TÜRKIYE
THREE YEARS.

A technopark jury, not the Ministry. You file on the official portal, the Ministry of Industry and Technology checks only that the paperwork is complete, and the system refers your file to an accredited technopark whose jury — industry specialists and university academics — assesses technological innovation, scalability and R&D capacity. On a positive score the Ministry issues the certificate without re-assessing and the file goes to the Ministry of Labour for the three-year work permit.

The programme came into force on 16 September 2024. As of 3 March 2026 — roughly eighteen months later — twenty-two foreign startups had been admitted. Nobody is hiding that figure; it comes from Türkiye’s own ecosystem reporting. It does not mean the route is closed. It means the programme is young and small, and anyone selling it to you as a busy motorway has not looked. Anyone offering a guaranteed approval is selling something they do not control.

The programme sets none of its own, but the general Turkish work-permit rules for a foreign company partner apply and they catch founders late: each foreign partner must hold at least 20% of the shares and contribute at least TRY 500,000 in capital. There is one exception — the criteria do not apply where the individual’s capital share is USD 100,000 or more. Note this is not the same as the minimum company registration capital, which is lower.

Practice is teams of up to three, and the reason is risk rather than law: every member’s role has to be specialist and defensible. The rule itself implies a cap of five, since each foreign partner needs at least 20% of the shares. Equal splits are not required — three co-founders at roughly a third each clear the 20% condition comfortably. Including unrelated people, or generic roles like "social media manager", raises jury scrutiny and endangers the whole file.

Here we have to be precise rather than reassuring. The general rule in Turkish labour law is that foreign-owned companies must employ five Turkish citizens per foreign employee from the seventh month. Programme write-ups state that Tech Visa startups are exempt, and technopark and incentive-zone companies are in practice assessed more flexibly — but we could not find explicit official text granting a blanket, unconditional exemption. For a team of three foreign founders the difference between "exempt" and "treated flexibly" is zero hires against fifteen, and you find out in month seven. Get this one in writing from the technopark or the Ministry of Labour before you commit money.

The Tech Visa work permit is issued for up to three years — the longest first permit of any route covered on this site. The programme lists a simplified residence process for family among its benefits. If what you need is runway, that is Türkiye’s central strength.

The programme’s own site lists six months of legal, financial and technical consultancy for the business you establish; workspace in technoparks and incubators; support for venture capital and project financing; mentorship; and what it calls comprehensive free health cover. Two practical limits. Free workspace depends on the technopark having capacity, and in Istanbul it is competitive — do not treat it as guaranteed. And do not confuse the health claim with Türkiye’s social security system (SGK), under which a founder pays a monthly contribution; they are not the same thing.

No — neither English nor Turkish. But the plan and the pitch have to be professional, and if you are not fluent in Turkish at the notary you will need a sworn translator, which is a separate cost.

Traditional and service businesses: a simple online shop, ordinary import-export, a digital marketing agency. Technopark juries assess technological innovation and R&D capacity, and that category is set aside at the assessment stage.

Three to six months from first filing to a residence card, in the standard case with no complications. What lengthens it is predictable: files returned by the jury for correction or re-translation, waiting lists for space at oversubscribed technoparks, and banking bureaucracy — opening a corporate account as a foreign national in Türkiye takes time.

No. After the plan is approved and you arrive, you register a new Turkish company. The shareholding of your existing company elsewhere is not an obstacle and does not have to be reproduced — the only requirement is that each foreign partner holds at least 20%.

Its strengths are real: the longest first permit at three years, geographic proximity, a cost of living well below Western Europe, and more than a hundred technoparks. So are its weaknesses: the programme is very young and its intake small, an inflationary economy makes long-term financial planning hard, and — most importantly — this route does not lead to EU membership or a European passport. If Europe is your horizon, Türkiye is not your destination. If your horizon is building a business on sane time and cost, it is the most serious option on that list.