Exemption for foreign income	application before 31 December	the year you become resident
Renewal of the permit	from 60 days before the end, and before the end	the end date on your card

How does the permit application work?

Online, via e-İkamet, and then in person. You fill in the form, get an appointment at the migration office in your province, and hand in your file there. The migration authority does not work with intermediaries: you make the application yourself. Once your application is approved, you receive an application certificate. With it, together with the fee receipts, you may leave Turkey and re-enter, as long as you are back within fifteen days each time. The card itself arrives by PTT at the address you gave.

For the file you need, among other things: the form, copies of your passport, two biometric photos, the fee receipts, proof of sufficient means, health insurance and proof of your residential address. Anyone renting hands in a notarised copy of the lease with the landlord's details. Which route suits you is in the residence routes to Turkey.

Arrange the SGK paper before your appointment. With a Dutch pension via the CAK you are insured in Turkey under the treaty. The migration authority accepts that as health insurance, but only with a signed and stamped or electronically signed document from the provincial SGK office. How that route works is in healthcare in Turkey.

What do you do once the permit is there?

Then the twenty working days for your address registration at the civil registry begin. With the card you collect your e-Devlet password at the PTT, and with that you register your phone and later download your proof of residence. Anyone insuring themselves through the SGK tells the migration authority once that insurance is finalised; anyone who fails to risks having the permit cancelled. How the numbers wait for each other is in the Turkish numbers.

And the belongings still to come?

Your used household goods enter Turkey free of customs duties if they come with you, or within six months of your arrival. Anyone who goes first with suitcases plans the container within that half year. What applies is in your household goods to Turkey.

And tax?

If you become resident in Turkey in 2026 or later, and had no residence and no tax liability in Turkey in the three years before, you can get a twenty-year exemption for income from abroad. For that you apply for a certificate before 31 December of that year. How it works is in the Turkish exemption for foreign income. The order for your situation is in the route to Turkey.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey, step 5.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Turkey or go straight to step 5.1 in the open plan.