Legislative regulations are made in many areas so as to provide comfort to the lives of approximately 6.5 million Turkish citizens living abroad.

Many legislative regulations are implemented so as to allow 6.5 million Turkish citizens living abroad to easily complete their transactions in the countries they live and in Turkey, in many areas from education to transportation, from law to economy and from social areas to trade.

Anadolu Agency (AA) journalist collected information on some legislative changes and services offered in recent years in order to allow citizens abroad to more smoothly and quickly complete their legal services.

In accordance with the practices implemented in previous years to enable millions of citizens who are separated from homeland to complete their legal services more easily and comfortably, now, divorce decisions in foreign countries are recognized in Turkey.

Improvements in many areas have been made, primarily regarding voting, census bureau and banking transactions, and the issues faced when entering and exiting Turkey.

New steps are taken in legal areas for citizens abroad to facilitate rapid operations in education, transportation and official procedures. With new regulations, citizens can now complete their notary works, diploma equivalence approvals, criminal record procedures and their passage through border gates more easily.

Convenience in Notary Services

Among the regulations, there is also notary services offered to citizens abroad through consulates. Following the establishment of cooperation between relevant institutions, the access of citizens to these services has become more convenient.

Previously, citizens had to send their notary documents processed abroad to Turkey. Following the new regulation, this practice that caused extensions and loss of legal rights was ceased. Thereby, the documents related to notary transactions of citizens abroad can now be used immediately in Turkey.

Online Application for Diploma Equivalence

Within the scope of regulations implemented in education field, now citizens abroad can have the opportunity to make online diploma equivalence applications.

According to the new regulation, the equivalence applications for higher education diplomas received abroad can be made through “e-Government Gate” or webpage of Council of Higher Education (YÖK), while the applications of Turkish citizens are received through “e-Government Gate”, and the applications of foreigners are received through webpage of YÖK.

The new regulation also allows for YÖK to make notifications to the applicants both through mail and electronic means.

After uploading all of the required documents to the system, applicants are asked to supply the originals of the documents within 15 days, then the applicants are provided with an appointment date.

Following document verification, the originals of the documents are returned with a stamp stating “Approved” to the applicant or to the legal proxy appointed by the applicant.

Receiving Criminal Record Certificate in Foreign Languages Made Easier

Another actualized practice is the facilitation of receiving criminal record certificate in a foreign language.

Previously, criminal record certificates were provided abroad only in Turkish language, now our citizens can receive their criminal record certificates prepared in a foreign language, directly from the foreign missions of Turkey.

Foreign Missions now provide criminal record certificates in 8 different languages, i.e. German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Danish and Portuguese.

Convenience at Customs

Several regulations are made so that the citizens that wish to visit Turkey can make their transactions at border gates faster in entering and exiting homeland.

With the “Vehicle Preform Statement Practice” put into service by Ministry of Trade, travelers who enter Turkey with their foreign plated private vehicles can finish their customs registry transactions more easily and faster.

Those who come to Turkey from abroad by land and have finished their registries before hitting the road can finalize their transactions at customs gates faster and pass the border without having to wait long queues.

The citizens who would like to benefit from the application should make their vehicle registrations 15 days prior to the date they will enter Turkey, from the “E-transactions” menu on the internet page of Ministry of Trade’s web page, “www.ticaret.gov.tr”

If the vehicle owner is not present during registry transactions, the person who acts as the proxy and brings the vehicle has to enter his or her own passport information to the system.

Stay Term in Turkey Extend from 30 to 90 Days

Also, last month, 30 days’ term given to vehicles brought by citizens abroad and registered under the name of company is extended to 90 days.

With this new regulation, the vehicles registered under a company name can exit Turkey by another person more easily.

As per the previous practice, in the case when vehicles registered under a foreign company was to exit Turkey by another person, both the proxy-giver and receiver had to be present at the customs office. Now, the citizens need only to apply a customs office with a proxy statement approved at an embassy, consulate or notary office.

Also, now, vehicles registered under a company can stay in Turkey for 90 days, whereas vehicles registered under a person’s name can stay for 730 days.