A person who has given up Turkish citizenship and lives abroad may be asked by a foreign authority to prove it: a naturalisation office, a registry office or a pension body wants a Turkish paper showing that the Turkish nationality has ended. That paper comes from a Turkish administrative authority, and its way into a foreign file is the way of an administrative document, with one exemption that some European states apply. This page deals only with the certification of the document, not with the rights of former citizens in Türkiye.
An administrative paper under Article 1
A document recording the loss of Turkish citizenship is issued by an administrative authority, not by a court or a notary, so it falls into the Convention’s second group, administrative documents. For that group the page of the Hague Conference (HCCH) on Türkiye lists “Governor, Head Official of the District, Chief Secretary” in provinces and “Head Official of the District” in towns; the offices that take such documents in Türkiye are the valilik and the kaymakamlık, the provincial and district governor’s offices, while the Turkish post behind the title Chief Secretary is not explained in the source. Interior Ministry Circular 2011/59 names who may sign inside those offices: besides the governor, the deputy governor and the director of legal affairs, the governor may delegate the signature to the provincial director of correspondence (il yazı işleri müdürü), the director of the provincial administrative board and the head of the legal affairs branch, and the district governor to the district director of correspondence; the circular does not pair any of them with the English title. The HCCH page records that no charge is made. Which unit issues the document, and in what form, was not established in a published source in this site’s survey.
No electronic route for this document
e-Apostil, the official Turkish electronic apostille system, accepts six document types: the criminal record extract, court decisions, the civil registry extract and the multilingual birth, marriage and death extracts. Citizenship documents are not among them, nor among the two documents the system’s FAQ describes as work in progress. The civil registry extract is on the list, but the system’s interface text says that only Turkish citizens may apply electronically for it and directs foreign nationals to the paper apostille. How that rule treats a former citizen asking for an extract of their earlier record was not verified.
Nationality papers under the Athens convention of 1977
The summary table of the French foreign ministry lists, in its annex on the CIEC convention of 15 September 1977, the kinds of document that convention exempts from legalisation: civil status, capacity and family situation, nationality, domicile and residence, and papers for the celebration of a marriage. The convention took effect for Türkiye on 1 August 1987. The other states shown in the annex are Austria, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Portugal. Before an authority of one of those states, a Turkish nationality document is exempt from legalisation, so no apostille can be demanded for it. Germany has not acceded to this convention, and a document going there gains no exemption from it.
A signed paper when the holder lives abroad
A paper apostille needs a paper with a handwritten signature and a seal. According to the Onikişubat District Governor’s Office, a printout of an e-signed document is considered for an apostille once an official of the issuing institution has certified it physically with name, title, handwritten signature and seal; a plain barcode printout is not. The former citizen does not have to present the document in person: article 5 of the Convention lets the certificate be issued at the request of any bearer. Some offices ask a person acting for someone else for a notarised power of attorney, as the Zile District Governor’s Office does, so the office is asked in advance.
Open points on this document
- The unit that issues the document confirming loss of Turkish citizenship, and whether it issues a hand-signed copy for use abroad.
- Whether a civil registry office will physically certify a printout of a person’s citizenship record for use abroad.
- Whether a former citizen may apply electronically for the civil registry extract of their earlier record.
Translating a citizenship decision
An exemption from legalisation does not remove a language requirement; the receiving authority says whether it wants a translation and by whom. The translation is made from the apostilled or exempt signed paper; the decision date, the decision number and the names are carried over exactly as printed, and the name of the Turkish authority is kept in Turkish and explained at first mention. The translator adds no comment on nationality law. If the receiving authority asks for a notarised translation, the notarial certification is a separate act, and an apostille on it, where wanted, comes from any provincial or district governor.