Student residence permit (ikamet) application in 2026

Who the student ikamet is for

An öğrenci ikamet izni is the residence permit Law No. 6458 gives a foreigner who is in Türkiye to study. Articles 38 to 41 set it out, and the implementing regulation returns to it in articles 35 to 39. The Presidency of Migration Management explains the groups on its types page. This page is only that permit. The six types, and a first short-term application, are in the 2026 residence-permit guide. Extending a card you already hold is in the 2026 renewal guide.

The types page names two groups. One is a foreigner who will attend primary or secondary school and does not already hold a family residence permit. A child who does hold a family permit can continue primary and secondary school until eighteen without a separate student card. At eighteen, a student who is still in secondary school needs this permit. The other group is higher education in Türkiye: associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral study, and medical or dental specialty training, TUS and DUS.

Article 39, as that page summarizes it, asks for documents that support the purpose in Article 38, an address, and a file outside the entry-ban grounds in Article 7. The permit cannot outlast a programme shorter than one year. Students who come through a public institution can receive it for the length of the study. Primary and secondary students whose costs a real or legal person has undertaken receive it one year at a time, with a parent’s or representative’s consent, and it can be extended.

A language course and a work permit are different files

A Turkish course on its own is not this permit. The types page places study at a school the Ministry of National Education has authorized on the short-term list, for at most two grants, and not longer than the course. If you are enrolled in a school or a university programme, build the student file. If you are only in a course, use the short-term list. A folder prepared for the wrong ground is read against a purpose the documents do not show.

The student permit is not a work permit. The types page says associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral students in formal education may work only with a work permit. For associate and bachelor’s students that right starts after the first year. The application goes to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. The student form points to e-Çalışma İzni. Work permit consultancy is that separate filing.

The same page limits who the student can support. The permit gives a right to sponsor only a spouse and children on a family application. It gives no residence right to parents, siblings or a host.

The visa question before you travel

Study in Türkiye tells a student coming to study to obtain a student visa from the nearest consulate of the Republic of Türkiye once the admission letter arrives, because the procedure takes time. The regime for a nationality is on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs visa page. A preliminary step can start at konsolosluk.gov.tr. Visa consultancy can help you read that page. The consulate decides.

The student form on e-İkamet, read on 21 October 2026 in GöçNet version 2026/04, states a narrower rule beside that advice. A student visa is required for primary and secondary study. The application guidance says the same for elementary, secondary and high school: entry has to be on a visa that matches study. A higher-education applicant should still read the visa page for their nationality before buying a ticket. Study in Türkiye does not describe a tourist stamp as something a university can convert after arrival. Admission itself is the 2026 university guide.

How the 2026 file moves on e-İkamet

First applications, extensions and transfers are filed on e-İkamet. The general information page describes the path. You complete the form, take the appointment, and attend the provincial directorate of migration management where you will live, with the listed documents. A district directorate may also receive you. Miss that day and time without a valid excuse, and you are treated as never having applied.

Study in Türkiye puts this step after arrival and after university registration. You then attend the directorate, or hand the papers through the university’s office for foreign students when that office collects them. The directorate still decides. The appointment is free. The student form says so, and it says not to trust a third party who charges for one. The form is signed by you, your legal representative, or a lawyer with a power of attorney. Bring the original passport to a first application.

Article 21 allows ninety days from the day the complete documents arrive. YİMER is 157 inside Türkiye and +90 312 157 11 22 from abroad. The sixty-day extension window is the renewal guide.

Documents the October 2026 student form names

Open the student form on the day you file. The blank form, read on 21 October 2026, and the guidance on required documents name the shared items. The directorate can ask for more. A university desk may add a local hour for handing papers in. That hour is not a national rule.

• The signed application form. The first page is the page you submit.
• A photocopy of the passport or travel document, including the identity page and the photograph. The original comes to the appointment. A passport that is not in Latin letters needs a translation approved by a sworn translator or by the official authorities.
• A biometric photograph from the last six months, on a white background. The guidance rejects a family photo, a selfie, an old photo, or a black-and-white photo. The form does not print a stack count. Bring the number your screen asks for.
• The receipt for the residence-permit document fee, the card fee, paid from the payment menu, at a finance cashier, or at a contracted bank. This page does not quote a lira amount.
• An education certificate from the institution, e-signed or signed, and stamped. Past the normal length of study, the guidance asks for a certificate that you are repeating and still have student rights. The permit is then at most one year at a time, inside the maximum period, until the next academic year.
• Address evidence and insurance for the whole period. Income is declared on the form. The directorate may ask for proof. When a public body pays the cost, a signed and stamped letter is enough.

The address the card will use

The student form accepts one proof of where you will stay. In your own home, a photocopy of the title deed with the numbering document. On a lease, a notarized copy that names the lessor. In a hotel, proof of the stay and a receipt that it is paid for the period you requested. In a dormitory, an e-signed or signed and stamped letter. With a host, that person’s notarized undertaking and a residence record for the address. A married host also needs the spouse’s notarized undertaking.

An extension or a transfer needs a current residence record from e-Devlet at turkiye.gov.tr, plus a bill for electricity, water, gas or a landline, or a subscription contract if the line is new. Address registration is already required for those filings. On a first permit, register the address within twenty working days after approval, with the migration directorate and the population directorate. The card is sent to the address you gave, so the lease, the dormitory letter and the province of the appointment have to describe the same place.

A minor’s file adds a certified birth record, and where they apply a custody, death or single-parent paper, when the parents cannot be read from the passport. From a country outside the Apostille Convention the form asks for that country’s approval, the authorized Turkish authorities’ approval, and a notarized Turkish translation. Iran and Afghanistan are in that position. The steps are in the legalization and denklik guide. Under eighteen, a parent abroad gives certified consent, and the person in Türkiye named in it gives a notarized undertaking.

Health insurance and the three-month window

The student form says health insurance is required and must cover the whole period you request. Private insurance and general health insurance are checked in the system, and the form says no extra insurance paper is then submitted. A person covered by a bilateral social-security agreement brings the document from the provincial social-security unit instead.

Two official sentences describe the general-health window, and they are not worded the same way. The types page says a foreign student who asks to become a general health insured within three months of the first registration date is not asked for a separate policy. A student who misses that window and loses the right is asked for private insurance. The form of 21 October 2026 says students can come under general health insurance if they apply within three months of the start of the academic year. Read both on the day you file. Do not stretch a policy that ends before the date you requested.

The student form is the list for this permit. An age exemption printed on the general guidance does not delete an insurance field the student form still marks as required.

The card fee, and the fee students do not pay

Study in Türkiye’s visa and residence note says a student is exempt from the residence application fee and pays the card fee. The student form asks for the receipt of that document fee. Pay it before the appointment, from the payment menu, at a finance cashier, or at a contracted bank, quoting the application number. The lira amount is the one on that screen.

The appointment stays free. A message that sells an appointment is not the Presidency’s payment step. Students whose school is not a Turkish school should read the screen rather than assume the exemption. The renewal guide notes the residence FAQ’s distinction for embassy and international schools. Your own screen is the figure that applies.

A change of faculty, university or province

The types page separates a change inside one province from a change of province. A new faculty or department in the same institution, or a move to another institution in the same province, leaves the current permit in force if studies are not interrupted and you report the change on time. If the permit is shorter than the study, it is extended from its end date. The form of 21 October 2026 tells you to apply to student affairs or the international student office within twenty days.

A different province is a new filing. Within ten days you select that province on e-İkamet and take the documents to student affairs or the international office. The directorate there concludes the file. The types page says that governorate ends the existing permit and issues one for the new period of study. Do the step the current form names. If the university office cannot confirm that the directorate has the update, ask the directorate.

The same sentences cover a programme that runs long. The form allows a further permit, at most one year at a time, while you remain an active student inside the maximum length of study. That filing is an extension. The application document and the fifteen-day trip are in the renewal guide.

Foreign civil documents in a student file

Most of a student file is issued in Türkiye: the student certificate, the dormitory letter, the lease, the insurance record. The pages that stall were issued abroad. A birth record or a parent’s consent from Iran or Afghanistan cannot take an apostille, because neither country is a party to the Apostille Convention. The form then asks for legalisation and a notarized Turkish translation.

A diploma you need recognized is a different file. High-school equivalence sits with the Ministry of National Education. Equivalence of an associate, bachelor’s or master’s degree earned abroad sits with the Council of Higher Education. Neither stamp is the student permit. That paperwork is the legalization and denklik guide. The language pair is the Persian, Dari and Pashto guide. Residence and visa documents is the service page for the pages this permit asks to have translated.

What to do this week, and who decides

Register at the school or the university, then open e-İkamet while your visa or visa-free stay is still valid. Use the student form, not the short-term list. Match the insurance to the whole period, the address to the province of the appointment, and the passport to at least sixty days beyond the period you request. Study in Türkiye repeats that passport rule for a residence file. Pay the card fee the screen shows. Attend with the original passport.

These pages were read in October 2026, including the student form on 21 October 2026. A form or a fee screen can change. Residence permit consultancy can help you match your enrolment to the student list and prepare the appointment. Education consultancy is for comparing programmes. The provincial directorate issues the permit. A complete file is not an approval. Keep passport numbers out of the first message.