Apparently I was supposed to apply for a work visa in South Africa. Is there any way I can get the work visa and residence permit without having to leave the country? My school thinks that I will have to go to Rhodes as it is Greek and reapply there at the Turkish Embassy for a work visa and then come back to Turkey. If I do this, will I be allowed into Turkey again? My tourist visa expired a month ago and the school paid a fine of YTL 80 for this at the Emniyet. I would be very grateful for any information you may have. Yours sincerely, Ms. G" Dear Ms. G, I have written about work permit matters several times, but it seems that the authorities still do not provide clear information about the application as I have been receiving questions on the same topic. The Foreign Work Permission Law, dated Feb. 2, 2003, Article 4817, abolished the old legislation concerning the "exclusionary professions only for Turkish citizens," making it easier to obtain a work permit. The above-cited Article 4 states that all foreigners are required to have a work permit unless is stated otherwise by a bilateral agreement, or an application for a work permit can be made before the Ministry of Labor and Social Security if the applicant already holds a residence permit in Turkey.
If the applicant does not have a residence permit, the application should be made through the Turkish Consulate where the applicant resides. This does not necessarily mean that the latter procedure takes longer since the communication is carried out via e-mail. If the ministry grants a work permit, it will be valid only while the required work visa and residence permit are also valid.
Post Script
Dear Paul, thank you for your comment on the types of work permits. I will check this and get back to the topic soon.
Comments
Some of you may remember an article that was published a couple of weeks ago. The topic was related to discrimination against foreigners living in Turkey. Here is a comment to my article about the discrimination issues.
"Dear Berk, Discrimination against foreigners is rife is Turkey. For an example, look to your own newspaper at the article by Kathy Hamilton on Sept. 1. She praises the Müze Kart but admits it is only available to Turkish citizens and then explains how expensive it is for tourists to visit Turkey's great attractions. Why is this card not available to foreigners with residence permits? In fact why not offer the card to tourists, too, if they wanted one? Why the discrimination? Unfortunately it is inborn into the system, and we feel like second-class citizens in your wonderful country."
By the way, I have not received any feedback about the incident that I have mentioned in that respective article. Any news on that issue, please let me know.
