For your key executives, a permanent and strong status.
Turquoise Card and key-personnel status for senior foreign executives and strategic specialists: eligibility analysis and application management.
Two strong statuses, two different purposes
The Turquoise Card is an exceptional status, scored against criteria such as education, salary, investment and scientific-technological contribution, that offers qualified foreign nationals the prospect of an indefinite right to work. Key personnel, on the other hand, is a framework that eases the work-permit assessment for senior management and strategic roles in qualifying companies. The right status is selected according to profile, corporate structure and long-term plan.
Who is a candidate?
Group CEO/CFO-level assignments, highly qualified engineers and researchers, entrepreneurs bringing significant investment, and the founding team that establishes the Türkiye operation. In foreign-capital companies, the organisational chart and signature authorities are the documentary basis for a key-personnel case.
Application strategy
For the Turquoise Card, the file is built like a portfolio matching the scoring criteria to evidence: diplomas and equivalencies, payroll records, patent and publication records, investment documents. The initial transition process and post-card obligations are tied to a schedule. For a comparison with the standard permit route, see our main service page; for the German direction, see our EU Blue Card page.
The statutory frame
The Turquoise Card is regulated by the International Labour Force Law (No 6735): the first three years are a transition period in which recorded commitments are monitored; indefinite status can then be requested. The holder's spouse and dependent children receive residence rights — the family plan is part of the application, not an annex to it. The key-personnel framework rests on company and position criteria defined in the implementing legislation; once qualifying-company status is documented, assessment facilitations apply. For those aiming at citizenship in the long run, the status architecture should be designed together with the alternatives, including citizenship by investment.
Process and deliverables
The work proceeds in three stages: the strategy decision (Turquoise Card, key personnel or the standard permit); assembly of the document set (equivalency, apostille, translation routes) and filing; and, after the decision, the transition-period calendar.
Deliverables: a comparative status memo, an application file index, a transition-period obligations calendar and an annual status report. If an application is refused, the diagnosis-and-appeal route is built without losing lawful stay. For structures employing five or more foreign nationals, the process plugs into the corporate immigration programme.
We are by your side for Turquoise Card & Key Personnel
We test eligibility with a scoring simulation, build the file according to institutional practice and manage family members' status within the same plan. The aim is to secure the Türkiye plan for your key people through a single-status strategy.
Other Applications of This Service
Work Permits & Foreign Personnel — our other specialised solutions in this area.
Matter Connections
The focus areas, practice areas, desks and legislation connected with this sub-service.
Our Matters in This Service
The anonymised examples of our work that relate to this service.
Assignment of an engineering team to Germany
Relocation of the project team to Germany through an EU Blue Card and assignment structure; including family reunification.
Review the matter →Advisory · Permit AppealResolving a work-permit refusal through appeal
The favourable resolution of a work permit refused for a key position, through grounds analysis, restructuring of the file, and an appeal process.
Review the matter →The Team Delivering This Service
With our multilingual team of lawyers, well-versed in Turkish and German law, we are by your side.
Related Publications
Fresh perspectives and guides from the Knowledge Centre.
After the initial transition period, the card offers the prospect of an indefinite right; monitoring the obligations that apply during that period is critical. We manage the timeline and the reporting.
The key personnel framework is tied to specific company conditions; in smaller structures, a Turquoise Card or a well-structured standard permit may be more realistic. We clarify this with an analysis.
Residence facilitations are provided for the cardholder's close relatives; the status of the spouse and children is planned together with the application.
Turquoise Card & Key Personnel — get the right legal support.
Let us identify the right solution together, drawing on our experience in Türkiye and the DACH region.