When a person changes their first name or surname in Türkiye, their records abroad keep the old name: the passport, the bank account, the diploma, the residence card. The foreign institution then wants a Turkish document showing that the old name and the new name belong to the same person. In Türkiye the change is evidenced either by a court decree or by an entry in the civil register, and the two documents follow different apostille routes. Which one is wanted is for the foreign institution to say; this page describes the route of each.
Two documents, two apostille authorities for a name change
A decree changing a name or surname is a court judgment, that is a judicial document. Under the Turkish Ministry of Justice circular, the apostille on the original of a judicial document is issued by the adli yargı adalet komisyonu başkanlığı, the presidency of the judicial commission at a courthouse with a high criminal court. Once the change has been entered in the register, the nüfus kayıt örneği, the extract from the Turkish civil register, is an administrative document: it shows the old and the new name on one record, and its apostille is issued by a valilik or kaymakamlık, the provincial or district governor’s office. The Onikişubat district office says it certifies documents issued anywhere, but Develi’s list stops at its own district; art. 199 of the Notaries Law gives the any-province rule to notarial acts only, and one practice for administrative documents was not verified. Where the foreign institution has only written “official document”, it should be asked which of the two it accepts, since whether the registry extract is enough or the decree itself is wanted is that institution’s decision.
Finality of the decree and entry in the register
When the decree becomes final, the finality clause (kesinleşme şerhi) records that on it; which court office writes the clause was not read on an official page in this site’s survey. The safe order puts the apostille after the clause: under article 5 of the Convention the apostille attests the signature on the decree and names the person who signed, and a signature under a clause added afterwards is not named there. Those who choose the registry route have a shorter sequence: they wait for the decree to be entered, then obtain a hand-signed registry extract or request the electronic document through e-Apostil.
The name equivalence certificate still pending in e-Apostil
The civil registry office also issues a name equivalence certificate (isim denklik belgesi) showing that the old and the new name belong to the same person. e-Apostil, the official Turkish electronic apostille system, states that work on this document is still in progress: it cannot be apostilled electronically today, so it is obtained on paper with a handwritten signature and apostilled at a governor’s or district governor’s office. The court judgment and the civil registry extract, by contrast, are within the system: the Ministry of Justice applies the electronic apostille to the decree and the Ministry of Interior to the registry extract, and the application is made by the holder from their own account on e-Devlet, the Turkish e-government portal. If the system adds the name equivalence certificate, this page will be updated.
Which document settles an identity match
Where the foreign institution’s question is whether two names denote the same person, a single document that answers it is the civil registry extract or the name equivalence certificate; the decree shows in addition the reason for the change and its date. Where the passport has already been renewed in the new name, some institutions want only a Turkish document linking the documents in the old name to the new passport. Which document will suffice was not verified country by country on this site; the institution’s written list should be obtained before the file is prepared.
A name change document in Germany and France
The German missions in Türkiye write that a Turkish civil registry extract is recognised in Germany only with an apostille and a translation by a sworn translator; the same is to be expected for an extract showing a name change. In the legalisation table of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the judicial documents column of the row for Türkiye refers to footnote (5): documents relating to the civil status, capacity and family situation of persons are exempt from legalisation. A name change decree appears to fall within that description as a judicial document relating to civil status; whether the French authority treats it as exempt was not verified on this site, and the exemption does not remove the need for a translation.
Keeping the old and the new name consistent in translation
The central issue in translating these documents is the spelling of the names. The old and the new name are carried over exactly as they appear in the document and in the Latin-script spelling of the passport; the translator does not “correct” a name. If the decree is translated, the finality clause goes into the translation with it; the apostille is rendered as well only where the receiving authority asks for it. The translation is certified by a notary (the translator being a yeminli tercüman, a sworn translator whose oath is recorded there); whether that certification needs its own apostille is decided by the receiving institution, and if so that second apostille, even on a judicial document, is issued by any provincial or district governor’s office.