The Regulation on the Enforcement of International Workforce Law Has Been Published
Through the Regulation on the Enforcement of International Workforce Law (“Regulation”) published in the Official Gazette dated 02.02.2022 and numbered 31738, the Regulation on the Enforcement of the Law on Work Permits of Foreigners (“Superseded Regulation”) has been superseded and the principles and procedures to be followed in the transactions regarding the work permit to be given to foreigners and work permit exemptions were regulated.
Some of the significant amendments introduced by the Regulation are summarized below:
- Pursuant to the Superseded Regulation, the foreigner who made a domestic application for a work permit was required to have a residence permit for at least 6 (six) months. With the Regulation, it is regulated that the General Directorate of International Workforce may also provide the opportunity to apply to foreigners who are legally in Turkey but do not have a valid residence permit. However, except for the foreigners determined by the General Directorate, the requirement for a residence permit valid for at least 6 (six) months will continue to be applied for the domestic applications.
- In terms of domestic applications for a work permit, the obligation to obtain a residence permit with working annotation within 30 (thirty) days at the latest from the notification date of the permit document has been abolished.
- It has been made obligatory to have a foreigner's identity number for the foreigner in terms of a work permit application to be made within the country, and to have an electronic notification address for the foreigner when applying for an independent work permit or an indefinite work permit, and for the employer in the event of an application for a work permit to work under an employer.
- It has been regulated that with regards to the applications to be made through representative offices abroad for work permits to work for an employer, the foreigner will first apply for a work visa. Subsequently, the work permit application will be completed after the employer uploads all the necessary documents to the system within 30 (thirty) days from the application and approves the application.
- With the Regulation, the time to complete the missing document was increased from 15 (fifteen) days to 30 (thirty) days. Besides, it is envisaged that the evaluation process of duly completed applications will be completed within 30 (thirty) days, provided that the information and documents are complete.
- Unlike the Superseded Regulation, it is seen in the Regulation that the work permit evaluation criteria are determined in detail, the rules and procedures related to starting work, branch and job change, and work permit exemption are given in detail.
- The scope of the exceptions in the work permit has been expanded and the exceptions have been changed. It is noteworthy that within the scope of exemptions from work permits, qualified workforce and qualified investors, foreigners to be employed in fixed-term projects, foreigners who provide cross-border service, employee exchanges within the company and the persons to be appointed in a joint stock company established in Turkey within this context are explicitly regulated.
You may find the full text of the Turkish version of the Amending Regulation here.
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