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!