Residence permit refusal: conditions, notice, court route

• Article 32 lists five conditions for a short-term permit: to invoke one of the grounds in article 31 and submit the related information and documents; not to fall within article 7; to have accommodation meeting general health and safety standards; if requested, to submit a criminal record certificate issued by the authorities of the country of nationality or lawful residence; and to provide the address of stay in Turkey.
• Under article 33, if one or more of those conditions is not met or ceases to be met, the permit is not granted, an existing one is cancelled, and an expiring one is not extended.
• The same follows where the permit is found to have been used outside its purpose; a permit is also refused to anyone subject to a valid deportation decision or entry ban.
• Under article 25, refusal, non-extension and cancellation, and the service of those decisions, are carried out by the provincial governorships. Family ties in Turkey, length of residence, the situation in the country of origin and the best interests of the child are taken into account, and the decision may be deferred.
• The decision is served on the foreign national, their legal representative or their lawyer. The notice also sets out how the right to appeal may effectively be used.
• Residence permit applications are concluded within ninety days at the latest, and refusal decisions are served on the applicant.
• The time limit for applying to the administrative court, where no different period is set by special law, is sixty days, running from the date of written notification.

This page is compiled from the text of the law; it is not legal advice and guarantees no outcome. The ground for refusal and the periods available to you are stated in the notice itself; consult a lawyer before going to court.

The time limit for applying to the administrative court is sixty days, running from the date of written notification. Before bringing an action you may, within that period, ask the higher authority — or, where there is none, the authority that took the decision — to revoke, withdraw or amend it or to take a new decision; that application suspends the running of the court time limit. Both rules are in articles 7 and 11 of the Administrative Procedure Law. On the paperwork side the usual failure is an incomplete certification chain: a criminal record certificate, birth certificate, marriage certificate or custody decision obtained abroad must first be apostilled in the issuing country, then translated in Turkey by a sworn translator and certified by a notary. The second frequent problem is the spelling of names: the name on the form must match the Latin spelling in the passport and the spelling used in documents already filed with Turkish authorities, or the records will not line up. If you are preparing a fresh application, build the file so that it documents precisely the gap identified in the refusal notice.