Turkish criminal record certificate

The criminal record certificate is the easiest document in a Canadian file to obtain and the easiest to obtain at the wrong time. It is issued quickly, and it goes out of date quickly, which makes its position in the sequence more important than its content.

Which version to ask for

The Turkish system issues the certificate in more than one form. The ordinary one reports current entries; another additionally reports archived records — convictions whose entry has been moved to the archive rather than erased. Canadian and Québec bodies frequently want the version that includes archived records, and an applicant who asks for the basic version, translates it and submits it discovers the difference at the worst point.

There is also a version issued for official use rather than for the individual. Ask the receiving body which it wants, in writing, before ordering anything, and quote its answer when you make the request in Türkiye.

Where it is obtained

The certificate is issued through the courthouse, and it is also available through the state's electronic services. Which route you use is not a matter of convenience: it decides what the document physically is, and that decides whether it can be apostilled. A printout carrying a verification code is a different object from a signed and sealed certificate issued at the courthouse counter, as the electronic documents page explains.

The apostille, and which authority issues it

This is where Turkish applicants most often go to the wrong building. Administrative documents — civil registry extracts, diplomas, documents from ministries and their provincial branches — are apostilled by the governorship or district governorship. Judicial documents, which is what a criminal record certificate is, are apostilled through the justice commission at the courthouse, together with court judgments and notarial acts. Going to the governorship with a judicial document costs a day.

Whether an apostille is needed at all depends on the reader. Immigration files often do not ask for one; courts, professional orders and some assessment procedures do. The apostille page covers the decision, and the rule that follows from it is unavoidable: the apostille becomes part of the document and must appear inside the translation, so it comes first.

Its useful life is short

Receiving bodies treat this certificate as evidence of a current state of affairs and normally accept it only if recently issued. The period is set by the body, not by Turkish law, so take it from its own instructions. Two consequences follow. Obtain the certificate near the end of your document-gathering, not at the beginning. And note that an apostille does not reset that clock — an apostilled certificate ages at exactly the same rate as an unapostilled one. The timing page sequences this against the rest of the file.

Identity details have to match

The certificate carries your name, your parents' names, your date and place of birth and your national identification number. Every one of those has to agree with your passport and with the rest of your document set. Where the record shows a former name, the file needs a document connecting the two — the Turkish civil registry issues records that do this — and it is submitted alongside rather than left for an officer to infer. See the name spelling page.

Türkiye is not the only country that may be asked about

Canadian files commonly ask for a police certificate from every country where you have lived for a defined period as an adult, not only from your country of nationality. If you studied or worked abroad, those certificates come from those countries under their own procedures, and they are usually the slowest item in the set. Start them first even though the Turkish one is started last.

Translation

The certificate is short, and the translation still has to include the courthouse stamp, the signature block, the reference number, the verification caption and the apostille. A one-page document translated as a single paragraph, with the marks left off, is incomplete in exactly the way the seals page describes. Which translation standard applies depends on whether a provincial or a federal body is reading it.

What we do

Under a power of attorney we obtain the certificate at the courthouse in the version the receiving body has specified, take it through the justice commission for the apostille where required, and courier the wet-signed original with a full colour scan. Because the document is short-lived, we schedule it against your submission date rather than obtaining it at the start of the file. The document retrieval page explains the power of attorney.