Country guide · Turkey

Getting a job in Turkey, 2026

Before a Turkish employer can hire you, it has to already employ five Turkish citizens for every foreigner it wants on the payroll, and pay you a fixed multiple of the national minimum wage that resets every January. A provision that came into force on 3 August 2026 switches both of those off for anyone who has spent one of the last three years lawfully in Turkey, which makes a year of legal presence the most valuable thing on your record. Turkey also publishes, in full, the list of professions that are closed to you by statute.

Country guidePublished 20 September 2026·Every figure checked 20 September 2026·18 min read
5 to 1
Turkish citizens the workplace must already employ for each foreigner it hires
ÇSGB criteria, 20 Sep 2026
₺165,150
Gross monthly salary floor for a senior manager or pilot, five times the 2026 minimum wage
ÇSGB criteria and wage, 20 Sep 2026
300,851
Work permits granted to foreigners in 2024, from 381,485 applications
Anadolu Ajansı on ÇSGB data, 2 Apr 2025
8.1%
Unemployment, seasonally adjusted, July 2026. Employment rate 48.3 per cent
TÜİK via SBB, 31 Aug 2026
Section 01

The five to one rule, the wage floors, and the exemption that cancels both

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Before anyone looks at your CV, an arithmetic test decides whether you can be hired at all: the workplace must already employ five Turkish citizens for every foreigner it wants on the payroll, and the salary it offers you has to clear a fixed multiple of the national minimum wage.

Turkey runs one of the most explicitly quantitative work permit regimes in the region. The Ministry of Labour and Social Security (Çalışma ve Sosyal Güvenlik Bakanlığı) publishes a single page of evaluation criteria, and an application that fails the arithmetic on that page is refused regardless of how good you are. The criteria in force were issued under Article 22 of the International Labour Force Law Implementing Regulation and took effect on 1 October 2024, with the capital and turnover thresholds following on 1 January 2025. ÇSGB, Çalışma İzni Değerlendirme Kriterleri, checked 20 Sep 2026

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Section 02

Applying, the six month lock, residence, and what reaches your account

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Section 03

Closed professions, licences, working conditions and the CV

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