Turquoise Card Turkey: Who Can Apply and What It Provides

The Turquoise Card (Turkuaz Kart) is the most comprehensive work status Turkey offers to qualified foreign nationals. As defined in the Turquoise Card Regulation, the Turquoise Card is a document granting the foreign national the right to work and reside in Turkey indefinitely, and granting their spouse and children the right of residence. The Ministry of Labor and Social Security decides who receives the card based on education, professional experience, contribution to science or the economic impact of the investment. For the first three years, the card is monitored under a “transition period” annotation; if this period is completed successfully, the card becomes indefinite.

In this article, we look at the card from the perspective of investors and company executives: which five groups can apply, through which channel the application is made, how scoring works, what is required during the transition period and in which cases the card is revoked. The standard work permit process is covered in our separate guides.

What is the Turquoise Card, and what legislation is it based on?

Unlike a fixed-term work permit, the Turquoise Card is a qualification-based status that is not tied to a particular employer or period. Its legal basis is Article 11 of Law No. 6735; the implementation details are in the Turquoise Card Regulation published in Official Gazette No. 30007 dated 14 March 2017. Applications are assessed by the Ministry's General Directorate of International Labor Force.

The law considers the card together with the concept of a “qualified foreign national”. Under the fifth paragraph of Article 11, those with internationally recognized work in an academic field, those who stand out in a strategic field of science, industry or technology, and those who make or are expected to make a significant contribution to the national economy through their export, employment or investment capacity are considered qualified foreign nationals. This article does not apply to foreign nationals under temporary protection.

In short, the card is not a permit open to everyone who says “I want to work in Turkey”. It is a selective route designed for the profiles the country wants to attract under the Ministry's international labor force policy.

Turquoise Card requirements: who can be granted the card?

The Turquoise Card requirements do not consist of a single threshold; Article 5 of the Regulation lists five groups of foreign nationals who may be granted the card, and each group is assessed against its own criteria. The “5 requirements” in our heading correspond to these five profiles:

• Highly qualified labor: a foreign national distinguished by their level of education, salary, professional knowledge, experience and contribution to science and technology.
• Highly qualified investor: a foreign national with a high level of investment or exports, a large volume of employment to be created, and a strong contribution to scientific and technological development.
• Scientist or researcher: a person conducting work in science, industry and technology considered strategic for the country's interests.
• A foreign national who is internationally successful in culture, arts or sports.
• A person contributing to the international recognition of Turkey or Turkish culture and carrying out international activities relating to national interests.

The documents to be uploaded to the system also differ for each group. Article 8 of the Regulation lists the common documents (application petition, copy of passport, a letter of conformity if any) and the group-specific documents as follows:

The General Directorate is authorized to set and change the documents required for each group; the current list is published on the Ministry's website. You should therefore check the latest published list before you start preparing the file.

How is a qualified investor assessed?

In a qualified investor application, the documented or committed level of investment, exports and employment is at the center of the scoring. The Regulation also lists as criteria the sector, region and nature of the investment, as well as movable and immovable property and intellectual and industrial property rights held in Turkey.

The monetary thresholds for these criteria are not written in the Regulation. The General Directorate may change the scoring system, set different scoring by region, province, sector or occupation, and publishes these in six-month periods. It would therefore be wrong to give a fixed figure such as “anyone who invests this amount gets the card”; you need to look at the scoring in force at the time of application.

Consider a fictional example: an investor planning to set up a production facility in Turkey, who has just registered their company, can document the investment amount and employment commitment in their incentive certificate in the application. What determines the score is how concrete and well documented these commitments are. We explained the general framework of the investment plan in our foreign investor roadmap.

How do you apply for the Turquoise Card?

The Turquoise Card application is made from Turkey directly through the Ministry's electronic system, and from abroad through the Turkish embassy or consulate general in the country of which the foreign national is a citizen or where they are legally present. For applications from abroad, the mission forwards the documents to the Ministry electronically. The application is deemed complete once the required information and documents have been entered into the system.

There is an important difference from the standard work permit: a foreign national legally present in Turkey can apply themselves with their foreign identification number, and under the Regulation a valid residence permit is not required for this application. The application can also be made on the foreign national's behalf by an intermediary institution authorized by the Ministry. Since the permit is not tied to an employer, the subject of the application is the foreign national themselves.

We can summarize the process step by step as follows:

• Determine your application group and download the current document list the General Directorate has published for that group.
• Complete the translation and, if necessary, the apostille of diplomas, registry records and investment documents obtained abroad.
• If available, obtain a letter of conformity from the relevant public institution (it can add to the score for the investor, scientist and culture, arts and sports groups).
• Apply for residence permits for your spouse and children at the same time as the Turquoise Card application; in applications from abroad, if this information is missing, it can be completed within 90 days at the latest from entry into Turkey and without exceeding the visa period.
• When the Ministry deems it necessary, it obtains opinions from the relevant institutions; the institutions give their opinion within 15 days and may request an additional period of up to 15 days if necessary.

For the spouse's application, documents showing the marriage are attached, and for children, documents showing custody and the duty of support. A gap we often see in practice is leaving the translation and certification of family documents until after the main application.

Scoring system and grounds for refusal

The Ministry assesses applications using a scoring system built on criteria set in line with international labor force policy; an application that receives a sufficient score is approved. A letter of conformity may increase the score, but the Regulation explicitly states that this letter does not create a vested right to be granted the card. For applications by outstanding students in the final year of a bachelor's degree or in graduate studies, the opinion of the school and faculty members may also be sought.

Article 12 of the Regulation lists the grounds for refusal. These include not meeting the assessment criteria, not being consistent with international labor force policy, submitting false or misleading documents, applying for jobs and professions reserved for Turkish citizens by other laws, and objections on grounds of public order and security. Applications not made on time or whose deficiencies are not remedied are also refused.

The Ministry may restrict or suspend card applications for a certain period by sector, occupation, line of business or geographic area. This authority is a reminder that the card is a policy tool, not a right.

The difference between an indefinite work permit and the Turquoise Card

An indefinite work permit and the Turquoise Card grant similar rights, but the route to them is different. Under Article 10 of Law No. 6735, foreign nationals holding a long-term residence permit or at least eight years of legal work permits can apply for an indefinite work permit. The Turquoise Card, by contrast, is granted without a waiting period, based on the person's qualifications and investment; the Law grants the card holder the rights provided by an indefinite work permit.

The fee amounts are based on the list of fees and security document charges the Ministry published for 2026. Under the Regulation, the Turquoise Card and the family member card are issued as security documents; we recommend checking the current card charge at the payment stage. If you would like details of the fixed-term permit process, see our guide how to get a work permit .

What does the Turquoise Card provide, and what rights does it grant its holder?

The Turquoise Card holder benefits from the rights provided by an indefinite work permit and does not need a separate residence permit for the card's period of validity. Under Article 19 of the Regulation, the card holder's transactions such as residence, travel, work, investment, commercial activity, inheritance and the acquisition of movable and immovable property are carried out under the legislation applicable to Turkish citizens. Rights for which special laws require Turkish citizenship are outside this scope.

The main consequences of the card are:

• The card holder is exempt from military service in Turkey but, on the other hand, does not have the right to vote, stand for election or enter public service.
• The family member card issued to the spouse and to minor or dependent children replaces a residence permit as long as the Turquoise Card is valid.
• No work permit or residence permit fee is charged; this exemption also covers the family member's residence permit fee.
• Acquired social security rights are preserved, and the relevant legislation applies to their use.

After the transition period annotation is removed, the card holder and family members may acquire citizenship under Article 12 of Turkish Citizenship Law No. 5901 on the Ministry's proposal, provided there is no obstacle in terms of national security and public order. This is not a right to apply but an exceptional route; the other options for citizenship are a separate topic.

Transition period: how do the first three years work?

The transition period is the period during the first three years of the card in which the Ministry monitors the card holder's activities and commitments. During this period, the General Directorate assigns an expert to each card holder, and the expert prepares a monitoring report for each twelve-month period. During this time, the Ministry may request information and documents from the employer or the foreign national.

The obligations are tied to short deadlines. The foreign national must provide the information and documents requested for the monitoring report within 15 days. If deficiencies are found in the report, three months are given to remedy them; if they are not remedied, the transition period may be terminated and the card revoked. Reports can also be prepared by an authorized intermediary institution; in that case, the institution submits the report within 15 days after the end of each twelve-month period.

The timeline for switching to an indefinite card works as follows:

• The request to remove the transition period annotation can be made from 180 days before the period expires.
• In all cases, the request must be made before the transition period expires; if it is not made on time, the card becomes invalid and a late request is refused.
• If the expert's final report is positive within 30 days of the request, the annotation is removed and the card becomes indefinite.
• If the final report is negative, the General Directorate may extend the transition period or revoke the card.

For an investor profile, the most sensitive item in the monitoring report is whether the investment and employment committed in the application have materialized. These commitments must therefore be documentable through the company's accounting records, SGK returns and investment expenditures.

In which cases is the card revoked?

Article 22 of the Regulation lists the cases in which the card is revoked other than at the foreign national's own request. Some of these are time-bound and directly affect the timeline of investors who continue to live abroad in particular:

• Not coming to Turkey within six months from the card's validity date, or staying abroad continuously for more than two years without force majeure.
• Not extending the validity of the passport (except with the favorable opinion of the Ministry of Interior or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
• Not working continuously for at least one year, or working informally.
• It later emerging that the application was made with false or misleading documents.
• Not submitting the documents requested during the transition period on time, or losing the qualifications of a card holder according to the monitoring report.

A revoked card loses its validity, and the card issued to family members is also revoked. The case of “not working continuously for one year” is a point to watch for investors who obtain the card only by investing and are not actually active in Turkey.

What changes on the company and employer side?

The Turquoise Card is a work status; it does not replace company formation. If the investor holding the card will operate in Turkey, the company's registration, tax registration, accounting and payroll are still set up under their own rules. We run the company formation process for foreigners end to end under our company formation service for foreigners .

The social security side does not change either. Under Article 23 of the Regulation, subject to the social security agreements to which Turkey is a party, foreign card holders and the employers employing them fulfill their obligations on time under Law No. 5510. In other words, if a card-holding executive works at the company, the employment start notification and monthly premium returns are subject to the same rules as for Turkish employees.

Here we would like to correct a misconception. Myth: “An investor who receives the Turquoise Card has no further obligations regarding their company.” Fact: The card governs the person's work and residence status; the company's tax, SGK and reporting obligations continue as before, and the monitoring report during the transition period relies largely on these records.

The Turquoise Card and qualified labor in figures

The card is a selective status granted in small numbers. The Ministry of Labor and Social Security's Turquoise Card page summarizes the application groups and transition period rules, while the Ministry's statement dated 13 June 2026 states that 52 qualified foreign investors, company executives and athletes had been granted the card up to that date.

The general work permit picture is much broader. According to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security's 2025 work permit statistics, of the 349,961 work permits granted to foreign nationals during the year, 57,363 were issued to holders of bachelor's, master's or doctoral degrees; this corresponds to about 16.4% of the total. According to the same table, the number of permits at doctoral level was only 2,274.

Reading these two figures together shows why the card is selective: the Turquoise Card is aimed at a small segment even of highly educated foreign nationals, at profiles whose investment and contribution can be documented.

Checklist before applying

Although the question our clients ask most often is “can I get the card?”, what really makes the difference is the preparation of the file. We recommend reviewing the following points before applying:

• Clarify which group you will apply under; if the investor and executive profiles overlap, choose the group you can document more strongly.
• Present investment, export and employment figures as far as possible with documents rather than as commitments.
• Complete the translation and apostille of foreign documents, including those of family members, at the very start.
• Mark the date 180 days before the end of the transition period in your calendar now.
• Plan the time you will spend in Turkey; staying abroad continuously for more than two years is a ground for revocation.

For those considering the card as part of an investment plan, we have gathered our guides on incentives, financial reporting and audit under the Investment Guide heading.

Last updated: 26.10.2026