Restriction Codes Arising from Overstay: Ç-101, Ç-102, Ç-103, Ç-104 and Ç-105

The regime governing stay in Türkiye operates through statuses tied to periods such as a visa, visa exemption, work permit or residence permit. Exceeding these periods is not merely a question of an administrative fine; it also gives rise to an act that is entered on the foreigner’s record and obstructs subsequent entries. The Ç-series restriction codes produce precisely this result.

The picture encountered in practice is most often as follows: the foreigner has noticed too late that the permit period had expired, or was not informed in time that the extension application had been refused. The existence of the code is sometimes learned at the point of departure, and sometimes only upon an attempt to re-enter. In both eventualities the periods for objection and for bringing an action continue to run.

In this briefing note we address the ranges of time to which each of the five codes corresponds, the length of the entry ban they give rise to, how the code may be removed by administrative means or by a judicial decision, and the periods that must be observed in processes running alongside a deportation decision.

The Legal Nature of the Ç-Series Restriction Codes

The codes from Ç-101 to Ç-105 are administrative acts established in respect of foreigners who have acted contrary to the rules on residence permits, work permits, visas or visa exemption. Their common denominator is that the foreigner has exceeded his or her lawful period of stay.

The fundamental consequence to which these codes give rise is that entry into Türkiye is barred for a specified period. Just as recourse may be had to the routes of administrative objection or an action for annulment in order to have the code removed, it is also possible to secure entry into the country by obtaining an annotated visa while the entry ban remains in force. If a deportation decision has additionally been taken in respect of the foreigner, a separate action for annulment must also be brought against that decision.

The Scope of the Codes and the Entry Ban Periods

All five codes rest on the same type of breach; the distinction between them is to be sought in the extent by which the period of stay has been exceeded.

Restriction Code Ç-101 and the Three-Month Entry Ban

Code Ç-101 is applied in respect of foreigners who exceed the permit period by an interval that may be regarded as short, and it bars entry into the country for a period of 3 months. This code is established in respect of the following foreigners:

• Foreigners in respect of whom a deportation decision has been taken on the ground that they have breached the rules on residence permits, work permits, visas or visa exemption,
• Foreigners who, although they have exceeded the permit periods in question by more than 10 days, are not yet the subject of a deportation decision and who do not pay the administrative fines at the border gates to which they have come in order to leave the country,
• Foreigners whose period of breach exceeds 10 days (the 10th day does not fall within this scope) but does not reach 3 months.

Restriction Code Ç-102 and the Six-Month Entry Ban

Code Ç-102, which comes into play where the overstay reaches three months, bars the foreigner’s entry into the country for 6 months. The cases in which the code is applied are as follows:

• Foreigners whose deportation has been ordered on the ground that they have breached the rules on permits or visas,
• Among those who exceed their permit periods by more than 10 days, foreigners who come to the border gate in order to depart without a deportation decision having been taken in respect of them and who refrain from paying the administrative fine,
• Foreigners whose breach as regards a residence permit, work permit, visa or visa exemption falls between 3 months and 6 months (3 months being included in that period).

Restriction Code Ç-103 and the One-Year Entry Ban

Code Ç-103, applied in situations where the breach exceeds six months, gives rise to an entry ban of 1 year. The foreigners to whom this code is addressed are as follows:

• Foreigners in respect of whom a deportation decision exists because they have breached the rules on visa exemption, visas, residence permits or work permits,
• Foreigners who exceed the permit period by more than 10 days and who do not pay the administrative fine at the border gate to which they have come in order to depart without a deportation decision having been taken,
• Foreigners whose breach has continued for between 6 months and 1 year (6 months being included).

Restriction Code Ç-104 and the Two-Year Entry Ban

In breaches exceeding one year, code Ç-104 arises and the foreigner’s entry into Türkiye is barred for a period of 2 years. The code is established in the following cases:

• Foreigners in respect of whom a deportation decision has been taken on the ground that they have breached the permit rules referred to,
• Foreigners who, while exceeding the permit period by more than 10 days, are not the subject of a deportation decision and who do not pay the administrative fine at the border gate to which they have come in order to depart,
• Foreigners whose breach of a residence or work permit, visa or visa exemption falls between 1 year and 2 years (1 year being included).

Restriction Code Ç-105 and the Five-Year Entry Ban

Code Ç-105, which gives rise to the most severe consequence in the series, means an entry ban of 5 years. This code is applied in respect of the following foreigners:

• Foreigners in respect of whom a deportation decision has been taken on the ground of a breach,
• Foreigners who exceed the permit period by more than 10 days, who present themselves at the border gate in order to depart without a deportation decision having been taken, and who do not pay the administrative fine,
• Foreigners whose breach has lasted longer than 2 years.

The Basis of the Distinction Between the Codes

The difference between the five codes emerges not in the grounds on which they are established but in the duration of the breach. The breach of the rules on visas, visa exemption, residence permits or work permits is the common ground in all of them; the element that determines which code will apply is the extent by which the period of stay has been exceeded. As the period of breach lengthens, the duration of the entry ban likewise increases in stages.

The table below shows, comparatively, the range of breach corresponding to each code and the duration of the entry ban to which that code gives rise:

Routes Available for the Removal of the Code

Two legal routes are provided in respect of these codes: an administrative application and an action for annulment. Alongside these, there is a third possibility, the annotated visa, which can secure entry into the country even where the code has not been removed.

Objection to the Presidency of Migration Management

A foreigner to whom it has been notified that one of these codes has been established in respect of him or her may lodge an objection within 60 days, running from the day following notification. The addressee of the application is the Presidency of Migration Management.

The objection is made by way of a petition. What the foreigner must establish in the petition is that he or she has not breached the rules on visas, visa exemption, work permits or residence permits, or has not exceeded the period granted. It is useful to append to the application every kind of evidence capable of supporting that assertion.

The administration decides an objection reaching it within 30 days. Where no reply is given within that period, or where the reply given is of an indeterminate character, the application is deemed to have been rejected; at that point the foreigner has the possibility of bringing an action for annulment. It is also possible to bring an action directly without having recourse to the objection route at all. It should be emphasised that this objection addressed to the administration has the effect of suspending the period for bringing an action.

Action for Annulment Before the Administrative Court

An action for annulment may be brought against a restriction code either following the rejection of the administrative application or without any such application having been made. The period for bringing the action runs from the day following the notification served on the person concerned and is 60 days, both as regards the code and as regards the deportation decision.

Where the route of a direct action is preferred, recourse must be had within the 60-day period beginning on the first day after the decision establishing the code has been notified. It must be borne in mind that, where this course is taken, an objection may no longer be made to the Presidency of Migration Management.

An action may also be brought after the objection route has been used. In that eventuality, the time elapsed between the notification of the code and the date on which the objection was made is deducted from the 60-day period; the remainder gives the period within which the action may be brought. To put it concretely: in a file in which the objection was made on the 15th day following notification, the period available for bringing an action after the administration’s reply has been notified is reduced to 45 days.

A stay of execution may also be requested in such an action; if the request is granted, the effects of the code are suspended until the proceedings are concluded. Such a decision requires that the implementation of the act would give rise to damage that is difficult or impossible to make good and that the act is manifestly unlawful. That both conditions are met in the specific case must be demonstrated in the petition.

A comparative examination of all the codes applied by the administration is set out in our note on restriction codes for foreigners and the action for removal of a code.

The Annotated Visa Option While the Entry Ban Continues

A further possibility is open to a foreigner subject to an entry ban on account of one of the Ç-series codes: the annotated visa. This type of visa affords permission to enter the country even where the code and the entry ban have not been lifted.

The annotated visa is a category of visa granted by the administration on a special basis tied to particular purposes; visas for family reunification, work, study, medical treatment and trade fall within this scope. The details are set out in our note entitled what an annotated visa is and how it is obtained.

The Process Running Alongside a Deportation Decision

A deportation decision may also have been taken at the same time in respect of a foreigner against whom a restriction code has been established. In such a situation the foreigner must bring an action for annulment against the deportation decision within 7 days of the notification served on him or her. The action is addressed to the administrative court to which the governorship that took the decision is attached.

It is particularly important that the action to be brought against a deportation decision should be brought at the earliest possible date within the seven-day period. This is because the administration may complete the deportation formalities after notifying the decision and may remove the foreigner from the country without waiting for the period for bringing an action to expire.

In an action brought seeking the annulment of a deportation decision, the annulment of the act establishing the code may also be requested alongside the deportation decision. If the court finds the claims advanced in the petition well founded in law, it will rule for the annulment of both the deportation decision and the code.

The statutory periods must be scrupulously observed in respect of both actions. Where the petitions are not supported by legal reasoning, not only may the applications be dismissed, but it is also possible for the foreigner to be deported during that process. The details on the subject are addressed in our note entitled how a deportation decision is set aside.

Application Against an Administrative Detention Decision

An administrative detention decision may additionally be taken in respect of persons who are the subject of a deportation decision; pursuant to that decision, those concerned are held under supervision in removal centres. A foreigner seeking to have the decision lifted and to leave the centre must lodge an objection.

Objections are made to the criminal judgeship of peace. The judgeship with jurisdiction is that of the place where the governorship that took the decision is situated, or of the place where the foreigner is being held in detention. The details are examined in our note entitled objection to an administrative detention decision in a removal centre.

How Long Does the Process Take to Complete?

The removal of codes Ç-101, Ç-102, Ç-103, Ç-104 and Ç-105 by way of an action for annulment takes approximately 1 year. Objection applications made to the administration, on the other hand, are concluded on average within a range of 1 to 3 months.

Court Fees and Litigation Costs

The fees and costs payable in an action to be brought for the removal of these codes stand, as regards 2023, at an average level of TRY 4,000.

Courts with Subject-Matter and Territorial Jurisdiction

In disputes concerning the removal of a restriction code, subject-matter and territorial jurisdiction lie with the Ankara administrative courts. By contrast, in actions to be brought seeking the annulment of deportation decisions taken on the basis of a restriction code, subject-matter and territorial jurisdiction lie with the administrative court in the province where the governorship that established the decision is situated.

An Overview of the Process as a Whole

These five codes in the Ç series are acts applied in respect of foreigners who breach the rules on residence permits, work permits, visas or visa exemption, and which give rise to an entry ban limited in time. Three separate routes exist for the removal of the code: administrative objection, an action for annulment and an annotated visa. In making use of these possibilities, it is decisive that the statutory periods should not be missed and that the petitions should be placed on a proper legal footing.

Independent Legal Assessment

The problem most frequently encountered in Ç-series files stems not from a legal error but from the management of time limits. Since the periods are tied to the moment of notification, the first thing to be done is to establish by documentary evidence the date and manner of the notification. The second critical point is that the code and the deportation decision are subject to different regimes of time limits: 60 days for the code, but only 7 days for the deportation decision. Where the two acts have been established together, the strategy must be built around the shorter period.

In a specific dispute the following headings should be assessed as a priority:

• Verifying the duration of the breach from the records and checking whether the code established genuinely corresponds to that duration
• Establishing the date of notification and calculating the periods for objection and for bringing an action in concrete terms
• Choosing the route of application bearing in mind that bringing an action directly exhausts the right of objection
• Where a deportation decision also exists, giving priority to the seven-day period and bringing an action without delay
• Requesting a stay of execution, substantiating the assertion of damage that is difficult to make good
• Where the need to enter the country is urgent, assessing the annotated visa option independently of the litigation process

Independent Legal provides advisory services and conducts litigation across the whole range of immigration law disputes, from the removal of restriction codes to the applications to be pursued against deportation and administrative detention decisions.