Hi everyone! In today's video I'll be covering
important information about living in Turkey, for example, cost of living, how to look for a job,
about the residence permit, and so on, so if you're one of those people who are considering moving to
Turkey, this video will be for you. Once you have entered to Turkey, the first step that you have to
do is to do the process in order to obtain your legal residence permit, in Turkish is also known as
"ikamet". There are many types of residence permits but the most common ones are the ones obtained
with tourism purposes or for family purposes. In this video I'll be covering mostly
the first type which is the tourism one. Anyone staying in the country for more than three
months or 90 days has to apply for this residence permit and right now I'll be mentioning one by one
those documents that might be requested from you. These documents are your application form that
you have to fill in when you are applying for this residence permit, as well your passport, four
photographs, a declaration stating that you have the enough financial capacity in order to
stay in the country throughout the time, also your travel visa that you used to enter the
country, your rental agreement and this must be notarized, and a valid health insurance. Once you
have all these documents the next step is that you have to apply for an appointment through the
official website, you can do it online and we will be sharing here the official link for that. Once
you have applied for the appointment then you have to wait for that date and then you will have
to take personally all those documents in the city that you have applied for, either Istanbul, Ankara,
Antalya, doesn't matter what city. Actually the process is very easy and once you have gathered
all the documents you don't really have to worry much about it but the thing is that depending
on the city you are applying at it might take more time than in some other cities in Turkey, for
example, Istanbul is one of the busiest cities and where most of the expats are living in so that's
why sometimes when you apply for the appointment through the system it might take up to two three
or even four months to have just an appointment. So basically we have to wait all that time but
in my experience that I have also applied before in another city here in Turkey which was
way smaller, in Ordu in the Black Sea region, I did all the process in two weeks, I applied
for my ikamet (my residence permit), in two days I had the appointment, and then two weeks
later I received my card, but here in Istanbul the story is totally different, it can take
months even three to four months to finish all the process so you just need to take that
into consideration, it depends on the city. The next step will be finding a house here in
Istanbul, for example, some of the best websites that I highly recommend looking for a house in
all Turkey, doesn't matter what city you want to look for, it will be sahibinden.com and hurriyetemlak.com, and please you need to be very careful where you're looking for a house because lately
there have been many scams and if you're trying to look through these Facebooks groups you need to be
careful. I will definitely recommend you doing it through these websites and even then keep an eye
or the best option will be through a real estate agency, of course it will cost more but you
will be safer that way. The prices of rents in Turkey differ a lot from city to city but I
will concentrate in Istanbul where I live and I know the prices. It is well known that Istanbul
is one of the most expensive cities to live in the country, and right now i will tell you
what areas I recommend you to live in and what prices you should expect to pay as a rent.
Those areas that I suggest you will be Beşiktaş, Kadıköy, Üsküdar, Beyoğlu, or even Ataşehir,
those areas are very good to live but you need to have a good budget for those areas.
In the last year all the rents increased a lot and that's why you cannot expect to find a flat two
plus one which means two rooms and one living room for less than three thousand liras, you need to
have a good budget to live in any of these areas which are central and very well connected with
public transportation. Another expense that you really need to think about it's about how much
money you're gonna spend for groceries monthly. In our case we are two people and monthly we are
spending between 800 Turkish liras to 1,000 liras everything depends on what you are
buying and where you are buying it. Also we need to consider the monthly utilities
for your flat. In our case and i will put myself as an example, for example monthly we are spending on
internet 80 Turkish liras, for electricity between 150 to 200 Turkish liras, for water also between 30
to 50 liras, and for gas 250 liras approximately, and also we have monthly our phone package that
means the internet and our phone calls and in my case I'm paying 50 Turkish liras
monthly for a package of 10 GB. The last expense that we need to think about is the
transportation, in my case and because it's easier for me paying the monthly Istanbulkart I pay
275 Turkish liras monthly, that way i can use it as many times as i want but if you're someone who
doesn't go out very often also you can just top it up depending on how many times you are going out
in the city. There are some other cities that you can also consider living in Turkey and that of
course are a bit more affordable than Istanbul. Those other cities could be Antalya, Izmir, Muğla
especially Fethiye area, maybe Çanakkale as well and also there you will find a big community
of expats living in Turkey. Now I'm gonna speak about the jobs that an expat can perform
here in Turkey and the most common ones are for example teaching a foreign language here in
Turkey, especially English, Spanish, German or even French, those are very very good paid jobs that
if you have experience teaching any of these languages and you're a native speaker
in those languages you can earn good money. The other job will be working in these export-import companies also in any area of tourism, and the last one will be working in these health
tourism companies especially the ones that are specialized in hair transplant, they are requiring
people especially expats who are speaking either Spanish, of course English, Portuguese, and even
Arabic because many people from those countries are coming to Turkey to do those treatments,
and the last one will be also as an au pair, au pair has been very popular here in Turkey so you can
also consider that other option. Now the most important topic which I think is the salary,
you should be expecting to earn as an expat a bit more than a Turkish citizen, this year for
a Turkish citizen the minimum wage monthly net it should be 2,800 Turkish liras and depending
on the occupation you are having here in Turkey they will pay you even two times up to
6.5 times more the minimum wage net for a Turkish citizen, so for example, let's imagine that you're
here and you want to teach English or Spanish or any language, you should expect to be getting paid
at least 8,000 Turkish liras monthly, here the salaries are paid monthly and that will be net.
But the sad reality going on here in Turkey is that most of the companies are not even paying
the legal minimum wage to the expat community so that's why you really need to pay attention
what company you're applying to and if they are really offering you what they should but you just
need to to keep an eye on how much are you gonna be spending every month and if that's enough for
you you can go for it. One of the most important things to have in mind is about how you can work
here in the country, and you need to to know that as in any other country if you have a residence
permit, doesn't mean that you can automatically work here and start earning money it doesn't
work like that, for that you need to have another permit which is especially for working, this is the
working permit and that one when you're applying to the company or to a school or any other
place you need to make sure that they will do the process to get you the legal work permit
and this is very easy, usually the companies are the ones paying for those process and it doesn't
take that long the only thing that you need to have for sure is the residence permit and once you
have the residence permit with that the companies will do the process to get you the work permit.
Also there is the option that if you want to apply and look for a job from your own home country
you can do it but you need to make sure that that company here in Turkey will give you
all the documents and will send you like an invitation letter to work and they will do all
the process and then you will get the work permit and with that you can come to Turkey just if you
do it from from here from the country you will have to do an extra step which will be getting
the residence permit and then the work permit it's just an extra step it's all up to you. Last
but not least, you need to keep in mind that also when you're coming to Turkey, and of course you'll
be bringing your mobile into Turkey, you need to keep in mind that you need to register it here
in the country, and for this year the tax for every mobile is 2,006 liras. What you are going
to need is your passport, your residence permit and then you need to pay that amount and then
you have to register your IMEI number and they will link it into your passport. it's a very
simple and quick process but you really need to pay it because otherwise if you don't pay
it the government automatically will block your mobile and you won't be able to use it at
all not even for receiving or making phone calls nothing so you have only 120 days starting
from the stamp on your passport when you entered Turkey and you can do it either online or you can
go directly to the tax offices. Now the 1 million dollar question, is it worth living in Turkey? Well,
I will answer as my own experience and living in Turkey it's a very beautiful experience because
of the culture and everything but being honest of course the salaries are not as good as in European
countries or many other places in the world so unless you're expecting earning a high
salary here in Turkey let me tell you that that will be mostly impossible but if you really
want to experience the country and give it a try you can come and do it. I wouldn't recommend that
to those people who especially if you live in a country which currency is euro or u.s dollar and
then you come here to Turkey you will be getting paid in the local currency which is the Turkish
lira and then you have debts on your own country in either euro or dollars and then you have to pay
that, I wouldn't recommend it really, because right now you know, the economy is not very good and that
has made many expats to go back to to their home countries that's why you really need to take a lot
of things into consideration before moving here we already gave you some approximates about the
prices of rents, cost of living, and everything you can do your calculations and if you
think that it's that it worth the the chance come and do it it's a beautiful country but
unfortunately the economy is not as strong as in any other European country or even the USA
or Canada. If you have any question about any of these topics from the video, don't forget that you
can comment below and we'll try to answer them as fast as possible. Also if you're somebody who
is already living in Turkey please we will truly appreciate if you could share your experience
so others can also read them and learn from your own perspective. If you want
to keep receiving more tips and recommendations about Istanbul don't forget to click the
subscribe button. See you next time, bye bye!
