Long-term permit: time abroad calculator

Short answer

One route to a long-term residence permit requires at least eight years of uninterrupted stay in Türkiye on residence permits. This page checks your permit periods and trips abroad against the rules for that route in Law No. 6458 and its Implementing Regulation. Some points are not settled by the official texts, so the result can be “unclear”. It is a calculation aid, not a decision: under Law Art. 42/1, the long-term permit is granted by the governorship with the Ministry’s approval.

What the official texts say

• One route to the long-term permit requires at least eight years of uninterrupted stay in Türkiye on residence permits (Law No. 6458, Art. 42/1 and 43/1-a). A second route, for foreigners who meet conditions set by the Ministry, does not require the eight years (Law Art. 43/2). This calculator covers only the first route.
• Student permit periods count by half; other residence permit periods count in full (Law Art. 28/2). A valid work permit or Work Permit Exemption Confirmation Document counts as a residence permit (Law Art. 27/1). Time on a Stateless Person Identification Document is counted (Law Art. 50/3).
• Time on a humanitarian residence permit is not counted (Regulation Art. 44/4). Neither is a permit obtained through a marriage of convenience and later cancelled (Law Art. 37/3, Regulation Art. 34/5).
• Stays abroad of more than six months in total in a year, or more than one year in total in the last five years, interrupt the residence period, except stays for compulsory public service, education or health. If the period is interrupted, earlier permit periods are not counted (Law Art. 28/1).
• Refugees, conditional refugees, people with subsidiary protection or a humanitarian permit, and people under temporary protection cannot switch to a long-term permit (Law Art. 42/2).
• The Regulation counts both time abroad and time in Türkiye without a residence permit as interruption, and calculates from the application date (Regulation Art. 40/2-a).
• If interruption of more than six months in one go or back to back is found within the eight years, the application ends with a negative result before the yearly check (Regulation Art. 40/2-ç).
• The eight years are then checked in one-year slices counted back from the application date, for interruption of more than 180 days in total in a slice (Regulation Art. 40/2-b).
• If the slices pass, the last five years are checked for interruption of more than 365 days in total (Regulation Art. 40/2-c).
• Permits held before a removal (deportation) are not counted (Regulation Art. 40/2-d).

Assumptions in this calculation

The official texts do not settle the points below. The calculator works them out twice: a strict reading against you and a lenient reading in your favour. If the two readings disagree, the result is “unclear”.

1. Exit and entry days: the strict reading counts both as days abroad; the lenient reading counts neither.
2. The exceptions in Law Art. 28/1 for health, education and compulsory public service apply only to time abroad, never to days in Türkiye without a permit. The strict reading does not apply them; the lenient reading does. The texts do not say how such a reason is proven.
3. Days abroad below the limits: the strict reading does not count them toward the eight years; the lenient reading does.
4. “Six months”: the strict reading uses 180 days; the lenient reading uses calendar months.
5. “Back to back” is our choice, with no basis in the texts: the strict reading joins absences separated by at most 30 days in Türkiye, without adding the days in Türkiye to the total; the lenient reading joins only absences with no day in between.
6. Any 365 days is our reading of “in a year” in Law Art. 28/1: the strict reading also fails if any 365-day period has more than 180 days of interruption. It counts days in Türkiye without a permit as well, although Law Art. 28/1 speaks only of stays abroad.
7. Days waiting with a Residence Permit Application Document and days on a humanitarian permit: the strict reading counts these as interruption; the lenient reading does not. Neither counts toward the eight years. Days for which you enter no permit count as interruption under both readings.
8. One day is counted once when permits overlap, with the higher weight.
9. Eight years means the calendar days in the eight years before the application date. Student days count as half a day each; the strict reading does not round, the lenient reading rounds the total up to a whole day.
10. If you held a student permit, the period checked is the whole counted period, which can be longer than eight calendar years. This applies to both readings.
11. An interruption that started before the period checked and ends inside it is measured at its full length.
12. The application day itself is not counted. One year back from 29 February lands on 28 February.
13. A trip that crosses the border of two yearly slices is split between them.
14. Removal: the texts do not say whether the decision date or the departure date applies. Counting starts on the day after the date you enter, and permits that started before it are not counted at all.

Long-term residence permit: the full rules