The nüfus kayıt örneği is the extract from the Turkish civil register: it shows a person’s family, parents, marriages and civil status on one document, and it is issued by the nüfus müdürlüğü, the civil registry office. Foreign authorities ask for it in marriage, citizenship, inheritance and family reunification files. What has to be done to the document before it is accepted varies sharply by destination: the same extract needs an apostille and a sworn translation in one country and is exempt from any legalisation in another.
Paper apostille and e-Apostil
The extract is an administrative document. On paper, the apostille is issued by the vali or kaymakam, the provincial or district governor, and the valilik and kaymakamlık, their offices, charge no fee for it. The extract is also among the documents covered by e-Apostil, the official Turkish electronic apostille system: the holder applies through e-Devlet, the Turkish e-government portal, the Ministry of Interior applies the apostille and the document is delivered as an electronic file. A PTT service fee per document applies on the electronic route; the amount is on the official system’s page. The interface text of the official system adds one limit: the electronic route for this extract is open to Turkish citizens only, and foreign nationals registered in Türkiye are directed to the paper apostille.
Bringing an e-Devlet printout to the district office
A plain printout downloaded from e-Devlet, with a barcode, does not receive a paper apostille at the district governor’s office. If a paper apostille is wanted, the issuing office is expected to certify the e-signed printout with the name, title, handwritten signature and seal of an official; the apostille then attests that official’s signature, not the barcode. When this step is skipped, the application is returned at the counter and the file’s timetable slips.
An extract going to Germany
The German missions in Türkiye state that a Turkish nüfus kayıt örneği is recognised in Germany only with an apostille and a translation by a sworn translator (vereidigter Übersetzer). The same two conditions apply to the aile cüzdanı, the Turkish family record book, since Germany has not acceded to the CIEC convention of 1974 on international family record books. Multilingual extracts are outside this rule and are described on the Formül A page of this site. The missions’ page does not say whether the translation has to be made in Germany or may be made in Türkiye; this site’s survey found no official statement on that point, so the receiving German office should be asked before a translation is commissioned.
Civil status documents going to France
The legalisation table of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs marks civil status documents from Türkiye as exempt from legalisation under the CIEC convention of 1977, and no apostille is required for them. The exemption does not remove the need for a translation: a French authority may want the document in French and decides under its own rules who may translate it.
Which route to choose
Three questions decide the route: does the receiving country want an apostille at all, does it accept an electronic document, and where does it expect the translation to have been made. An apostille obtained, or a translation made, before those questions are answered may add nothing to the file. Where the receiving authority publishes a list of required documents, the order of steps follows that list.
Wasted steps on the civil registry extract
Having the extract both apostilled and translated before checking the destination’s rule can waste part of the effort. For a country that grants an exemption, as France does for civil status documents, the apostille adds nothing. For a country that expects a sworn translator, as Germany does, a translation made in the wrong place may mean the file has to be prepared again. In both cases a short written enquiry to the receiving office costs less than a second round of certifications, and the translation is commissioned only once the answer is known.