Owning a Turkish company and working in it are two different legal facts, and the second needs a permit the first does not. A foreigner may found and own a company from abroad without any permit at all; the moment that foreigner manages it from an office in Istanbul, signs for it as its working director or draws a salary from it, Law 6735 applies, and the Ministry of Labour's published criteria decide whether the permit issues. Those criteria, in the form in force since October 2024 with capital thresholds from January 2025, are specific: a paid-in capital of at least 500,000 lira, a foreign partner holding at least twenty per cent and at least 500,000 lira of it, five Turkish employees from the seventh month, and a full exemption from the capital and employment tests for a partner whose share is worth 100,000 US dollars or more. In my files the founders who lose a year are the ones who capitalised at the legal minimum and then discovered that the permit wanted ten times as much. This page sets out the statute, the regulation and the criteria as they stand in September 2026, the timeline from formation to a permanent permit, and the two interactions foreign founders miss: the residence permit the work permit replaces, and the tax exemption a Turkish salary can cost.
Sources, checked 9 September 2026. International Labour Force Law No. 6735, Articles 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 21 and 23; Regulation on the Implementation of the International Labour Force Law (Official Gazette 31738, 2 February 2022), Articles 15, 22, 29, 32 and 48; Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Work Permit Evaluation Criteria in force from 1 October 2024 with capital thresholds from 1 January 2025; Foreign Direct Investment Law No. 4875, Article 3(g); Income Tax Law No. 193, repeated Article 20/D.
Who needs the permit, and who is exempt by statute
Article 6(2) of Law 6735 states the rule: foreigners within the law may not work or be employed in Turkey without a work permit. Article 6(3) and (4) carve out those whom other laws or treaties let work without one and those with the special status of former Turkish nationals. For the founder the question is what counts as working, and Article 13(7) answers part of it: a non-resident member of the board of a joint-stock company, a partner of any other company who does not hold the title of manager, and a cross-border service provider whose Turkish activity does not exceed ninety days in one hundred and eighty are within the work permit exemption, which under Article 13(1) is itself obtained by application rather than assumed. A foreign shareholder who owns a limited company, appoints a manager and visits for board-level meetings therefore needs an exemption document, not a permit; a foreign shareholder who is the company's manager, or who is on its payroll, needs the permit.
Article 3(g) of the Foreign Direct Investment Law No. 4875 confirms that work permits for foreign personnel of companies established under it are issued by the Ministry of Labour, and the regulation under Law 6735 sets the route for the founder: under Article 29 a foreign partner who is the manager of a limited company or a board member of a joint-stock company applies for an independent work permit, assessed under the criteria the Ministry publishes under Article 22, which the regulation lists as the capital invested, the ratio of Turkish employees, and similar factors.
The Ministry's criteria for a company partner
The Ministry publishes its evaluation criteria and updates them; the current text took effect on 1 October 2024 and its capital figures on 1 January 2025. For a foreign national who founds a workplace or joins an existing one as a partner, the criteria are these.
The company's paid-in capital must be at least 500,000 lira, the foreign partner's share must be at least twenty per cent, and the value of that share must be at least 500,000 lira. The first permit is issued with an annotation: the general rule that a workplace employs at least five Turkish citizens for each foreign worker is suspended for the first six months, and from the seventh month five Turkish employees must be on the payroll and kept there monthly; where several foreign partners of the same company apply, five Turkish employees are required for each foreigner after the first. The wage the company pays the foreign manager must meet the floor the criteria set by occupation, expressed as multiples of the gross minimum wage: five times for senior executives, four times for engineers and architects, three times for other managers, two times for skilled trades, and the minimum wage for other work.
The exemption that decides many files is the capital threshold. A foreign partner whose capital share is worth 100,000 US dollars or more is exempt from the capital and employment criteria altogether: no five Turkish employees, no 500,000 lira test. The company still needs to exist, be registered and pay the manager a wage meeting the floor, but the employment condition that most small foreign-owned companies cannot meet in their first year falls away. Other exemptions from the employment and capital criteria exist for the spouses of Turkish citizens who live with them in Turkey in the marriage, for persons of Turkish origin, and for the other groups Article 16 of the law and the criteria list.
Two consequences follow for the founder deciding the capital figure described on the company formation page. The Commercial Code minimum of 50,000 lira for a limited company is far below the Ministry's 500,000 lira, so a company formed at the legal minimum cannot carry its founder's work permit without a capital increase. And a founder who intends to work in Turkey from the start is better served by capitalising the company at the dollar threshold on day one, because the exemption removes the five-employee test that would otherwise fall due in month seven.
Applying: from abroad or from inside Turkey
Article 7 of the law allows the application to be made from abroad through the Turkish embassy or consulate in the country of nationality or lawful residence, which forwards it to the Ministry, or inside Turkey directly to the Ministry; authorised intermediaries may file either. Article 15 of the regulation adds the condition for the domestic route: an applicant inside Turkey must hold a valid residence permit of at least six months' duration, which in practice means a foreigner who arrived on a visa or visa exemption applies from abroad, and a foreigner who already holds a residence permit, for example on the property ground described on the residence-through-property page, may apply from inside. Under Article 7(7) an incomplete application is deferred, for at most thirty days unless a documented force majeure prevents completion, and then refused if the gaps remain.
The application is filed by the company as employer through the Ministry's online system and rests on the company's registry and tax records, its social security registration, the partner's share and the wage; the founder's own tax number and the account the salary will be paid into are the steps described on the bank account page. Under Article 7(3) an extension must be requested from sixty days before expiry and in any event before expiry; a late request is refused, and the founder starts again as a first-time applicant.
How long each permit lasts
Article 10 sets the ladder. A first permit is issued for at most one year, tied to a specific workplace and job. An extension with the same employer is granted for at most two years the first time and at most three years thereafter; a move to a different employer is treated as a new first application. After eight years of lawful work permits, or on holding a long-term residence permit, the foreigner may apply for an indefinite work permit under Article 10(3), which the article says confers no absolute right; under Article 10(4) the holder of an indefinite permit enjoys the rights of long-term residence and, with limited exceptions, the rights of Turkish citizens other than voting, public office and military service.
Article 12 ties the work permit to residence. A work permit or exemption stands in place of a residence permit under the Foreigners Law; a residence permit, by contrast, gives no right to work. A founder who receives the permit on an application from abroad must enter Turkey within six months of its start, or it is cancelled. The regulation's Article 32 allows the Ministry to grant permits of up to five years to foreigners it treats as qualified investors under Article 16(b) of the law, which lists investment level, export level and employment created among the marks of a qualified investor, and Article 16 as a whole authorises exceptions from the ordinary application, assessment and duration rules for the categories it names, including EU nationals and the spouses of Turkish citizens.
The Turquoise Card
Article 11 creates the Turquoise Card for foreigners whose education, professional experience, contribution to science and technology, or whose investment's effect on the economy and employment, meets the Ministry's criteria under the international labour force policy. The card is issued with a three-year transition period, during which the Ministry may ask the holder or the employer for information on the activity; if the card is not cancelled in that period, the holder applies, between one hundred and eighty days before its end and before it ends, to have the transition record removed, and receives an indefinite Turquoise Card. The holder's spouse and dependent children receive a document that stands in place of a residence permit, and the holder enjoys the rights of an indefinite work permit. For a founder whose investment is large enough to be assessed as a qualified investor, the card replaces the annual ladder with a single application; for the ordinary small company it is not the route.
The two interactions founders miss
The residence permit. Because Article 12 makes the work permit a residence permit, a founder who has been living in Turkey on a property-based or other short-term permit changes status when the work permit issues, and the family's permits follow the founder's under the family provisions rather than the property ground. The reverse is also true: a founder who lets the work permit lapse has lost the residence right that came with it and must return to an ordinary residence permit ground within the time the Foreigners Law allows; a founder who owns a home may fall back on the property ground described in the buying guide.
The twenty-year exemption. Repeated Article 20/D of the Income Tax Law, described on the Law 7582 page, exempts a new resident's foreign income for twenty years, but it is closed to anyone who has had a Turkish income tax liability, other than from Turkish rent, investment income or capital gains, in the three preceding calendar years. A founder who takes a Turkish salary from their company has a Turkish income tax liability from the first payslip, and the exemption is closed for that person until three clean years have passed. The choice between drawing a salary as the working manager and remaining an owner abroad who is paid in dividends is therefore also a choice about the exemption, and it should be made before the work permit application, not after. The tax the company itself pays, and the dividend route, are on the company formation page.
The founder's timeline
| Month | Step | Rule | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Company formed; capital chosen with the permit in mind | 500,000 lira paid-in and 20% share, or a share worth USD 100,000 to be exempt | Ministry criteria; Regulation Art. 22, 29 |
| 0 to 1 | Tax number, bank account, social security registration of the workplace | Employer status needed to file | Law 6735 Art. 7 |
| 1 to 2 | Application from abroad through the consulate, or inside Turkey on a residence permit of at least six months | Art. 7; Regulation Art. 15 | |
| 2 to 3 | Decision; deferral of at most 30 days for missing documents | Art. 7(7) | |
| 3 | First permit, at most one year, annotated; entry within six months if applied from abroad | Art. 10(1), 12(2) | |
| 9 | Five Turkish employees on the payroll unless exempt | Ministry criteria | |
| 13 to 15 | Extension request from 60 days before expiry; up to two years | Art. 7(3), 10(2) | |
| 36 onward | Extensions of up to three years | Art. 10(2) | |
| Year 8 | Indefinite work permit application, or earlier on long-term residence | Art. 10(3) | |
| Any time | Turquoise Card for qualified investors, three-year transition then indefinite | Art. 11 |
Refusals, objections and fines
Under Article 21 a refusal or cancellation is served on the employer, or on the holder of an independent or indefinite permit, under the Notification Law, and may be objected to before the Ministry within thirty days of service; if the objection is rejected, the administrative courts are open. Under Article 23 the Ministry's labour inspectors and the social security inspectors audit compliance, other public inspectors report what they find, and the provincial employment director imposes the administrative fines the law sets for working or employing without a permit and for failures to notify, on base figures that are indexed each year and that the law doubles for repetition. A foreign founder who works in the company while the application is pending is working without a permit, and the fine attaches to the company as employer and to the founder personally.
Whose side we are on, and how we are paid
The formation agent who offers to "include the work permit" is paid for the formation, and the capital they suggest is the one that gets the company registered fastest, not the one that gets the founder a permit. The consultant who files the permit is paid per application, refused or granted. Neither is paid to tell you that the company you formed with the legal minimum cannot carry your permit, or that the salary you are about to draw closes the twenty-year exemption.
We take no commission or referral fee from formation agents, permit consultants or employers, in any form, on any file. The fee you pay us is our only income from your matter, and it does not depend on the permit being granted. Because our position does not move with the application, telling you that you should not apply yet, or that you should apply as an exempt board member rather than as a working manager, costs us nothing to say.
One boundary, stated plainly. We are lawyers, not licensed investment advisers and not immigration consultants. We do not tell you whether the business will succeed, and we do not file applications through intermediaries. What we protect is the legal position: the structure that qualifies, the capital that satisfies the criteria or earns the exemption, the application route, the dates, and the tax consequence of the salary.
Before you apply
Send us the company's registry extract, its capital and share structure, what you will actually do in Turkey, and whether you already hold a residence permit. We will tell you whether you need a permit or an exemption document, whether the criteria are met or the dollar exemption applies, from where and when to apply, what the wage must be, and what the salary will do to your tax position. Our company work is described on the company formation page.
What this page does not settle
Work permits for employees the company hires, the sectoral permits for health and education under Article 8, the special regimes for international protection and Turkish-origin applicants, and social security contributions for a foreign manager are separate subjects. The Ministry's criteria change; the figures above are those in force on the date checked.
