Foreign nationals who are to work in Türkiye undertaking the care of the elderly, the sick or children in private homes may not be employed without a permit. The foreign carer work permit is the type of permit that constitutes the legal basis of this employment relationship within the scope of domestic services.
Criteria Sought for the Grant of a Permit
The employment of foreign personnel in private homes is possible not in respect of every request, but only where certain conditions are satisfied together. For a permit to be granted, the application must have been made in respect of the care of an elderly person, a sick person or a child; for domestic services falling outside these three areas, no work permit is granted to a foreign national in private homes.
A threshold is also prescribed in respect of the person requiring care. There must be, in the employer’s household, a child who has not completed the age of 12, an elderly person over the age of 65, or a first-degree relative who, although under the age of 65, has an illness established by medical reports. If the employer himself or herself has a condition requiring care, that situation is required to be proved by a medical report. In addition, the person who is to carry out the employment must have a monthly income above the amount specified.
A limitation as to sex also applies in practice: apart from serious cases giving rise to a substantial need for care, work permits in private homes are not granted to male foreign nationals.
Through Which Channel the Application Is Made
The permit is obtained either by the foreign national applying to the Turkish diplomatic mission in the country of their nationality, or by the employer submitting a request through the e-permit system. Which channel is to be used is determined by where the foreign national is located at the time of application.
If the foreign national is abroad, they must apply to the diplomatic mission in the country of their nationality. If, by contrast, the foreign national is in Türkiye and holds a valid residence permit of at least six months’ duration, the employer makes the application through the e-permit system.
Application Made from Abroad
The foreign national whom it is intended to employ as a carer in Türkiye attends the Turkish diplomatic mission in the country of their nationality or of their lawful residence and makes a work visa application. Following that application, they are issued with a 16-digit reference number. The foreign national transmits this number to their employer in Türkiye; the employer, using the same number, then creates the work permit request through the e-permit system.
Application Made from Within Türkiye
Foreign nationals who are in Türkiye and who hold a residence permit of at least six months’ duration that remains valid have a Turkish Foreigner Identification Number beginning with “99”. For these persons, the carer application is made by the employer concerned using the foreigner identification number. Applications are received online through the e-permit automation system.
The permit is granted once the stages described above have been completed. Foreign personnel who obtain the permit are further required to notify their address to the provincial directorate of migration management within 20 working days at the latest of the date on which they enter Türkiye.
Our note entitled “foreign work permit”, in which the online formalities the employer must complete and the conditions it must satisfy are set out in full detail, provides complementary information on the process.
Documents to Be Attached to the Application
The documents that must be present in the file are as follows:
- The employment contract signed by the parties. In applications made from abroad, this contract must have been signed in advance and submitted by the foreign employee to the Turkish diplomatic missions at the time of the work visa request.
- A copy of the passport.
- A copy of the diploma or provisional graduation certificate, translated into Turkish and certified by a sworn translator or by the official authorities. As the production of a diploma is not compulsory in domestic services, a declaration as to the last school completed is accepted as sufficient.
- The employer’s identity card and the employer’s civil registry record.
- A document establishing the employer’s income position.
- The identity card of the person whose care is to be undertaken. If the person to be cared for is elderly, a health certificate or medical board report must also be obtained.
- A detailed civil registry record of the elderly person, the sick person or the child.
- Where the capacity of employer is held by a first-degree relative, a document showing the relationship.
Where the passport has not been issued in Latin characters, a translation certified by a sworn translator or by the official authorities must also be added to the file. Furthermore, work permit requests made with a passport, or a document standing in place of a passport, having less than 60 days of validity remaining as at the date of application are not taken up for processing.
The documents, like the application itself, are transmitted through the e-permit automation system. The uploading must be carried out with an electronic signature by the employer or by the authorised person to whom the employer has granted a power of attorney.
Points to Be Observed in the Employment Contract
In the employment relationship to be established with the foreign carer, the contract must be drawn up in a manner consistent with the provisions of the Labour Act No. 4857 and of the other relevant legislation.
Model contract texts that may be used are published on the website of the Directorate General of International Labour Force. Among the texts published are a fixed-term employment contract, a fixed-term service contract specific to domestic services, a fixed-term employment contract for persons granted temporary protection, and a fixed-term employment contract for persons granted international protection.
The text of the contract must correctly specify the address of the dwelling, which of the care of the sick, the elderly or children the foreign employee will undertake, and the salary to be paid. A figure below the mandatory minimum salaries prescribed in the Ministry’s assessment criteria must not be agreed.
The Lowest Salary That May Be Set
The minimum salary that may be prescribed in respect of a foreign carer is applied, for 2023, as one minimum wage amount, that is, TRY 13,414.50 gross.
Social Insurance Formalities
When the insurance registration is to be made depends on the channel through which the application was pursued. If the application was made from within Türkiye, registration with the Social Security Institution (SGK) must be completed within 30 days following the commencement of the work permit. The registration must be made on the basis of the salary notified to the Ministry.
If the application was made from abroad, time runs from the date of the foreign national’s entry into Türkiye and registration with the Social Security Institution (SGK) must likewise be made within 30 days at the latest. In this case too, the registration is effected on the basis of at least the salary notified to the Ministry.
Insurance registration may be made through the e-declaration system, and may equally be completed by the employer applying directly to the social security directorate. The date on which the work permit was approved must be entered as the date of commencement of work.
In the SGK system, the registration of a foreign carer is made within the scope of the Annex-9 insured person category. Annex-9 is the declaration relating to persons to be employed in domestic services for ten days or more. Care must be taken to complete in full, in this declaration, the information relating both to the foreign employee and to the employer.
The documents required on the insurance application include the workplace declaration, the employer’s signature declaration, the employer’s identity card and certificate of residence, and the foreign carer’s work permit.
First-Degree Relatives Assuming the Capacity of Employer
It is possible for first-degree relatives to be registered as the employer. For this, the persons who are to employ a foreign national in domestic services must be elderly or disabled, or must not be in a position to make the application in person.
In such a case, the workplace registration is opened using the first-degree relative’s information and electronic signature. In the “address at which the foreign national will work” field of the application, the address at which the care of the sick or elderly person will actually be provided is entered.
NOTE: In addition to the contract to be uploaded to the system, the document establishing the relationship and a copy of the identity card of the person to be cared for must also be added to the file.
Refusal of the Application, Objection and Action for Annulment
A request for a foreign carer work permit is refused where one or more of the grounds of refusal listed in Art. 9 of the International Labour Force Act is present. In addition, non-compliance with the procedural rules to be observed in work permit applications, or with the principles prescribed in the employment contract, likewise leads to a refusal.
Both the avenue of objection and that of an action for annulment are open against a refusal decision. The objection is made online through the system within 30 days of notification of the decision; the reasoned petition and the supporting documents are also uploaded to the system. An action for annulment, on the other hand, is brought within 60 days beginning on the day following notification of the refusal decision.
Where an objection has been made first and the judicial route is pursued upon the rejection of that objection, the calculation of time changes: the period elapsing between notification of the decision and the date of the objection is deducted from the sixty-day period for bringing an action. The remaining period is the time available for bringing an action for annulment. The reason for this is that an objection made before proceedings suspends the period for bringing an administrative action.
Under this heading the remedies to be pursued against a refusal decision have been explained in outline. The legal remedies available where an application is refused, and the operation of the process, are addressed in detail in our note entitled “refusal of a work permit application”.
Reapplication After a Refusal
The fact that the request has been refused does not prevent a fresh application from being made.
The sequence to be followed in pursuing this course is clear: first, the ground on which the authority concerned refused the application is identified, and then, once the deficiencies so identified have been remedied, a new application is created.
Extension of the Permit and Refusal of an Extension Request
Extension applications are made from the point at which 60 days remain before the expiry of the work permit, and in every case before the permit period expires. These applications, too, are received through the e-permit automation system.
Where an extension request has been made, work may continue for a period not exceeding 90 days from the date on which the work permit period expired, provided that the nature of the work performed does not change.
The most frequently encountered ground for the refusal of extension requests is non-compliance with the procedural rules that must be observed as to the conditions of application. A failure to satisfy the conditions in the assessment criteria set by the Ministry likewise leads to a refusal.
Where an extension request is refused, an objection may be made against the refusal decision or an action for annulment may be brought. The legal procedure to be followed is the same as that explained above in respect of the refusal of an initial application.
The nature of the extension procedure, how it is conducted and which documents are required are explained in our note entitled “extension of a foreign work permit”, in which the subject is examined in its full scope.
Fees and Expenses
Payments of fees and expenses under various headings are made both on the initial application and on an extension application. In addition to these amounts, a valuable paper charge of TRY 356 must also be paid for 2023.
NOTE: If the fee requested and the valuable paper charge are not paid within 30 days of the date of notification, the work permit application is struck out.
Time to Conclusion
A foreign carer work permit is concluded within 30 days at the latest.
Independent Legal’s Assessment
The employment of foreign nationals in domestic services is assessed within a narrower field and against stricter criteria than work permits in commercial undertakings. In practice, a significant proportion of refusal decisions arises not from a legal impediment but from a missing document in the file or from the salary in the contract not having been set in accordance with the legislation. For this reason, a review of documents carried out before the application often yields a more effective result than the objection and litigation routes pursued afterwards.
In a concrete case, it is appropriate that the following matters be given priority:
- Checking from the outset whether the state of needing care is met by documents as to age, medical report and relationship
- Ensuring that the salary agreed in the contract does not fall below the minimum amount prescribed for the period in question
- Ensuring that the passport’s period of validity exceeds the sixty-day threshold as at the date of application
- Paying the fee and the valuable paper charge within the thirty-day period following notification
- Diarising the twenty-working-day address notification and the thirty-day SGK registration period following entry into the country
- Calculating, in the event of a refusal decision, the relationship between the objection and litigation periods so that no time is lost
Independent Legal provides advisory services and conducts litigation in the preparation of permit applications relating to the employment of foreign personnel, including in domestic services, and in the legal processes to be pursued against refusal decisions.