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In the New Anatolian Newspaper

Bill easing foreigners' work permits at Parliament

The New Anatolian / Ankara



A new bill submitted to Parliament late Wednesday would ease work permit procedures for foreigners and also change the legal definition of their group.

The bill in question would shorten the wait for work permits to 45 days and allow the Labor and Social Security Ministry to issue permits as well as to assign necessary procedural work to regional directorates in order to allow foreigners to obtain their work permits in the regions in which they live.

It proposes that initially only the directorates in Istanbul, Izmir and Antalya would be authorized to provide work permits by early next year. In line with the enhancement of their administrative capacities, other offices would also eventually be granted the authority to issue the permits.

The definition of "foreigner" would also be changed from "those not recognized as Turkish citizens under the Turkish Citizenship Law" to "those who lack citizenship relations with the state of the Turkish Republic."

Foreigners residing abroad and seeking work permits in Turkey would be able to start the procedure by applying to representative offices of the Turkish Republic. If their applications were approved, they would be able to obtain their work permit. The work permit would only be valid after obtaining a visa to enter the country and a residence permit.

Foreigners residing in Turkey would have to get their work permits before they started working either for someone else or independently, unless defined in bilateral or multilateral contracts of which Turkey is a party.

Starting from the date that the work permit is obtained, foreigners would have a maximum of 90 days to apply for a visa to enter Turkey. Next they would have to apply to the Interior Ministry for a residence permit within 30 days of arriving in the country. Thus, they would be able to apply to the Labor and Social Security Ministry or to regional directorates to obtain permission to work in Turkey. The work permit would be provided within 45 days.

The new bill would allow for the spouses and children of foreigners to apply for work permits without having to fulfill the current requirement of five years of legal and constant residence in Turkey.

Divorced foreigners who had been married to a Turkish citizen for at least three years and who lived in Turkey during that time would be able to obtain work permits.

Under the bill, those whose work permit obligations would be lifted are as follows: Turkish citizens from birth who lost their citizenship in line with a request for expatriation and their children, those carrying press cards given by the Directorate General of Press and Information, and those employed or provided work permits by ministries and public institutions.

Moreover, foreigners employed within the framework of projects carried out by the Defense Industry Undersecretariat, those working on national and international projects run by consortiums and those exempted from professional service regulation because they work in international institutions would be able to obtain work permits.

Ian