A diploma, a marriage certificate or a birth record obtained abroad is brought to Türkiye; at the institution’s desk it is returned because it carries no apostille. If the holder had first asked a Turkish district office for an apostille, that too was refused, since Turkish authorities place no certificate on a foreign document; that refusal has its own page on this site. This page explains what a Turkish institution looks for on a foreign document, the written conditions of two institutions, and the two routes that remain when the document comes from a country outside the Convention.
What the Turkish desk looks for
The nüfus müdürlüğü (civil registry directorate), the marriage registrar, YÖK (the Council of Higher Education) or the residence permit unit takes the foreign document and looks for the source country’s apostille on it; if there is none, the file is not closed, but the procedure does not begin. Sometimes the document has already been translated into Turkish and the translation notarised; the institution still looks for the apostille on the original, since the notarial certification only shows that the translation was certified before a Turkish notary. A Turkish notarial act does not stand in for the certification of the foreign original.
The formula for an incoming document
For a document from a contracting state, the formula used by Turkish institutions has two parts: the apostille of that state’s competent authority on the original, and a notarised Turkish translation made in Türkiye. The guide of the Derince marriage registry sets this formula out expressly for the marriage file of foreign nationals; civil registry and residence procedures ask for the same pair. The apostille comes from the authority of the issuing state; a Turkish authority has no competence over that class of document. A document arriving without an apostille therefore cannot be completed in Türkiye; the missing link is abroad.
What YÖK writes for two countries in particular
In a recognition file YÖK asks that the translation be certified by a Turkish notary or a Turkish diplomatic mission, and it spells out the apostille for two countries. From 1 June 2013 the original of a diploma, diploma supplement or academic document obtained in Bulgaria and its translation made in Bulgaria have to bear the seal and the apostille of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science; the certifications are looked for on the original and on the translation alike. Diplomas and transcripts obtained in Ukraine have to carry an apostille as well. These two lines show that the institution looks for the apostille not only on the original but, in certain countries, on the translation too. For other countries the YÖK page has no separate apostille line; that does not mean none is looked for, and the institution is asked in writing before the file is handed in.
Two routes when the source country has no row in the table
If the issuing state has no row in the HCCH status table, there is no apostille to obtain, and the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs describes two legalisation routes. On the first, the document is legalised at the Turkish mission in the issuing country and arrives in Türkiye in that form. On the second, the document is legalised at that country’s mission in Türkiye; the Ministry then adds the second legalisation if the mission is in Ankara, and the provincial governor’s office of the city concerned if the mission is elsewhere. The detailed procedure is on the page of the Ministry’s Legalisation Unit. Which route is shorter depends on where the holder is; both end with a notarised Turkish translation made in Türkiye.
Completing the file from Türkiye
If the holder is in Türkiye and the source country has a row in the table, the document is either sent back to that country or a fresh copy is obtained and apostilled there; whether that country’s authority accepts an application by post or online was not verified country by country in this site’s survey, and the country guide pages of this site show the authority from this site’s country data. For a document arriving with an electronic apostille, the institution is asked beforehand whether it accepts the printout. If the source country has no row, one of the two legalisation routes above is chosen. Which Turkish institution looks for an apostille on which document type was not found collected in a single official list in this site’s survey; civil registry, YÖK and marriage registry examples exist. For notaries the rule is written in Consolidated Circular 25 of the Union of Turkish Notaries: the notary looks for the apostille of a contracting state and, for a state outside the Convention, for the approval of the Turkish consulate in that state under article 195 of the Notaries Law, while the documents of thirteen states named in the circular need neither under bilateral agreements. Its Consolidated Circular 23 adds that a document bearing no apostille can still be translated at a notary’s office, with an explanatory note where needed. For other institutions the institution’s own list is read.
Turkish translation made in Türkiye, after the certificate
In this chain the translation is the last link and is made in Türkiye: a yeminli tercüman, a sworn translator whose oath is on record at a Turkish notary, translates the apostilled or legalised original into Turkish and the notary certifies the translation; whether the certificate or the legalisation stamps are rendered too is up to the Turkish institution. The Bulgarian line at YÖK is the exception: there the translation too is made and apostilled in Bulgaria; whether a Turkish notarial certification is also asked for on it is not clear from the YÖK page. The apostille serves the use of a document in another contracting state; an official rule that a Turkish institution looks for one on a Turkish notary’s certification was not found in this site’s survey.