If you are a foreigner who works in Turkey, a recent change in legislation in Turkey might have an affect on you, please read the below for further details on this:
Upon the International Labour Force Act (herein shall be referred to as the Act) being published in the Official Gazette on 13 August 2016 Turkey has adopted a new legislation in regards with the work permits. In this regard, previous legislation, the Act on Work Permits for Foreigners has been abolished.
Changes brought By the Act
The Act is significant as it addresses some matters which has not been addressed by the previous Act hence it is more extensive. The Act provides that individuals who are temporarily working in Turkey i.e. interns, temporary service providers etc. are within the scope of the Act differently from the previous Act.
Foreigners will be able to file work permit applications both within and outside of Turkey as per to the previous application. However a new concept “authorised intermediaries” has been introduced with the new Act which will be relevant for the applicants who are not filing for themselves.
The foreigner who works in Turkey however are not required to obtain a work permit such as cross border service providers whose services in Turkey do not exceed 90 days in a 180 days period will need to be obtain a “work permit exemption certificate”.
One of the most important aspects of the Act is the requirement of filing extension of the work permit before the current permit expires. Should the foreigner fail to meet this requirement, the extension application will be rejected.
The Act also addresses the relevancy of work permits for foreigner board of directors’ members or statutory company managers which was undetermined by the previous Act. The Act makes it obligatory to obtain a work permit for shareholder statutory managers of limited liability companies, shareholder board of directors’ members of joint stock companies and active shareholders of limited partnerships divided into shares.
One of the biggest changes introduced by the Act is “turquoise card” which is the indefinite work permit card. Dependants of the turquoise card holder will be entitled to obtain residence permit.
