Moving to the UK from Turkey: Complete Guide

Visiting: a Visitor Visa, Not an Electronic Travel Authorisation

Turkey is on the Home Office visa national list, so Turkish citizens need a Standard Visitor visa for a short trip. The £20 electronic travel authorisation is for people who are not visa nationals, and it is not an option on a Turkish passport. A 6-month Standard Visitor visa costs £135, and longer-validity visitor visas cost £506 for 2 years, £903 for 5 years and £1,128 for 10 years. A decision usually takes 3 weeks. The Turkish national identity card is not a travel document for the UK: you need a valid Turkish passport.

The Turkish Worker and Businessperson Routes Are Closed

The Turkish Worker and Turkish Businessperson routes came from the 1963 Ankara Agreement between Turkey and the European Economic Community, later the European Community Association Agreement. They let Turkish nationals work or run a business in the UK on their own terms rather than through sponsorship. Both are closed to new applications. They are not "limited" or harder to get: a person who does not already hold one of them cannot apply for one.

What remains for people already on those routes:

• Extensions, from inside the UK only. On the Turkish Worker route the length depends on how long you have legally worked in the UK: up to 1 year after 3 to 4 years of work, changing employer but staying in the same occupation; up to 3 years after 4 or more years of work, in any occupation for any employer. There is no fee, and a decision usually comes within 6 months.
• Settlement after 5 years. You must have been living and working in the UK for the last 5 years without public funds, have spent no more than 180 days outside the UK in any 12 months in those 5 years, have met the knowledge of language requirement and passed the Life in the UK test. On the Businessperson route you must still be running the business.
• Children under 21 joining from outside the UK. A child of a Turkish Worker visa holder, or of their partner, can apply for a dependant visa from outside the UK; a decision usually takes 12 weeks. A partner already in the UK on a dependant visa can apply to extend, but a partner outside the UK cannot join on this route. Children over 21 can only extend if they are already in the UK as a dependant, and they apply separately.

Visa Routes Open to Turkish Citizens Now

Skilled Worker Visa

The Skilled Worker visa needs a job offer from a UK employer who holds a sponsor licence, a job at degree level (level 6 of the regulated qualifications framework) for a new application, and a salary of at least £41,700 a year or the going rate for the occupation, whichever is higher. Some applicants qualify at the lower £33,400 threshold. A job on the Immigration Salary List uses that lower threshold and a lower fee, but the full going rate for the job still applies: the old 20% salary discount ended with the shortage occupation list in April 2024. See the salary threshold guide.

The visa can be granted for up to 5 years at a time and leads to settlement, also called indefinite leave to remain, after 5 continuous years.

Family Visa as a Partner

If your partner is a British citizen or has settlement, you can apply for a partner visa. The UK-based sponsor must meet the financial requirement of £29,000 a year, met through income, savings, or a combination. The visa is granted for 2 years and 9 months at first and a further 2 years and 6 months on extension, and leads to settlement after 5 years on the route. The fee is £2,064 from outside the UK and a decision usually takes 12 weeks.

Student Visa and the Graduate Route

The Student visa costs £558 and needs a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies from a licensed UK education provider, plus course fees and £1,529 a month for living costs in London or £1,171 a month outside London, for up to 9 months, held for 28 days in a row. A decision usually takes 3 weeks from outside the UK. After a degree the Graduate route gives 2 years of unsponsored work, or 3 years after a PhD, falling to 18 months for applications made on or after 1 January 2027. From there some people switch to a Skilled Worker visa.

Turkey is not a Commonwealth country and is not on the Youth Mobility Scheme list, so neither the UK Ancestry route nor the Youth Mobility Scheme is open on a Turkish passport.

Document Requirements for Turkish Applicants

• Apostille. The Apostille Convention has been in force for Türkiye since 29 September 1985, so Turkish public documents are apostilled by the Turkish authority designated for that kind of document, rather than legalised through an embassy.
• Certified English translation. Every Turkish-language document needs a full translation into English showing the translator's details, signature and date.
• Passport, not the identity card. The Turkish national identity card (kimlik kartı) is not a travel document for the UK. You need a valid Turkish passport.
• Adli Sicil Kaydı, the criminal record certificate. Only for the routes that require a police certificate. It comes from the Ministry of Justice and can be requested through the e-Devlet portal, and it needs an apostille and a translation. Check the GOV.UK criminal records checks guidance for how to apply from Turkey.

Tuberculosis Test: Not Needed for Turkish Residents

Turkey is not on the Home Office list of countries where a tuberculosis test is needed, so someone who has been living in Turkey does not need one. Turkey appears instead on a different GOV.UK list, of other countries with approved tuberculosis test clinics. That matters only if you have lived for 6 months or more in a country that is on the testing list and were living there within the last 6 months: the test would then apply to you, and you could take it at an approved clinic in Turkey. GOV.UK publishes no price, because each clinic sets its own fee, and the certificate is valid for 6 months from the date of the x-ray.

English Language Requirement

Turkey is not on the Home Office list of majority English-speaking countries, so an approved secure English language test is needed on most routes. The levels are set on the Common European Framework of Reference:

• Skilled Worker: B2 for new applications made from 8 January 2026; B1 is still accepted on an extension of the same visa
• Partner visa, first application: A1 in speaking and listening
• Partner visa, extension: A2
• Settlement: B1, rising to B2 from 26 March 2027 on the Skilled Worker, Global Talent, Scale-up and Long Residence routes
• Student: B2 for study at degree level or above, B1 below degree level

A degree taught in English that UK ENIC confirms is equivalent to a UK degree can be used instead of a test. The approved providers are listed on the GOV.UK secure English language test page. GOV.UK publishes no price for the test.

Where You Apply in Turkey

You complete the application on GOV.UK, then book an appointment to give your fingerprints and photograph at a visa application centre. GOV.UK's find a visa application centre service lists Turkey under VFS Global, which publishes the centres, their addresses and their opening times. GOV.UK says you must apply for the visa before you can make an appointment, and that if you do not choose a centre a centre is chosen for you.

Processing Times

These are the published service standards for applications made outside the UK. They are the same wherever you apply from.

• Visitor visa: 3 weeks
• Student visa: 3 weeks
• Skilled Worker and other work visas: 3 weeks
• Partner, spouse, parent or child family visa: 12 weeks

A faster decision can be paid for: the priority service costs £500, and aims at 5 working days for most routes but 30 working days for family visas and citizenship. The super priority service costs £1,000 and is not available for citizenship applications. See our Skilled Worker processing time guide.

Financial Evidence in Turkish Lira

Money held in lira is converted using the exchange rate published by OANDA for the date of the application, so the pound figure that counts is the one on that date and not the one when the statements were printed. Where the rules set a period the money must be held for — 28 days in a row for the Student visa and most sponsored work routes — the balance must not fall below the required amount at any point in that period. The rules on which documents evidence income and savings on the family route are set out in our financial requirement guide.

What It Costs

UK visa fees are set in pounds sterling and are the same wherever you apply from.

• Standard Visitor visa: £135 for 6 months
• Skilled Worker visa from outside the UK: £819 for up to 3 years, £1,618 for more than 3 years
• Family visa as a partner: £2,064 from outside the UK, £1,407 inside
• Student visa: £558
• Turkish Worker extension: no fee
• Healthcare surcharge: £1,035 a year, or £776 a year for students, their dependants and under-18s
• Settlement: £3,226 for each person
• British citizenship: £1,709 to apply plus a £130 ceremony fee, £1,839 in total
• Priority services: £500 priority, £1,000 super priority
• English test, apostille and translations: GOV.UK publishes no price for any of these.

For a full fee breakdown, see our UK visa fees guide.

What the Healthcare Surcharge Buys

Paying the immigration health surcharge does not make the National Health Service free. It puts you on the same footing as a UK resident, so you then pay what a resident pays. In England that means £9.90 for each prescription item and dental charges of £27.90, £76.60 or £332.10 depending on the treatment. Prescriptions are free in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

After Arrival

• Set up or sign in to your UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) account and check your online immigration status. There is no card to collect: biometric residence permits stopped being issued at the end of 2024. To prove your status to an employer or a landlord you generate a share code, which lasts 90 days
• Apply for a National Insurance number
• Open a UK bank account
• Register with a GP
• Read about your employment rights as a visa holder
• Register for council tax with your local council in England, Scotland or Wales. Northern Ireland has domestic rates instead, collected by Land and Property Services

Path to Settlement and Citizenship

After 5 years on a qualifying route — Skilled Worker, partner, or the closed Turkish Worker and Businessperson routes for people already on them — you can apply for settlement, also called indefinite leave to remain. You must meet the continuous residence requirement of no more than 180 days outside the UK in any 12-month period, pass the Life in the UK test, and meet the English requirement at B1. Settlement costs £3,226 for each person, except on the Turkish routes, and a decision usually takes up to 6 months.

After 12 months with settlement you can apply for British citizenship for £1,709 plus a £130 ceremony fee. Turkey allows dual citizenship, so a Turkish citizen who becomes British does not have to give up Turkish nationality. That is a question for the Turkish authorities, not the Home Office.

Next Steps

For official information, visit the GOV.UK Turkish Worker visa page and the GOV.UK Skilled Worker visa page.

Questions and answers