Apostille for Turkish documents coming to the UK

Who this guide is for

A solicitor, a court, a bank or a university has asked you for an “apostilled” Turkish document, or you have read online that Turkish papers must be legalised before Britain will look at them, and you want to know whether that is so. It is so far less often than people expect. This guide explains what a Turkish apostille is, which office issues it, when a UK body genuinely needs one, and why the order in which you apostille and translate matters more than either step on its own. For paperwork travelling the other way, read apostille for UK documents going to Türkiye instead, because the rules and the costs are not symmetrical.

Do you actually need one?

Begin by asking the body that made the request to put it in writing and to say which rule it rests on. The Home Office publishes no apostille requirement for Turkish civil documents supporting a visa, settlement or citizenship application; what it sets out is that the original is supplied together with a translation certified in a particular way. Registrars taking notice of marriage, UK ENIC, UCAS and the health regulators work the same way. The requests we see that do have something behind them tend to come from a narrow group: proceedings where the authenticity of a Turkish judgment is disputed, a probate application relying on a Turkish death certificate or veraset ilamı, HM Land Registry dealing with a Turkish power of attorney, and banks or insurers applying their own internal file rules. Often the answer that comes back is that the requester wanted reassurance rather than that a rule exists, and a certified translation with a clear certification page settles it.

Where a Turkish apostille comes from

Türkiye has been a party to the 1961 Hague Convention since 1985, so its authorities can issue the apostille certificate that other member states recognise. Two different offices do it, and sending a document to the wrong one wastes a day:

• Administrative documents — nüfus kayıt örneği, doğum and evlenme records, yerleşim yeri belgesi, diplomas, SGK and tax records — are apostilled by the valilik (provincial governor’s office) or the kaymakamlık of the district.
• Judicial documents — mahkeme kararı, adli sicil kaydı, and documents drawn up by a Turkish notary — are apostilled by the adalet komisyonu at the courthouse.

There is no state fee for either. A kaymakamlık will normally stamp while you wait; a valilik takes one to three days. The certificate is a numbered box in Turkish and French, attached to the original or to a freshly issued copy, and it certifies the signature and seal on that paper, nothing more. Anyone can carry the document in; you do not need to attend in person or grant a power of attorney, which is why most of our clients ask a relative in Türkiye to do it.

e-Apostil: the version you can obtain from the UK

Since 2019 Türkiye has issued apostilles electronically through e-Devlet. Adli sicil kaydı and court decisions came first, nüfus kayıt örneği was added in June 2021, and the multilingual birth, marriage and death extracts (Formül A and B) followed on 28 December 2023. If your document is on that list you can produce it and apostille it from a flat in London, which removes the biggest obstacle for people with nobody left in Türkiye to run errands. The e-Apostil page sets out the current coverage and the e-Devlet guide explains how to get a password from abroad. Print the apostille with its QR code and verification address visible; a UK caseworker who has never seen a Turkish e-apostille may want to check it, and our translation reproduces the verification wording so that they can.

Apostille first, translation second

The apostille authenticates the signature and seal on the Turkish original. It says nothing at all about a translation, and a translation attached to an un-apostilled document cannot inherit its status. The sequence is therefore fixed: obtain the document, apostille it, then have the document and the apostille certificate translated as one item. Reversing the order means paying for the translation twice, since the apostille that arrives later is itself a page of text that has to be translated. One further point catches people who hold a Formül A multilingual extract: Türkiye is a party to the CIEC convention that created those forms and the United Kingdom is not, so a Formül A birth extract still needs an English translation here, however many languages are printed on it.

Timing and fees, as at August 2026

• Apostille in Türkiye: no government charge. Same day at a kaymakamlık, one to three days at a valilik, minutes through e-Apostil.
• Our certified translation of a Turkish document with its apostille: from £10 per page of 1,000 characters, certification included, one to two working days. A nüfus kayıt örneği with an apostille usually runs to two pages.
• Urgent handling adds 60 per cent and halves the time; the economy option costs 20 per cent less and doubles it.
• Wet-signed paper set by courier from Ankara: £30, two to four working days. No UK VAT is charged.

Common mistakes

• Paying an agency in the UK to “obtain a Turkish apostille” at a price that is almost all margin, when the stamp itself is free.
• Translating first and discovering that the receiving body wants the apostille visible inside the translated document.
• Apostilling a photocopy that no office has issued; the apostille needs a genuine signature or seal to authenticate.
• Using a nüfus kayıt örneği that was issued three years ago. Most UK bodies want civil registry evidence issued within the last three to six months, and the apostille does not refresh it.
• Assuming an apostille removes the need for a translation. It does the opposite: it adds a page.

What we do

We translate the document and its apostille together, reproducing the certificate number, the issuing office and the verification code, and certify the translation with our company details, the date and a signature. Where a client has nobody in Türkiye, we can collect a document and have it apostilled in Ankara as part of the job. We do not represent you before Turkish offices in disputes, and we do not advise on whether a particular UK body will be satisfied; ask them first, in writing, and we will translate exactly what they asked for.