Your Visa Ran Out and the Court Will Not Let You Leave — how to stay in Türkiye lawfully

Your right to be in the country and your right to leave it are decided by different authorities under different laws, and neither waits for the other. The criminal court decides the second question. Article 109/3-a of the Criminal Procedure Code (CMK) puts not to leave the country first on the list of obligations a judge may impose instead of remand. That order says nothing at all about your immigration status.

Law no. 6458 decides that separately, and it counts in days. A deportation decision is taken about a foreigner who exceeds the visa or visa-exemption period by more than ten days (art. 54/1-e); about a foreigner who, without an acceptable justification, exceeds an expired residence permit by more than ten days (art. 54/1-g); and about a foreigner whose extension application is refused and who does not leave Türkiye within ten days (art. 54/1-j).

Read that last one against the court order. The extension is refused, you are given ten days to go, and a criminal court has forbidden you to go. Nobody at either desk resolves that for you.

Under Article 19, a foreigner staying beyond the visa or visa-exemption period, or beyond ninety days, must hold a residence permit. An open criminal case is not an exemption from that rule: Article 20 lists the exemptions, and no criminal proceeding appears among them.

Article 31/1 lists who may be granted a short-term residence permit — kısa dönem ikamet izni. Subparagraph (g) covers foreigners who need to remain in Türkiye pursuant to the request or decision of a judicial or administrative authority. A judicial-control decision under CMK 109/3-a is exactly such a decision. This is the ground your application is built on, and it is the one most often missed, because people go looking under 'tourist' or under 'humanitarian'.

Where you apply matters as much as what you apply for. Article 21/1 sends residence permit applications to the consulates of the country you are a national of or lawfully present in — a journey the court order makes impossible. Article 22/1 lists the cases in which the application may exceptionally be made to a governorate inside Türkiye. Subparagraph (a) is decisions or requests of judicial or administrative authorities. Subparagraph (b) is where the foreigner's departure from Türkiye is not reasonable or possible. Between them, they are why you are not required to do the one thing the criminal court has prohibited.

The permit is discretionary, not automatic. Article 32 keeps its conditions: rely on one of the Article 31/1 grounds and produce the documents for it, not fall within Article 7, have accommodation meeting general health and safety standards, supply a criminal record certificate from your own country if it is asked for, and give the address at which you will stay. Article 33 is the mirror image — the permit is not granted, is cancelled, or is not extended where those conditions fail, where it is used for a purpose other than the one it was granted for, or where a valid deportation decision or entry ban exists.

Article 31/2 allows short-term permits for periods of up to two years at a time. CMK 110/A allows judicial control to run for two years outside ağır ceza work and three years within it, with extensions on top. The two calendars are not the same length, and the shorter one is the one that has to be renewed while the longer one runs.

Almost everything in this area turns on filing before a date rather than after it.

One provision works in your favour and is rarely mentioned. Under Article 26/1, time spent in prison as a remanded or convicted person, or in a removal centre under administrative detention, is not counted as a violation of the residence permit period — although an existing permit may be cancelled during it. Time in custody does not, by itself, put you in Article 54.

The passport rule in Articles 21/2 and 23/1 is the trap for anyone stuck here for years. A permit can never outlast your passport, so renewing the passport at your own consulate in Türkiye becomes a scheduled task, not an afterthought.

Article 46/1 provides for a humanitarian residence permit, granted by governorates with the approval of the Directorate General, for periods the Ministry determines, and without the conditions required for other permits. Subparagraph (b) covers the case where a deportation or entry-ban decision has been taken but the foreigner's departure cannot be carried out, or leaving is not considered reasonable or possible. Subparagraph (ç) covers the period during which judicial review is sought against proceedings under Article 53. Holders must register in the address system within twenty working days of the date the permit is issued (art. 46/2).

If the answer is a refusal, non-extension or cancellation, Article 25 governs it. The decision is taken and served by the governorate, on the foreigner, the legal representative or the lawyer. Family ties in Türkiye, length of residence, the situation in the country of origin and the best interests of the child are to be taken into account, and the decision on the permit may be postponed. The notification must state how the right to object can effectively be exercised.

If a deportation decision follows, the clock is short: seven days from service to bring an action before the administrative court, and the foreigner is not removed within that period or while the case is pending, unless he consents (art. 53/3). That is the subject of the page on deportation decisions and entry bans. Where the governorate also orders administrative detention, the person is held in a removal centre, and the timetable is set out under removal centres and administrative detention. An entry ban imposed on removal runs for up to five years, extendable by up to ten more where there is a serious threat to public order or security (art. 9/3).

There is one collision worth naming. Article 56 gives a person subject to a deportation decision between fifteen and thirty days to leave, on an exit permit document free of charge — a document you cannot use while CMK 109/3-a stands. And leaving without permission is not an option: under CMK 112/1, deliberate non-compliance with judicial control allows immediate remand, whatever the length of the sentence that could be imposed. The two orders have to be reconciled on paper, by applications made to both authorities, which is where the travel ban itself, and how it comes off, becomes part of the same work.