Sworn translation in Türkiye for Persian, Dari and Pashto documents

Start with the office that will receive the document

A translation is accepted or refused by the office that asked for it, not by the translator and not by a general rule of thumb. A provincial directorate of migration management, a university admissions office, a population directorate and a notary are doing different jobs. Before anyone translates a page, ask that office three things: which language it wants, whether it wants a sworn translation, a notarized translation, or both, and whether the original must already carry an apostille or a consular legalisation.

Families often hold Iranian civil records in Persian, Afghan tazkiras, and school documents in Dari or Pashto, sometimes on the same page. The office in Türkiye almost always wants Turkish. English can help you read the page, and some universities ask for both. It does not replace Turkish when the instruction says Turkish. What to check before translating is the short first pass. This article is the longer version for these three languages.

Sworn translation and notarization are different steps

In Türkiye, a sworn translator is a translator who has taken an oath before a notary. Asuman Aksoy, who prepares written translations with TürkiyeRota, is sworn before a Turkish notary. The confirmed written pairs are Persian–Turkish, Dari–Turkish, Pashto–Turkish and English–Turkish, each in both directions. A sworn translation is the translator’s signed work under that oath. It is not, by itself, every stamp a file might need.

Notarization is a separate notarial act. The notary does not re-translate the page. The notary certifies the act the procedure asks for, which may include the translator’s signature. e-İkamet’s note on foreign civil documents asks for a notarized Turkish translation, not for any translation into Turkish. A loose translation, or one notarized only in Tehran or Kabul, is a different product. Ask which one the list named before you pay.

Order is part of the product. Some offices want the translator’s work first and the notary second. Some want the apostille or the consular stamp on the original before any Turkish text is bound to it. Doing the Turkish notarial booklet first, then discovering that the original still needed a stamp, is how people pay twice. Translation services will ask for the receiving office and the issuing country for this reason. The profile of the translator is on the Asuman Aksoy page.

What an apostille does, and which countries can issue one

An apostille is a certificate under the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961. Between parties, it replaces chain legalisation for a public document. It certifies the origin of that document: the signature, the seal, and the capacity of the signer. It does not translate the page, and it does not say the Turkish text is accurate. Study in Türkiye’s equivalence notes describe it the same way, as the approval used between parties for diplomas and transcripts.

The status table that decides who is a party is kept by the Hague Conference, the HCCH. The table for this convention, convention 12, was last updated on 30 June 2026 and then listed 130 contracting parties. The row for Türkiye shows signature on 8 May 1962, ratification on 31 July 1985, and entry into force on 29 September 1985. Pakistan acceded on 8 July 2022 and the convention entered into force for Pakistan on 9 March 2023. Iran does not appear. Afghanistan does not appear. A document issued in a country that is not a party cannot be “apostilled” under this convention, because that country has no competent authority under it.

You can check the table yourself: the HCCH status table. Do not use a commercial country list as the source. Membership changes. Thailand, for example, is on the June 2026 table with entry into force dated 28 February 2027, which means the date matters, not a slogan that a country has “joined.”

The rule e-İkamet actually prints

The short-term residence document list, and the same note on several other e-İkamet lists, tells you what to do with a foreign civil document such as a birth record, a custody paper or a marriage record. If Turkish authorities issued it, they want an e-signature or a signature and a stamp. If it was issued abroad in a country that is a party to the Apostille Convention, they want a notarized Turkish translation and an apostille. If the applicant is a citizen of a country that is not a party, or if the document has no apostille even when the country is a party, they want the document approved by the relevant country’s authorities and by the Turkish authorities authorized for this. The note names approval by the consulate or embassy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or the Turkish authorities authorized on the point, and a notarized Turkish translation.

That is as specific as the official note. It does not invent a desk-by-desk sequence for Iran or Afghanistan, because the competent desk depends on the document and the representation. Confirm the route with the issuing authority and the Turkish representation before you courier originals. How a permit file uses these pages is in the 2026 residence-permit guide.

Pakistan is the contrast. Because the convention is in force for Pakistan, a Pakistani public document can follow the apostille branch of the same note, and then the notarized Turkish translation, if the document is one an apostille can cover. A Pakistani document that never received an apostille falls back to the approval branch. The holder’s passport does not choose the branch. The document’s issuing country and the stamps already on it do.

Persian documents from Iran

Iranian civil records, court papers, diplomas and property documents are commonly in Persian. The pair is Persian–Turkish when a Turkish office will read the page. Persian and Dari are related, and they are still separate confirmed pairs. The script and the wording on that page decide which one is used.

Because Iran is not an Apostille Convention party, the apostille branch of the e-İkamet note does not open. The approval branch does: approval by the relevant Iranian authorities and by the Turkish authorities the note names, and a notarized Turkish translation. Universities and the Council of Higher Education use their own sentences for the same idea. Study in Türkiye’s equivalence answers say copies and translations of equivalence documents must be approved by notaries in Türkiye or by Turkish representations in the country where the diploma was obtained. A diploma you need recognized is not the same procedure as a birth certificate in a residence file. Ask which procedure you are in before you bind one booklet and hope it serves both. The consular steps and the two denklik files are in the legalization and denklik guide.

Names are a frequent problem. Persian spelling of a name, the Latin spelling in the passport, and the spelling on an older diploma often differ by a letter. The translation has to follow the original it is translating. It must not silently “correct” the diploma so that it matches the passport. If the records disagree, raise it before the translation is commissioned, with the office that issued the document or the office that will receive it. A tidy booklet that hides the difference is worse than a note that shows it.

Dari and Pashto documents from Afghanistan

A tazkira, transcript, diploma or marriage record may be in Dari, in Pashto, or in both. In Turkish the same language is called Darice. The pair follows the page. Pashto needs Pashto–Turkish. Dari needs Dari–Turkish. Translating only the Dari column of a two-language document leaves the Pashto column unread.

Afghanistan is not on the HCCH apostille table either. The same e-İkamet branch applies as for Iran: approval by the relevant country’s authorities and the authorized Turkish authorities, plus a notarized Turkish translation, when that list is the list you are following. What those authorities currently require, and which representation can do it, is not something to copy from a 2022 forum post. Ask them. If a document cannot be legalized because a representation is closed or a record cannot be verified, the translation cannot invent the missing stamp. The receiving office then has to tell you what alternative, if any, it accepts. Sometimes the answer is a different document, not a more forceful translation.

A university may also want a notarized Turkish diploma and transcript, and a high-school equivalence from the Ministry of National Education. That ministry is not YÖK. YÖK equivalence is for associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees earned abroad. The university application guide separates those steps. Ask the international office in writing, and keep the reply.

Which procedures usually ask, and which do not

Three situations come up together for readers of this page. They do not share one checklist.

Residence permits ask when the document list for your type names a foreign civil document. Birth, marriage, divorce, custody and death records are the usual ones, and the note quoted above is the usual instruction. Not every page in your folder is a civil document. A lease signed in Türkiye is a different object from a marriage certificate issued in Mashhad or Herat. Do not apostille a Turkish document that the list wants as a Turkish notarized copy.

University admission asks for what that university’s current international page lists. Certified translations of diplomas and transcripts are common on the Study in Türkiye university profiles, and the approving authority they name is often a Turkish notary or a Turkish representation. One university’s sentence is not the next university’s sentence. Equivalence of a degree you already hold is YÖK’s procedure, with its own document list, and Study in Türkiye says the translations in that file must be approved by a notary in Türkiye or a Turkish representation.

Marriage and family procedures in Türkiye often need the foreign marriage or birth record in the form the population directorate or the migration list describes. A translation prepared for a university does not automatically become the booklet a family-permit file wants, because the stamps on it may be the wrong generation of stamps. When in doubt, show the finished booklet to the office before you build the rest of the application around it.

A workable order, and the mistakes that cost a second visit

A workable order follows the rules above. Get the receiving office’s written list. Read the language on each page, not the holder’s nationality. If someone tells you to get an apostille, check the HCCH table and stop if the issuing country is not a party. If it is a party, the apostille belongs on the public document, from that country’s competent authority, unless that authority says otherwise. If it is not a party, follow the approval route in the office’s note and confirm the desks before you courier originals. Then commission the Turkish translation in the correct pair, and the Turkish notarization if the list asked for it. Take the originals to the appointment.

The expensive mistakes are predictable: translating before the original is legalized, translating into English alone, treating the three languages as interchangeable, treating a foreign translation-office stamp as a Turkish notary’s certification, and asking the translator to unify spellings the originals do not share. The first message to TürkiyeRota’s translation service needs the document type, the languages, the issuing country, the receiving office and the deadline. A way to share a copy can be agreed after that.

Notarial tariffs and translation fees depend on length, pair and the act the notary is asked to perform. They are quoted for the document in front of you, not copied from another receipt. A careful booklet does not guarantee acceptance. The office you are filing with decides.