Step-by-step guide for obtaining a residence permit for the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Step-by-step guide for obtaining a residence permit for the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

In this article, we want to analyze in detail obtaining a residence permit through investing in the TRNC, namely the purchase of real estate. But let’s first look at all the grounds for obtaining a residence permit.

1. Work. If you have an official job in Northern Cyprus, you can apply for a residence permit.
2. Business. If you own a business in Northern Cyprus, you can apply for a residence permit.
3. Education. If you are a student or an employee of a university in Northern Cyprus, you can apply for a residence permit.
4. Family. If you are married to a citizen of Northern Cyprus, you can apply for a residence permit.
5. Investments. If you are investing in the economy of Northern Cyprus, you can apply for a residence permit. Including the purchase of real estate.
6. Long-term stay. If you plan to stay in Northern Cyprus for a long time, you can apply for a residence permit for a long-term lease.

In any of these cases, you must provide documents confirming the appropriate basis for obtaining a residence permit.

To obtain a residence permit on the basis of investing in real estate, the buyer has the right to apply for a residence permit both for himself and for all family members in the first lap. (husband, wife, children, parents of the owner.

The great advantage of obtaining a residence permit through the purchase of real estate is:

• There are no restrictions on the cost of real estate, unlike Turkey and other countries.
• You can start the receipt procedure without waiting for the completion of construction, but if you pay 30% (initial payment)
• A simple package of documents for filing an application
• When extending a residence permit after a year, it is issued for 2-3 years according to statistics

So, let’s start our journey from the moment you have made 30% (initial payment for an object under construction) or 100% if you do not use installments or buy a ready-made object from an individual (secondary real estate)

At the moment when you make a deal with a developer or a physical person. A person through a lawyer (all transactions in Northern Cyprus go through lawyers, whom you have the right to choose yourself) the buyer must provide the law firm with a certificate of no criminal record translated into English, and the lawyer, in turn, will make a request to the Ministry of Construction to obtain a permit to purchase real estate.

This is a formality, but it is very important, otherwise without this permission you will not be able to get a residence permit.

What you need to provide to a lawyer:

Passport

Title (Head) to the land (you need to request from the developer or the seller)

A certificate of no criminal record (the certificate is valid for 1 year, translated into English, without an apostille – an apostille is needed if you want to open your own company, but this is a completely different topic.

A certificate of no criminal record is needed exclusively for the buyer, it is not required for his family members

After submitting these documents, the lawyer makes a request for a permit, after that, usually within a week you will be assigned a number in the Ministry of Construction, this number will be useful to us later, the most important thing is to make sure that this request has been made! And the number is assigned to you!

Excellent, you have signed a contract for the purchase of real estate, received a number (permit) from the Ministry of Construction, and also registered your contract with the land committee.

Now we can start the process of obtaining a residence permit. What do we do next?

 

1. Obtaining permission from Mukhtar – Why do I need a certificate from mukhtar in Northern Cyprus?

If you plan to apply for a residence permit in Northern Cyprus or open a local bank account, you need to obtain a certificate of residence (residence permit) in northern Cyprus. The certificate is issued by the Mukhtar (local headman) in the municipality of the district in which you live.

Necessary documents to take to a meeting with Mukhtar:

— Passport

— Registered contract for the purchase of real estate

The certificate is issued after payment, in person.

The fee is 10 Turkish liras.

An important point, before going to Mukhtar, it is important that you stay on the island for at least 21 days, preferably 30 days, the headman will definitely check your mark on arrival in Northern Cyprus (if it is not in the passport but on a separate piece of paper, take it with you. If everything is in order with the documents and your stay on the island, Mukhtar will write you a certificate.

If you receive a certificate also for family members, you will also need to take with you documents confirming kinship with the owner of the property (marriage certificate, birth certificate – translated into English.

2. Opening a personal account on the migration portal https://permissions.gov.ct.tr /

 

— This is one of the key points, apart from the police rendezvous itself, when opening an account on the portal, you will need to upload the following documents there:

• Passport
• Registered contract for the purchase of real estate
• Help from Mukhtar
• Documents confirming kinship translated into English

 

It is better to register an account with a local phone number!

After you upload the documents, you will be asked to fill out a form on the website, then you can save and print it, it will be useful to us for a rendezvous with the police.

After the successful opening of the office, you will be assigned a date for a rendezvous with the police, from the moment the rendezvous is scheduled, you have a tourist vacation, which means now until the rendezvous, you can stay on the island absolutely legally, but at the same time during the waiting period for this rendezvous, you cannot leave the island. The timing here may be different, it will depend on which police department you will have an appointment with. It can be either 1 month or up to 6 months.

3. Opening an account in a local bank – When issuing you a residence permit, you need to confirm your financial viability, in other words, the government wants to be sure that you have finances that will allow you to live on the island and provide for yourself.

How this amount is calculated is a living wage * 12 months.

As of the date of writing this article, this is about 16,000 Turkish lira * 12 = 192,000 Turkish lira or $ 10,000 (it can also be pounds or euros, equivalent to the required amount)

This amount is required for one adult family member, children under 18 are not taken into account.

Banks where you can open an account without a residence permit – on the day of writing this article, these are 2 banks – ALBANK and Credit West Bank.

What needs to be done? – You open an account, deposit money and request an Extract, which will show that you have money in the account. After that, you can use your funds at your discretion*

(*) In general, there is no regulation that the money should be in the account, there is no freezing of funds, we personally withdrew the funds after receiving the Statement.

We order an extract 3-5 days before the rendezvous with the police!

4. We are preparing for a rendezvous – There is very little left before the rendezvous in the police and we need to collect all the documents, namely:

– Passport

– Registered contract

– Case number from the Ministry of Construction (permit)

– A document confirming the payment of the initial payment of 30% or the full payment of the property (you need to request from the developer)

– A bank statement

– 5 photos (3×4 photo format for a foreign passport, take 10 photos at once, 5 you will need to replace your driver’s license in the future if this is relevant for you)

– A printed form from the website where we opened a personal account.

– Documents confirming the relationship

– Certificate from Mukhtar

5. Rendezvous – You need to approach the police department at the appointed time, you can view it in your personal account https://permissions.gov.ct.tr/

You can also pay attention that in your personal account before the meeting with the police, you will have a scale displayed, there will be 50%.

After a successful rendezvous, it will be possible to pay and take tests (blood and manta rays) in your personal account this will happen immediately after you leave the police station and it is better immediately if your time allows you to take tests. You will need to pay for the tests online using a card in your personal account, on the day of writing this article it is 1200 Turkish lira, and after payment the cabinet will tell you the address of the laboratory where you will need to drive up.

6. Tests – after passing the tests at the specified address, within 3 working days, information about the tests will appear in your personal account and your status will be updated from 50% to 60%

60% I allow you to leave the island, but not for more than 2 months, when you leave, you need to print out your personal account status, where it will be seen that you have reached 60%, but we recommend waiting for the full receipt, namely 100%.

7. 70% – When you see this status in your personal account, it means that you are at the finish line and all that remains is to pay the GOSS. The fee for the issue of the document will also be offered to you by the portal of your personal account, on the day of writing the article it is 942 Turkish lira, after payment within 1 working day your status will be updated to 100% and the portal will offer you to save the long-awaited document (photo below). And that’s it, now your stay on the island is legalized, you can start the procedure for replacing your driver’s license, because by law, after obtaining a residence permit within 10 days, you are required to start this process, otherwise you may be fined. Also, you can already open an account in any other Turkish bank.

In this article, we have tried to describe in as much detail as possible the entire path of obtaining a residence permit, you can go this way yourself, but our company recommends that you use the services of specialists who will go this way with you, the cost of services of such specialists varies from 200-300 pounds, there will already depend on the number of people, the more, the more cheaper.

We recommend doing this with specialists, as the set of rules may change, you will have only one attempt to obtain a residence permit and it is extremely important to do everything right.

When buying real estate through our company, you will receive support for obtaining a residence permit absolutely free of charge, with the exception of state duties, check with our managers for details.

Step-by-step guide for obtaining a residence permit for the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.