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Turkey · Visa required
Emigrating to Turkey
Living in Turkey starts with a residence permit you renew every year or every two years. Two things weigh more than the form. Your neighbourhood: closed ones refuse new applications. And the treaty: your company pension falls to Turkey, your AOW stays with the Netherlands. Whoever knows that rhythm lives there well and cheaply.
€ 399 one-off · 32 steps · no subscription
- Kind of journey
- Visa: the ikamet, a permit you renew each time
- The check
- Check the neighbourhood in e-ikamet before you sign
- Note
- Whether Turkey exempts your pension depends on your fund. The AOW (Dutch state pension) stays taxed in the Netherlands
Last updated: 14 October 2026
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Five phases, from the route choice to the renewal calendar
This journey turns on a few clocks and one check. The clocks are the ninety visa-free days within which your application has to run, the pet's blood test (the titre test) with its months of lead time, the driving licence that has to be converted within six months, and the renewal that comes back every year. The check comes before everything: check your address in e-ikamet, the Turkish application portal, because a closed neighbourhood means a rejected application. On top of that there's the tax treaty of 1986. It's more favourable than most new treaties, if you keep the two halves of article 18 apart: your company pension and your AOW.
- Orientation
A permit you renew, a CAK route and a half-true tax story
In this phase you learn how living in Turkey works. You may be there freely for ninety days. After that you live there on the ikamet, the Turkish residence permit. You keep renewing it, until after eight years long-term residence opens. The forum gets two things wrong. Turkey is a CAK treaty country: pensioners enter the Turkish state system via the CAK, the Dutch body that arranges your healthcare abroad. So you don't need a lifelong private policy as in Thailand. And the treaty gives your company pension to Turkey and your AOW to the Netherlands. Whether Turkey exempts that pension depends on your pension fund. Finally, explore the region with the earthquake map beside it. Here it counts in choosing where you'll live.Read more
- Your visa
You choose the route on paper, but the neighbourhood has a say
In this phase you choose your route and apply for the ikamet. For the short-term ikamet you need a notarised rental contract or your own home, plus means and insurance. The property route, residence based on a purchased home, only works from US$ 200,000 appraised value anymore. Remote workers have the digital nomad route. The step that decides this journey is a quarter of an hour's work. Check the exact address in e-ikamet before you sign. Hundreds of neighbourhoods are closed to new applications, and the lists online are always outdated. A first settlement in a closed neighbourhood is an automatic rejection.Read more
- Closing the Netherlands
The CAK route, and an exemption that doesn't apply to your AOW
In this phase you close things down in the Netherlands, with two lessons of its own. The first is about healthcare. With a Dutch statutory pension you register with the CAK. Via a treaty form you then fall under the SGK, the Turkish state system, for a treaty contribution. That contribution depends on the country-of-residence factor: the number that expresses what healthcare costs in your country of residence. Turkey's is among the lowest of the whole scheme. The second lesson is about tax. Apply for the wage tax exemption for your company pension, so the Netherlands no longer withholds anything on it. That pension is taxable only in Turkey. Don't apply for the exemption for your AOW, because that stays taxed in the Netherlands as long as you're not a Turkish citizen. In this phase also have a Turkish adviser apply for a ruling: a decision by the Turkish tax authority on your case. It says whether your pension fund falls under the Turkish exemption, and that difference is zero percent or up to forty. Also, notify the SVB of your departure within four weeks. The SVB's proof of life comes back periodically from now on. And for your year of departure you file a return with the M form.Read more
- The move
By road, without the car, and with the longest clock for the pet
In this phase you move by road. The household contents go by lorry, in one to two weeks. No sea container is needed. The car usually gets sold: with a consumption tax of 70 to 220 percent, import is effectively unaffordable. Only pensioners have a tax-free route, on an MA plate. The pet has the longest clock of the journey. Turkey demands a titre test, a blood test that measures protection against rabies. After the blood draw there's a three-month waiting period. Have that test done in the Netherlands. Then the ninety-day waiting period on every later return visit lapses too.Read more
- Arrival in Turkey
Address, number, bank, and two clocks that keep ticking
In this phase you arrange your address, your numbers and your bank after landing, in a fixed order. First the address registration, then the free tax number. Then a Turkish phone number, because bank text messages only go to +90. Only then do you open the bank account. Pensioners hand in the CAK form at the SGK. Your driving licence has to be converted within six months. That goes without a test, but your Dutch licence goes back to the RDW. Every home carries the compulsory earthquake insurance DASK. It gives a capped basic cover, not a full rebuild guarantee. After that you live by the renewal calendar: ikamet, proof of life, DASK.Read more
This is what one step of your plan looks like
This is the real thing: one of the steps of the Turkey journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan, with the deadlines, the offices and the sources.
Step 2.2 of your plan
Check the neighbourhood before you sign
- Lead time
- a quarter of an hour — and it saves months
- Costs
- none
This step keeps you from signing for a home at an address where you won't get a permit.
Since 2022 hundreds of neighbourhoods with many foreigners have been closed to new residence applications. In practice that hit precisely the Dutch favourites, such as parts of Alanya.
What that means:
- A first settlement at an address in a closed neighbourhood means an automatic refusal.
- Renewal at an existing address remains possible.
- Family reunification also remains possible.
Which neighbourhoods are closed changes continuously. There have been periods of closure, and also of reopening. So every static list online is out of date the moment you read it.
This is how you check the address:
- Enter the exact address in e-ikamet before you sign a rental or purchase contract.
- If the address is in a closed neighbourhood, the system itself blocks it.
- Also check the announcements on goc.gov.tr.
Where you arrange it
What this step rests on
And this is the dashboard that step lives in. The example shows the plan for Spain; your dashboard shows the plan for Turkey.
This is step 2.2 of 34. The other 33 are ready for you, each with the same sources, the same offices and a schedule that keeps track of your dates.
See all 34 steps for TurkeyWhat you get for € 399
All 34 steps to Turkey, for your situation
In order, with the office and the official source at every step. Steps that don't apply to you don't appear.
Your deadlines in one place
For each step you see the latest date to start, and you get a heads-up before something is due or expires. Your documents sit in the vault, with their dates.
A plan that stays right
Twice a month we check the sources. If something changes, it's in your plan and you get a message.
The step-by-step plan for Turkey
€ 399
one-off · 34 steps
- Pay once, no subscription
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Every step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Turkey: every step in order, to print and tick off. With it, five mails in a week and a half about the pitfalls and the real costs. If the rules for Turkey change, you'll hear about it. After that we ask once where your plans stand, send one offer, and now and then one thing that fits your moment. No newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
That was the move. And once you live there?
Which country may tax your pension once you live in Turkey? Is there a favourable regime, a scheme that lowers your tax? And how do you get insured? That depends on where your income comes from. Tick it and you'll see which rules apply to you, with the source.
See the financial conditionsClosing down the Netherlands: all your letters in one go
Moving to Turkey starts with leaving the Netherlands properly. That's why the plan includes the letter tool: you enter your details once and every cancellation and notification letter is ready.
Just the letters, without the plan? That works too, for € 49
- Health insurance, rent, energy, subscriptions, GP, school, bank and pension fund: 16 kinds of letters. You enter your details only once.
- A sending list that counts back from your departure date and your notice period, even when that's three months.
- Also what you need to ask for as an emigrant: your no-claims years in English, your medical file and the school report (the report on your child for the new school).
Auke, maker of Vertrekklaar
On 2 January we're leaving ourselves, on a trip around the world with our family. What I put here, I'm arranging for my own family too.
On 20 September 2026 a customer wrote that the CAK rule for early retirement was missing from his plan. He was right. That evening the step was in thirteen plans, with the source attached.
The knowledge base on Turkey
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
- Healthcare in Turkey: the CAK route that almost nobody knowsTurkey is a treaty country: pensioners with a Dutch statutory pension get access through the CAK to the Turkish state system SGK, for a treaty contribution — so no lifelong private policy. Whoever doesn't fall under it has the private-insurance requirement of the ikamet, the policy for the ikamet and after a year the voluntary state insurance.
- The residence routes to Turkey: the ikamet, the neighbourhood check and the road to eight yearsNinety days you may be there freely; after that the ikamet begins — a permit you keep renewing. The routes in a row: short-term residence on a rental or on ownership, the property route with its threshold of US$ 200,000, the digital nomad — and the neighbourhood check you do before you sign a contract.
- Working in Turkey: the work permit, the annual cycle and the minimum wageIn Turkey you can only work as a Dutch citizen with a work permit, and the first one is valid for at most a year, tied to one employer. A complete application is assessed within thirty days. Renewal is possible from sixty days before the end, and never after. The minimum wage in 2026 is 33,030 lira gross a month.
- AOW, pension and tax in Turkey: article 18 in two halvesThe treaty of 1986 gives your company pension to Turkey, and whether Turkey exempts it depends on your fund. Your AOW (the Dutch state pension) stays with the Netherlands as long as you're not a Turkish citizen. Whoever keeps the two halves of article 18 apart knows exactly what changes net; whoever believes the forum is counting chickens.
- The Turkish exemption for foreign income: twenty years, three years of look-back and an application before 31 DecemberSince 2026, income from abroad is exempt from Turkish income tax for twenty years for anyone newly moving to Turkey who had no residence and no tax liability in Turkey in the three years before. The exemption is not automatic: you apply for a certificate before the end of the year in which you become resident. On top of that, the inheritance tax rate drops to 1 percent.
- Your car and your driving licence in Turkey: the MA plate and the six monthsTurkey is the most expensive car country in Europe inside one of the cheapest countries — buying a car costs more there than in the Netherlands. Against that stands a scheme that virtually no Dutch site explains properly: whoever has retired abroad may bring their own car in tax-free on an MA plate. And your driving licence must be exchanged within six months.
All 14 articles about Turkey
- Your pet to Turkey: the double titre clock
- Your household goods to Turkey: the exemption, the six months and the year you sell nothing
- Banking and paying in Turkey: what the bank asks, what an account may cost and rent through the bank
- Renting in Turkey: the deposit in a bank account, the rent increase and the notarised lease
- Your first weeks in Turkey: which clock runs out first
- School in Turkey: twelve years of compulsory schooling, the denklik of your reports and the school year
- Living and buying in Turkey: tapu, DASK and the pitfalls that Spain content misses
- Yabancı kimlik, address registration and e-Devlet: the Turkish numbers, and which office issues them
Also applies to your move
Ready to begin?
The step-by-step plan for Turkey: 34 steps, with your documents and your costs in one place. For each step you see the latest date to start. You pay once and it's yours.