UK immigration status documents (eVisa, BRP, vignette) translation into Turkish

Which documents prove your status now

The Home Office has replaced physical immigration documents with the eVisa (elektronik vize), an online record of your immigration status linked to your passport. You prove it with a share code generated in the view-and-prove service, or by printing the status page, which shows your name, date of birth, the type of leave, its start and expiry dates and any conditions. Biometric residence permits (BRP, biyometrik oturma izni kartı) stopped being valid at the end of 2024, although the card still shows the dates of the leave it recorded. An entry-clearance vignette (vize etiketi) in the passport shows the visa category and validity for the first entry. Grant letters and indefinite leave to remain letters from UK Visas and Immigration confirm the decision in words. We translate whichever of these you hold; the eVisa printout has become the usual one.

Turkish procedures that ask for them

• Dövizle askerlik. The fee-based military service option requires 1,095 days abroad with a work or residence status. The consulates' information notes list the residence permit or work permit document as the first item in the file. See dövizle askerlik from the UK.
• Deferment (tecil) for workers. The two-year deferment blocks for employees abroad rest on a residence status that permits work; the Milan consulate's note describes it as a residence permit or work permit document conferring worker status in the foreign country.
• Kesin dönüş. The certificate of transfer of residence (İkametgâh Nakil Belgesi) needs proof of at least 24 months' residence in the UK, and the leave dates on the eVisa or BRP are part of that evidence.
• SGK yurtdışı borçlanması for housewives, where periods of residence abroad rather than employment are being bought back, and the residence record has to be shown.
• Mavi Kart and citizenship files where the applicant's lawful residence in the UK is relevant.

Consulate first, translation second

Most of these applications are made at the Turkish Consulate General, and the askerlik notes do not list a translation among the required documents: the consular officer views the status and takes a copy. Ask the consulate before commissioning a translation. Where a translation is needed is when the file goes on to an askerlik şubesi, an SGK directorate or a customs office in Türkiye, or when you apply for kesin dönüş status after moving back. For those offices the document should be translated and notarised in Ankara.

Legalising a printout

An eVisa page or a share-code result is not signed by anyone, and a BRP is a card, so the FCDO cannot apostille them directly. If a Turkish office wants the document legalised, a UK notary or solicitor certifies the printout or a copy of the card, the FCDO apostilles that certification (the e-Apostille is available for solicitor-certified copies), and we translate the printout, the certification and the apostille together. In our experience askerlik and SGK offices accept the notarised translation with the printout and do not ask for an apostille; the customs office handling a vehicle import sometimes does. We tell you which route the named office has accepted before you pay for legalisation. Read apostille for UK documents going to Türkiye.

How the status is rendered

UK immigration categories have no fixed Turkish equivalents, so we translate the category as printed and add the standard Turkish description in brackets: Skilled Worker (nitelikli işçi vizesi), Spouse or Partner (aile birleşimi), Indefinite Leave to Remain (süresiz oturma izni), pre-settled and settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, Student and Graduate. Conditions such as “no recourse to public funds” are translated in full, because askerlik offices read them to decide whether the status counts as work-permitting.

Cost and delivery

An eVisa printout, a BRP front and back or a vignette is one page of 1,000 characters: £6.50. A grant letter is 1 to 2 pages. The Ankara notary tariff is passed through at about £13.50 per page plus £5 handling; an apostille of the translation is £15. No UK VAT is charged. Translation takes 1 working day, the notary a further day. The scan comes by e-mail; the wet-sealed original by courier for £30, or at a lower rate to an address in Türkiye. We have no UK office for collection.