Student Visa, Residence Permit and Health Insurance
Student Visa
Students from European Union countries who will be studying in Turkey as Erasmus Exchange Students may enter Turkey with a tourist visa. For tourist visas, there is no need to apply in advance or to fill out any forms. If you are flying to Turkey, you will buy your visa at the Turkish airport on arrival. You will see the visa desk, situated just before passport control. You must buy your visa, which will be stamped on your passport by the official, before you join the queue for passport control. The visa for UK passport holders costs around £10 and must be paid for with a Sterling note. The visa for other EU state-passport holders costs around € 10 and must be paid for with a Euro note. Visas are multiple entries and are valid for three months.
Students from Non-European Union Countries who will be studying in Turkey are required to have a STUDENT VISA for the duration of their academic stay. It is the exchange student’s responsibility to apply for a student visa prior to entering Turkey, using their acceptance letter from Koç University.
Residence Permit
According to Turkish regulations, all international students who will study in Turkey are required to apply for a residence permit at İstanbul Yabancilar Sube Mudurlugu (Police Department for Foreigners - only one application branch) within the first month of their arrival. All exchange students are required to get a residence permit. Please note that if you fail to depart Turkey by the expiration date on the residence permit document, you will have to pay a penalty and may not be admitted back into Turkey for a certain amount of time. If you leave Turkey without obtaining your residence permit, your student visa will be canceled and you will have to go back home to get a new one. So, please do not plan any trips for the first 1,5 months of your arrival.
Koç University External Affairs Office and Office of International Programs arrange your residence permit application and appointments in your name before your arrival. So, you will just submit the necessary documents to the Office of International Programs and we will arrange your appointments at the related police department.
Required Documents for Residence Permit Application
Passport You need to have a valid passport in hand during your stay in Turkey. The Office of International Programs at Koç University will ask you to bring your original valid passports once your trip to the Police Station for the first appointment of residence permit is set.
4 Identical Photos You need to have ready 4 identical photos for the residence permit application. Please keep in mind that non-identical, photocopied or black and white photos will not be accepted.
Application Fee Koç University Office of International Programs will inform you about the residence permit application fee and collect the required amount upon your arrival at Koç University (Approximately 180 TL).
Application Procedure for Residence Permit Upon your arrival, you will be required to go to İstanbul Yabancilar Sube Mudurlugu (Police Department for Foreigners) twice. The first appointment is for submitting the forms for the residence permit. The second appointment is for picking up the residence permit. Koç University External Affairs Office arranges free of charge shuttles for both appointments that will take students to the related police department. One of our staff from Koç University External Affairs Office and your mentors will accompany you to help you complete the paperwork.
For students who miss the appointments for residence permit application Koç University will not be getting an appointment for a second time. No shuttles will be arranged and the student will be expected to finalize the whole procedure on his/her own. Since it is a legal requirement, students who fail to get a residence permit will be unregistered from the university.
Address Declaration
International Students who are not living on campus are obliged to declare their residential address to the police in person. However, since it is a time consuming and difficult process, the Office of International Programs will be helping you declare your address during your stay in Turkey for security reasons.
Failure to declare address will result in legal enforcements. To avoid this, we will be helping you with the whole procedure.
Address Declaration Procedure
Step 1 : Knowing your residential address, correctly and in full.
Step 2 : Submitting OIP the copy of your Residence Permit you will get when you are here and copy of the ID page of your Passport.
Step 3 : Being at the meeting place on main campus on the appointment date (You will be informed by OIP about the exact date and hour).
Mandatory Health Insurance
Referring to Law no. 6111 published in the Official Gazette dated 25/2/2011 and in accordance with relevant provisions of Law no. 5510 foreign students studying in Turkey are required to be covered by General Health Insurance whether they have private health insurance or not. Thus, they will be entitled to receive the same treatment as students of Turkish nationality at Public Hospitals, Contracted Private Hospitals and Universities' Medical Centers. Foreign students must be registered in a Social Security Institution System by their universities within one month from the commencement of their semester. Each semester the registration is renewed. Universities which do not carry out this registration will face administrative fines and the universities may reflect these fines directly to their students.
International students are required to pay general health insurance premiums to SSI within one month following the commencement of the semester. Otherwise, an overdue interest is accrued. Each semester international students have to pay their premiums. Social security premiums payable for one semester is calculated as follows:
(1/3 of the minimum wage (around 940,50)) = 313,50
%12 of 313,50 = 37,62 YTL/month
37,62 YTL x number of months covering the whole Academic Year including Summer Term/the period you are going to study at Koc University (We’ll inform you the exact fee when you arrive here so be ready to pay that amount).
Turkey has dual health agreements with GERMANY, THE NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM, AUSTRIA, FRANCE, TURKSH REPUBLIC OF NORTHERN CYPRUS, ROMANIA, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA, THE CZECH REPUBLIC, MACEDONIA, LUXEMBOURG, and ALBANIA which make students from these countries exempt from paying for General Turkish Health Insurance. If you have one of the formulary "Medical Assistance Entitlement Certificate" indicated below, PLEASE BRING THE ORIGINAL WITH YOU. In case you fail to submit the original copy within 1 month of your arrival you will be required to pay for the health insurance fee .
Names and codes of the documents to be declared by country: GERMANY : T/A 11 OR T/A 9 OR T/A 20 THE NETHERLANDS : N/TUR 106 OR N/TUR 111 OR N/TUR 121 BELGIUM : BT.8 OR BT 16 AUSTRIA : A/TR 3 OR A/TR 4 FRANCE : SE 208-01 FT OR SE 208-02 FT OR SE 208-30 FT OR SE 208-06 A FT OR SE 208-28 FT OR SE 208-09 FT TURKISH REPUBLIC OF NORTHERN CYPRUS: K.K.T.C. K.K.T.C/T.C. 3 OR K.K.T.C/T.C. 6 ROMANIA : R/TR 3 OR R/TR5 OR R/TR 6 BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA : BH/TR 4 OR BH/TR 6 OR BH/TR 7 THE CZECH REPUBLIC : CZ/TR 111 MACEDONIA : MC/TR 4 OR TR/MC 6 LUXEMBOURG : TR/L 3 OR TR/L 5 ALBANIA : AL/TR 4 OR TR/AL 5
If you are late in paying the fee for General Health Insurance, an overdue interest is accrued for each day you are late.