The mass movement of population from Syria into Türkiye has made the employment of persons under temporary protection an everyday practice in sectors where the need for labour is intense. The route to be followed for that employment to be established lawfully differs from the general work permit procedure for foreign nationals, since the great majority of Syrian nationals fall within temporary protection status and a separate permit regime has been provided for that status.
The distinguishing feature of this regime is not confined to the manner in which the application is made. The limit on the proportion of such employees applied at workplace level, the amount of the fee payable, the documents to be added to the file and the possibility of exemption granted in respect of certain types of work produce a picture different from the rules applied to other foreign nationals. Overlooking these differences may result in refusal of the application and in the sanctions attaching to employment without a permit.
Below we address in turn the conditions required for a Syrian national under temporary protection to be employed, how the application is completed electronically, the operation of the quota rule, the documents requested, the minimum wage, the financial burdens, the time taken for a decision, and the application for exemption.
Conditions Required for a Work Permit
The employment of a foreign national under temporary protection depends on satisfying the criteria determined by the Directorate General of International Labour Force of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. Those criteria may be summarised as follows:
- The person to be employed must hold the foreign identity number issued together with the temporary protection identity document, which begins with the digits 99.
- The person concerned must currently retain temporary protection status and must have completed 6 months of residence in Türkiye.
- The post applied for may not be one of the professions reserved by legislation to Turkish citizens alone; it must, on the contrary, be among the occupations kept open by the Ministry to persons under temporary protection.
- Where the profession is one made subject to the prior permission of the Ministry of Health or the Ministry of National Education, that prior permission must have been obtained before the work permit application is submitted.
- As a rule, the employment must take place in the province in which the temporary protection identity card was issued to the person concerned. Work in another province may also become possible if the Ministry considers it appropriate.
- The workplace must not exceed the ratio for employing Syrian nationals set out in detail below.
No favourable decision can be expected in files where all of these criteria are not met. In practice, applicants whose applications are found to be deficient are given a period in which to complete them; if the deficiency has still not been remedied at the end of the period granted, the file is removed from processing.
By Which Steps Is the Application Completed?
The application is submitted electronically through the e-permit system accessed via e-Government. In all files other than those for an independent work permit, the applicant is the employer who is to employ the person concerned. In order to access the system, the employer must hold an electronic signature and a registered electronic mail address.
In practice, the “temporary protection” tab is selected after the “make an application” option. In the form that appears on screen, the information relating both to the employer and to the person to be employed is entered in full; once the documents requested have been converted into pdf format and uploaded, the file is deemed complete.
Where the application is found to be in conformity with international labour force policy and with the criteria set out above, a favourable decision is given. At that stage the bank accounts into which payment is to be made are sent to the electronic mail address recorded in the system at the time of application; in applications for an independent work permit the notification reaches the foreign national directly.
The fee and the valuable paper charge must be transferred to the relevant accounts within 30 days of the date on which the notification is sent. Although as a rule the payment obligation lies with the employer, in the case of an independent work permit that burden falls on the foreign national. Following payment, the work permit card is sent to the workplace address registered in the system.
A further obligation of the employer concerns social security: an employment commencement notification must be made to the Social Security Institution (SGK) and insurance cover started within 30 days of the date of approval. The earnings on which the premium is based are the wage agreed in the employment contract, and the premium is calculated on the basis of 30 days per month.
An error at any of these links results in the refusal of the application; continuing to employ the person nonetheless brings severe sanctions with it. It is therefore appropriate for the process to be conducted from beginning to end with the assistance of a specialist in immigration law. The types of permit applicable to other foreign nationals and the procedure to be followed are addressed separately in the study entitled “how a work permit for a foreign national is obtained”.
The Employment Quota Applied at Workplace Level
Workplaces employing workers under temporary protection are subject to a proportional limit. Under that limit, the number of persons employed with temporary protection status may not exceed 10% of the number of Turkish citizen employees at the same workplace.
To make this concrete: a workplace with 20 Turkish citizens on its staff may employ at most 2 Syrian nationals. If the employment of a third person is desired, a further 10 Turkish citizen employees must be added to the headcount. In workplaces where the total number of employees remains below 10, the upper limit is 1 person.
The exception to this ratio is the absence of a match in the labour market. Where the employer documents, before the Provincial Directorate of the Labour and Employment Agency in its province, that over a period of 4 weeks no Turkish citizen able to do the same work could be found, the quota may not be applied. In such a case the request may be accepted even if the new employment would take the figure above the 10% ratio.
Documents That Must Be in the Application File
The documents requested serve to establish that the person to be employed, the employer and the workplace all satisfy the required criteria. The documents that must be added to the file are as follows:
- Temporary protection identity document,
- Biometric photograph,
- Employment contract signed between the parties,
- Where the employment is in the field of health, a prior permission document obtained from the Ministry of Health, and in the field of education, from the Ministry of National Education,
- Tax certificate of the workplace,
- Balance sheet and profit and loss statement for the last year (certified by the tax office or by a sworn financial adviser),
- Trade Registry Gazette reflecting the current capital and shareholding structure of the workplace,
- Insured service list showing all personnel, enabling verification of whether the quota has been exceeded,
- Workplace activity certificate,
- Power of attorney, where the application is made through the employer’s lawyer.
As a rule, all of these documents are uploaded to the system by the employer making the application. In an application for an independent work permit the picture is narrower: a biometric photograph and the temporary protection identity document alone suffice, and the upload is completed by the foreign national in person.
The documents must be transferred to the Work Permit Automation System in pdf format. Documents that cannot be obtained electronically are converted to pdf with the aid of a scanner and uploaded to the system; no physical delivery is additionally required.
If the documents uploaded are found to be deficient, the employer is given a period in which to complete them. If the deficiency is not remedied within the period granted, the application is refused.
The Minimum Wage to Be Stated in the Contract
The wage to be paid to an employee under temporary protection may not be agreed at a level below the minimum amount announced by the competent authorities for foreign employees. The minimum wage announced as at July 2023 stands at TRY 13,414.50.
If a figure below that threshold appears in the contract, the contract loses its validity; a work permit application based upon it will likewise be unsuccessful.
The Financial Obligations of the Application
The costs encountered in the process consist of the work permit fee and the valuable paper charge. For 2023 the temporary protection work permit fee is applied as TRY 1,724.40 and the valuable paper charge as TRY 356. Both items are paid separately by the employer into the accounts notified to the registered electronic mail address.
How Long Does It Take for the Application to Be Concluded?
For files submitted to the administration, the average time to a decision observed in practice is approximately 1 month.
The principal factor prolonging that period is error or omission in the information and documents submitted. In addition, the caseload of the administrative unit to which the application is addressed directly affects the time taken to decide.
Work Permit Exemption
Persons under temporary protection who wish to work in seasonal agricultural or livestock work may apply for an exemption to the provincial governorship that granted them that status. If the request is granted, the person concerned may work without additionally obtaining a work permit, provided that this is confined to that work alone.
Three conditions are required cumulatively in order to benefit from the exemption: that the person falls within temporary protection, that they have been resident in Türkiye with that status for at least 6 months, and that the request has been made solely for seasonal agricultural or livestock work.
The documents requested in an exemption file are very limited; a temporary protection identity document and a biometric photograph suffice. The governorship forwards the requests received to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, and the final decision is taken by the Ministry.
NOTE: The exemption does not grant a foreign national under temporary protection unlimited freedom to work. This possibility covers only temporary agricultural and livestock work and only the province in which temporary protection was granted.
Conclusion
A work permit tied to temporary protection status differs markedly from the regime applied to other foreign nationals as regards the criteria required, the workplace quota, the documents to be added to the file, the amount of fee payable and the conditions for exemption. An error made during the application, or a failure to meet one of the criteria, may result not only in refusal of the request but also in deportation proceedings being commenced against the foreign national. Conducting the process with specialist support plays a decisive role in averting outcomes of this kind.
Independent Legal Assessment
Employment under temporary protection is not, from the employer’s standpoint, merely a matter of completing a permit file. Headings such as the quota calculation, the provincial restriction and the insurance notification are interdependent; an error in one may render the others invalid as well. The problem most frequently encountered in practice is a change in the workplace address or the province of work after the permit card has been obtained, and the failure to notify that change to the administration.
Bearing in mind that employment without a permit gives rise to an administrative fine, closure of the workplace and a risk of deportation for the foreign national, structuring the process correctly from the outset is far more economical than corrections made afterwards. In a particular file it is appropriate to verify the following headings in advance:
- Confirming in which province the temporary protection record was opened and whether the employment coincides with that province
- Calculating the 10% quota on the basis of the number of Turkish citizen employees using the current insured service list
- Investigating before the application whether prior permission is required for the profession
- Checking that the wage in the contract does not fall below the minimum wage for foreign nationals in force
- Diarising the 30-day periods for payment and for notification to the SGK following approval
- Assessing whether the exemption route is more advantageous in seasonal agricultural and livestock work
Independent Legal provides legal support throughout the whole process in employment relationships arising from temporary protection and international protection status, from the preparation of the application file to actions brought against administrative sanctions.