For a paper apostille the application is made by whoever brings the document to the counter; article 5 of the Convention says the apostille is issued at the request of the person who signed the document or of any bearer. On the electronic route there is no counter, only a login. The interface text of the official Turkish e-Apostil system states that an e-Devlet login is required to carry out an apostille procedure; e-Devlet is the Turkish e-government portal, and its login belongs to one person. That single sentence answers the question of who may apply differently from the paper route. This page describes that difference and the identity-based limits inside the system. This site is not the official system and takes no applications.
Access tied to one person’s identity
An e-Devlet login is personal; the system recognises the applicant as the identity that logged in. Since the application screens sit behind the login, which document may be requested in whose name could not be read screen by screen in this site’s survey; what was read are the warning texts in the front-end package. Login details are personal, and this site never asks for them at any stage; the application is made by the document holder from their own account.
The additional identity number field
The front-end package contains this warning: in the additional identity number field (ek kimlik no), do not enter your own identity number; enter the identity number of the person whose document is requested. The text shows that a situation exists in which the identity number of someone other than the applicant is required. But for which document type and which relationship the field opens, and which degree of kinship is accepted, could not be confirmed in this site’s survey. Nor could it be confirmed that the field opens a door for a translation office to apply in a client’s name; the opposite should be assumed.
Citizenship condition on the civil registry extract
The interface text sets one more limit: the e-Apostil application for a civil registry extract (nüfus kayıt örneği) may be made by Turkish citizens only, and foreign nationals use the paper apostille route. How a non-citizen with a record in the Turkish civil register obtains a paper extract suitable for an apostille is not described in the sources this site surveyed; on paper, an administrative document is apostilled at the governor’s or district governor’s office. Whether the same limit applies to the criminal record extract or the court decision is not stated in the interface text and could not be verified on this site; a foreign national who needs a Turkish criminal record should ask the official system whether the electronic route is open.
What a translation office can and cannot do here
On paper the Convention allows the bearer to apply; the Ankara Governor’s Office asks only for the bearer’s identity card, while the Zile District Governor’s Office asks for a notarised power of attorney, so practice is not uniform. The electronic route has no such flexibility: the application is tied to the identity of the person logged in, and no proxy screen through which an office could apply for a client was found in this site’s survey. What a translation office can do on this route is explain which documents the system covers, which countries are on its list and which questions about the translation to put to the receiving institution; the application itself is made by the holder.
Wrong entries and the fee that stays charged
The interface text asks that the fields be filled in correctly and warns that a wrong entry leads to refusal of the application, with PTT’s service fee still charged; PTT is the national postal operator acting as intermediary. What is entered is therefore the applicant’s own responsibility; the fee is charged even on refusal, and the amount is stated on the official FAQ. How a refusal is notified and what a second application involves is described on a separate page of this site.
Translation begins after the download
Translation can start only once the application has been completed and the electronic document downloaded. What exactly is translated, a printout or the file, with or without the certificate, is not stated in the sources read for this site; the receiving institution is asked. The holder passes the document on; a translation office asks for the document, not for login details. If the receiving institution wants the translation notarised, or an apostille on that notarisation, that step runs on paper at the request of the bearer, and there the question of a power of attorney arises again. A translation office renders the text; who may apply is decided by the system’s own rule.