Last updated: 30 October 2026 · Legal review: Av. Gökhan Vural, İzmir Bar Association (Reg. No. 15813)
A Turkey TRC card (Turkish Residence Card) is the plastic identity card issued to foreigners who hold a valid residence permit in Turkey. It is not a separate permit type and there is no separate application for it. When your residence permit is approved, the card that arrives by post is the TRC. This guide covers what the card shows, how long it takes to arrive, what it costs in 2026, and the deadlines that come with holding one.
Key Takeaways
- The TRC is the residence permit card itself, not a separate permit, and arrives by PTT once the residence permit is approved.
- Delivery takes between 14 and 30 days, and uncollected cards return to the provincial migration directorate.
- The 2026 card fee is 964.00 Turkish lira, paid to the tax office separately from the permit fee.
- You must register your address within twenty working days of receiving the card and report address or marital changes within twenty working days.
- Renewal applications open sixty days before expiry and must be filed before the permit expires.
Is a Turkey TRC Card the Same as a Residence Permit?
This is the most common source of confusion among foreigners in Turkey, and it comes from language rather than law.
Expat forums and community groups say “TRC”. Turkish legislation says ikamet izni belgesi. Official English translations say “residence permit document”. All three describe one object: the card proving you have permission to live in Turkey.
You apply for a residence permit through the e-ikamet system, attend your appointment, and if the provincial authority approves your file, the card is produced and sent to you. Anyone telling you to “apply for a TRC” is describing the residence permit process in different words.
TRC Card or Turkish ID Card? Not the Same Thing
The TRC is the residence card issued to foreigners. Its identification number has eleven digits and starts with 99. A Turkish citizen does not carry a TRC: once you become a citizen, you receive a Turkish identity card like any other citizen. If you are applying for citizenship by investment, your TRC is a temporary step, not your final ID. See what happens after citizenship is granted.
What Is Printed on a Turkey TRC Card
The card carries different information on each side.
On the front: your foreigner identification number, your name and surname, your nationality, and your province of residence.
On the back: the type of residence permit granted, your mother’s name, your father’s name, the start date, the end date, and the authority that issued the card.
The card also carries a serial number in the format YAA followed by six digits.
Three of these fields deserve attention because they carry consequences.
The foreigner identification number is eleven digits beginning with 99. You will use it for nearly every official transaction in Turkey: opening a bank account, registering with the social security system, signing a lease, buying property.
The province of residence is printed for a reason. Your permit is tied to the province where you applied, and moving to a different province is not a private matter — see the deadlines section below.
The end date governs your legal status. Your right to remain ends on that date regardless of when you applied or how long the process took.
How Long the Card Takes to Arrive
Once your application is approved, the card is printed and delivered by PTT to the address in your application. Delivery takes between 14 and 30 days.
Cards are sent by registered post with return receipt. This matters more than it sounds: if the card is not collected within the period PTT allows, it goes back to the sender. Recovering it afterwards is an administrative process rather than a phone call.
Two practical consequences follow.
The waiting period itself is normal. Applicants often assume something has gone wrong when nothing arrives after two weeks. Within the thirty-day window, there is usually nothing to chase.
The address you give must be one where post reaches you and where somebody can sign for a delivery. If you are travelling during the expected window, arrange for someone to receive it.
Your Card Did Not Arrive: Where It Goes
If nobody receives the card at your address, it goes back to the office that issued it: the provincial migration directorate where you applied. You can collect it there in person. If you are not in the city, your immigration lawyer in Turkey can collect it for you with a power of attorney.
Most lost deliveries are address problems. Make sure the address in your application matches where you actually live, and that someone can sign for the card.
How to Track Your Application and Your Card
- Your application: check its status on the e-İkamet ongoing application page.
- Your card in the post: once the card is sent, follow it with the PTT shipment tracking service on e-Devlet.
If tracking shows the card was returned, contact the provincial migration directorate where you applied.
Before your card arrives
- Check your address in e-İkamet: the card goes where the application says.
- Unclaimed cards return to the migration directorate.
- Not in the city? A lawyer with a power of attorney can collect it.
- Keep trips abroad within 15 days while your application is pending.
Card Fees in 2026
The card carries a document charge separate from the permit fee. Its legal name is the değerli kâğıt bedeli — the valuable paper charge, set under Valuable Papers Law No. 210 and determined by the Ministry of Finance. For 2026 it is 964.00 Turkish lira.
This is paid to the tax office, not to the migration authority. The sequence catches people out: you apply through migration, you pay at the tax office, and you collect the card from PTT. Three institutions, three stages, one process.
Keep the payment receipt.
If Your Card Is Lost, Stolen or Damaged
Under Article 23 of the implementing regulation, a residence permit document is reissued where it has been lost, stolen, issued incorrectly, or worn out.
The cost is not the same in each case. Where the card has been lost, stolen or worn out, the card charge is payable in full and the permit fee is charged at half rate. A replacement is therefore not simply the 964 lira — there is a second component on top.
Where the card was issued incorrectly, the defective card is taken back from you and returned through official channels for correction.
A replacement application is made to the migration authority in every case.
What Evidence to Bring
Two forms of proof are commonly used.
A police report. You report the loss or theft. Where the circumstances are unknown, the matter is recorded against an unidentified perpetrator. The report is an official document.
A newspaper notice. Publishing an announcement that the card has been lost also serves as proof.
The migration authority has discretion to accept a replacement application without either. In practice, bringing evidence removes a point of friction from your file.
Why we recommend the police report over a newspaper notice
Two reasons. One is practical, the other comes from criminal practice and almost no guide mentions it.
The practical reason: reporting to the police is free, while a newspaper notice is not. The police report also carries the weight of an official record, which a paid advertisement does not.
The second reason is worth taking seriously. Offenders are known to leave documents and personal belongings at crime scenes deliberately, in order to divert suspicion onto someone else. A residence card printed with your identification number, your name, and your parents’ names is exactly the kind of item used this way. If your card surfaces somewhere it should not, a police report filed on the day you lost it establishes when the card left your possession. Without that record, you are reconstructing the timeline afterwards instead of pointing to it.
Filing the report takes an afternoon. Being connected to an incident you had nothing to do with takes considerably longer to resolve.
Deadlines That Come With the Card
Holding a residence card creates obligations with short clocks attached. Missing them causes problems that are entirely avoidable.
Twenty working days to register your address. Counted from the date the card is delivered to you, you must register in the address system. This is a legal requirement, not an administrative suggestion.
Twenty working days to report changes. If your address changes, or your marital status changes, or your name or surname changes in your passport, you notify the provincial authority within twenty working days.
Twenty working days if you move province. Foreigners who move to an address in a province other than the one where the permit was issued must apply for a new residence permit in the new province within twenty working days. A useful detail here: if the permit type is not changing, a new card is issued but the period whose fee you have already paid is not charged again.
Sixty days before expiry for renewal. Extension applications open when sixty days remain on your permit, and must in every case be made before the permit expires. Waiting until after expiry moves you into overstay territory, which carries financial penalties and can affect future applications.
Six months to start using a permit issued abroad. A residence permit obtained from a Turkish consulate loses its validity if it is not put to use within six months. In practice that means entering Turkey and beginning the residence the permit was granted for.
A card produced for a permit that has lapsed this way is destroyed rather than held. The reasoning is straightforward: a residence card is issued to one named person and cannot be transferred or used by anyone else, so once the holder can no longer use it the document has no remaining purpose. There is nothing to collect later. If your plans change and the six months pass, you make a fresh application.
Renewal and What Happens to the Old Card
Renewal is not automatic. Each time a permit is extended, a new card is issued — the fee structure and the delivery window are the same as the first time.
An extended permit runs from the date the previous one ended, not from the date of your application. An early application therefore does not cost you time.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do foreigners get a Turkish ID card?
Foreigners do not receive a Turkish national identity card. What you receive is a residence card — the same document expat communities call a TRC. It carries an eleven-digit foreigner identification number beginning with 99, which serves the same practical function as a citizen’s identification number for banking, insurance and official transactions.
What is the difference between a residence permit and a visa?
A visa lets you enter Turkey and stay for a limited period — up to ninety days in any hundred and eighty. A residence permit lets you live here beyond that period. Foreigners staying longer than ninety days, or longer than their visa allows, are required to hold one.
What is the 90 day rule in Turkey?
A visa or visa exemption allows a maximum of ninety days within any hundred and eighty days. Staying beyond that requires a residence permit.
What is the difference between a work permit and a residence permit in Turkey?
A work permit issued by the labour authority counts as a residence permit for as long as it is valid, and holders do not need a separate residence card provided the residence permit fee is paid. When the work permit ends, the residence right ends with it — a separate permit must then be obtained.
Can I leave Turkey while waiting for a residence permit?
Yes, subject to conditions. Applicants who have paid their residence fees may exit through a border gate more than once using their application document, and are exempt from the visa requirement on return provided they come back within fifteen days each time. Exceeding fifteen days puts you back under general visa rules.
How long can you stay out of Turkey with a residence permit?
The limit depends on permit type. A short-term permit is cancelled where more than one hundred and twenty days are spent abroad within a year. For a family permit the threshold is one hundred and eighty days. A long-term permit is cancelled after an uninterrupted year outside Turkey. Compulsory public service, official duty, education and health grounds are excluded from the count.
What is the YAA number on my card?
It is the serial number of the physical card. It identifies the document rather than the holder — your identification number is the eleven-digit number on the front.
My card has not arrived after thirty days. What should I do?
Check your application on the e-İkamet ongoing application page, then follow the card with PTT shipment tracking on e-Devlet. If it was returned, contact the provincial migration directorate. Delivery failures are usually address problems rather than problems with your permit.
Who can collect my TRC card if I am not at home?
If delivery fails, the card returns to the provincial migration directorate. You, or your lawyer with a power of attorney, can collect it there.
Does a baby born in Turkey need a residence permit?
Yes. Apply within 180 days after the birth certificate is issued; after that the fee is charged at double rate. See our residence permit cost guide.
Getting Help
Most residence permit applications are paperwork exercises. Problems appear at the edges: a rejected file, a card that never arrived, an expiry date that passed during a delay, a lost card that turns up somewhere unexpected, a move to a new province that nobody told you had a deadline.
If any of those describe your situation, deal with it while options remain open. We work with foreign nationals across Turkey on residence permit applications, renewals and appeals, in English and Turkish, through our residence permit service.