Türkiye accepts certain foreign civil status documents with no apostille under three CIEC conventions: No. 16 (Vienna 1976) for multilingual Formula A, B and C birth, marriage and death extracts from 23 other states, No. 17 (Athens 1977) for civil status, capacity, nationality and residence documents from 9 states, and No. 20 (Munich 1980) for certificates of marital capacity, valid six months. Criminal records, court judgments, diplomas and powers of attorney are not covered and still need a 1961 Hague apostille.
Most foreigners who prepare paperwork for Türkiye are told the same thing: every foreign public document needs an apostille. That is the general rule, but it is not the whole picture. Türkiye has been a member of the International Commission on Civil Status (CIEC) since 1953 and is bound by several CIEC conventions under which certain birth, marriage, death and family status documents from other contracting states are accepted with no apostille and no legalisation at all. The CIEC website today lists only five member states (Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Switzerland and Türkiye), yet the conventions themselves remain in force between the states that ratified them, so a multilingual birth extract from Germany, Poland or Romania still enters a Turkish civil registry office without an apostille in 2026. This article explains which CIEC conventions Türkiye is party to, which states and documents they cover, which documents still need an apostille, and how the exemption differs from the 1961 Hague system.
The starting point is the Code of Civil Procedure, Law No. 6100. Article 224 provides that an official document prepared by the authorities of a foreign state has the character of an official document in Türkiye only if it is certified by the competent authority of the issuing state or by the relevant Turkish consulate. The same article then reserves the provisions of international conventions to which Türkiye is a party concerning the certification of foreign official documents. That reservation is the door through which the CIEC conventions and bilateral treaties operate: where a treaty says a document is accepted without legalisation, Turkish authorities may not insist on an apostille or consular legalisation for it.
The 1961 Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents is itself one of these conventions. It replaced the old chain of consular legalisation with a single apostille certificate. The CIEC conventions go one step further for a narrow category of documents: they remove even the apostille.
The International Commission on Civil Status, known by its French initials CIEC (Commission Internationale de l'État Civil), is an intergovernmental organisation founded after the Second World War to harmonise civil registration between European states. It has produced more than thirty conventions on topics such as multilingual extracts, recognition of names and certificates of marital capacity.
Türkiye joined on 24 September 1953 and is one of the most consistent ratifiers of CIEC instruments. Several states have since left the organisation, but leaving the organisation is not the same as denouncing a convention. The CIEC's own table of signatures and ratifications, last updated on 26 March 2025, continues to list the ratifying states as parties to the conventions discussed below. For a foreigner in Türkiye, the practical question is therefore never "is my country a CIEC member today?" but "has my country ratified the specific convention that covers my document?"
Convention No. 16 on the issue of multilingual extracts from civil status records was signed in Vienna on 8 September 1976. Türkiye signed it on the same day, deposited its instrument on 31 May 1985, and has been bound by it since 30 June 1985; it was approved in Türkiye by Law No. 3041. The convention creates standard forms for extracts of civil status records: Formula A for birth, Formula B for marriage and Formula C for death. Under Article 8, these extracts must bear their date of issue, the signature and the seal of the issuing authority, and they are accepted in every contracting state without legalisation or equivalent formality. They also have the same value as extracts issued under the domestic rules of the issuing state.
According to the CIEC ratification table, Convention No. 16 is in force for Türkiye and the following 23 states: Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cabo Verde, Croatia, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland. Greece signed the convention but has not ratified it, so a Greek extract does not benefit from Convention No. 16, although it may benefit from Convention No. 17 described in section 4. The Netherlands applies the convention to the European part of the Kingdom only.
A qualifying extract is not simply a birth certificate printed in two languages. It follows the convention model: invariable headings printed in at least the language of the issuing state and French, entries written in Latin characters, dates in a fixed day, month, year format, sex shown as M or F, standard symbols such as "Div" for a divorce annotation, and a reference to the convention on the back. Under Article 2, the extract is prepared from the original record and its later annotations, and Article 7 requires any empty space to be struck through. A standard national certificate in German, French or Dutch only, however official, is not a Convention No. 16 extract and needs an apostille.
Convention No. 17 on the exemption from legalisation of certain records and documents was signed in Athens on 15 September 1977. It entered into force for Türkiye on 1 August 1987 and was approved by Law No. 3311. Its scope is broader than Convention No. 16 because it is not tied to a particular form. Under Article 2, each contracting state accepts without legalisation or equivalent formality, provided they are dated and bear the signature and, where appropriate, the seal of the issuing authority:
Convention No. 17 is in force between Türkiye and nine other states: Austria, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain. Germany, Belgium and Switzerland signed it but never ratified it. A German national registering a marriage in Türkiye therefore relies on Convention No. 16 (for the multilingual extract) and Convention No. 20 (for the certificate of marital capacity), not on Convention No. 17.
The exemption does not mean that a Turkish office must accept a document it suspects. Article 3 allows the receiving authority, in case of serious doubt about the signature, the seal or the capacity of the signatory, to have the document checked by the issuing authority where it did not arrive through diplomatic or another official channel. Articles 4 and 5 provide a multilingual request form sent in duplicate and require verification to be carried out without charge. In practice this route is slow, so a document with visible alterations or an unclear seal will cause delay even if it is technically exempt.
Foreigners marrying in Türkiye are normally asked for proof that there is no legal impediment to their marriage. Convention No. 20, signed in Munich on 5 September 1980, creates a uniform multilingual certificate of marital capacity. It has been in force for Türkiye since 1 June 1989, and the other parties are Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Moldova, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. Article 10 exempts these certificates from legalisation or any equivalent formality, and Article 7 limits their validity to six months from the date of issue. A certificate issued more than six months before the marriage application is therefore not valid under the convention, whatever stamps it carries. Our article on marriage procedures for foreigners in Türkiye explains the rest of the file.
Türkiye ratified the Hague Apostille Convention on 31 July 1985, and it has applied to Türkiye since 29 September 1985. The two systems often apply to the same country pair, which causes confusion. The table below sets out the differences; the apostille procedure itself is covered in our separate article on apostille and e-Apostille in Türkiye.
| Element | CIEC conventions compared with the Hague apostille |
|---|---|
| Documents covered | CIEC: only civil status and family status documents (and, under No. 20, marital capacity certificates). Hague: almost all public documents, including court, notarial and administrative documents. |
| Formality required | CIEC: none beyond the date, signature and seal of the issuing authority. Hague: an apostille certificate issued by the designated authority of the issuing state. |
| Countries | CIEC: 23 states for No. 16, 9 for No. 17 and 10 for No. 20 in relation to Türkiye. Hague: 130 contracting parties as of mid 2026. |
| Form of the document | CIEC No. 16 and No. 20: only the official multilingual model. CIEC No. 17 and Hague: any form issued by the competent authority. |
| Checking authenticity | CIEC No. 17: verification request to the issuing authority in case of serious doubt. Hague: the apostille register of the issuing state. |
| Excluded documents | Hague: documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents and administrative documents dealing directly with commercial or customs operations. CIEC: everything outside civil status. |
| Translation | Neither system translates the document. A multilingual extract reduces the need, but some Turkish offices still ask for a notarised Turkish translation. |
One point is often missed: the CIEC exemption is not a lesser kind of apostille. Where it applies, an apostille is simply unnecessary. Obtaining one anyway does no legal harm, but it costs time and money abroad.
Apart from the CIEC system, Türkiye has concluded bilateral treaties on judicial assistance in civil and commercial matters, and some of them contain their own exemption clause. A clear example is the agreement between Türkiye and Georgia on judicial assistance in civil, commercial and criminal matters, signed in Ankara on 4 April 1996, approved by Law No. 4244 and published in the Official Gazette of 24 August 1997. Article 14 provides that documents drawn up, issued or certified by the competent authorities of one party and bearing an official seal require no further formality to be legally valid in the territory of the other party, and that they have the same evidential force as domestic official documents. Article 13 obliges each party, at the request of the other party's courts or authorities, to send copies of civil status documents concerning the requesting party's nationals without translation and without charge.
The wording of these clauses differs from treaty to treaty. Some cover only documents exchanged between courts, others cover any document issued by a court or a notary. Before relying on a bilateral exemption, the treaty text should be read, and the receiving Turkish office should be told in writing which article you rely on. A general statement that "there is a treaty with my country" rarely persuades a registry clerk.
The CIEC conventions concern civil status. Documents from other branches of the state fall outside them even when they come from a contracting state. In our experience, the following almost always need an apostille (or consular legalisation for a state outside the Hague system):
The nüfus müdürlüğü, the district civil registry office, is where CIEC extracts are used most often: registering a foreign spouse, recording a child's birth, or updating the marital status of a Turkish citizen who married abroad. These offices work with CIEC forms daily and generally accept a correct Formula A, B or C extract as it is.
Provincial migration offices, notaries, land registry offices and courts see CIEC documents less often. Practice varies from office to office, and staff sometimes ask for an apostille out of habit. The legal answer is Article 224 of Law No. 6100 together with the relevant convention article, and a short written note citing them is usually enough. Where a family residence permit or a citizenship application based on marriage is pending, however, the more efficient course can be to discuss the point with the office before the appointment rather than argue it at the counter.
The exemption removes legalisation, not translation. The fixed headings of a multilingual extract are understood without translation, but names of places, annotations and any narrative entries may still need a sworn translation certified by a Turkish notary, depending on the office. Separately, many Turkish authorities expect civil status documents to be recent, often issued within the last six months, even though the conventions themselves set no expiry for Formula A, B and C extracts. Only the certificate of marital capacity has a fixed six month validity under Convention No. 20.
The conventions work in both directions. A Turkish citizen or a foreigner whose life events are registered in Türkiye can request multilingual extracts from the Turkish civil registry, and as a party to Convention No. 16 Türkiye is obliged under Article 1 to issue them at the request of an interested party. Article 9 provides that these extracts may not cost more than ordinary domestic extracts. A Turkish Formula A extract can then be used in, for example, France or Poland without an apostille. For a state outside the CIEC conventions, such as the United Kingdom or the United States, the Turkish document needs an apostille in Türkiye instead.
The European Union's Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 on public documents, which removes the apostille between EU member states since 16 February 2019, does not apply to Türkiye. Documents moving between an EU state and Türkiye therefore depend on the CIEC conventions, bilateral treaties or the Hague apostille.
A wrongly prepared civil status document usually means a second trip to the registry office abroad and another round of international courier costs. Before anything is posted, we recommend this sequence:
Citizenship files are less forgiving than most. A missing seal or a spelling difference between a multilingual extract and a passport can hold up an application under the procedures our Turkish citizenship team handles, so the check in step 5 is worth the few days it takes.
No, if it is a Formula A extract issued under CIEC Convention No. 16 by one of the 23 other contracting states. Article 8 of the convention requires acceptance without legalisation or any equivalent formality.
The three that matter most are Convention No. 16 on multilingual extracts (in force for Türkiye since 30 June 1985), Convention No. 17 on exemption from legalisation (since 1 August 1987) and Convention No. 20 on certificates of marital capacity (since 1 June 1989).
No. The exemption depends on ratification of a specific convention, and it covers only civil status and family status documents, so criminal records, diplomas, court judgments and powers of attorney still need an apostille.
Greece signed but did not ratify Convention No. 16. However, Greece is a party to Convention No. 17, so Greek civil status documents are accepted in Türkiye without legalisation on that basis.
A German multilingual extract under Convention No. 16 and a German certificate of marital capacity under Convention No. 20 are exempt. A standard German certificate is not, because Germany never ratified Convention No. 17.
No. A criminal record concerns a person's judicial history, not civil status or family situation, so it needs an apostille from the issuing state.
In practice, rarely. Turkish courts hearing a recognition action generally expect an apostilled copy of the judgment with proof that it is final, even where the issuing state is a CIEC party.
Sometimes. The standard headings need no translation, but some offices ask for a notarised Turkish translation of place names, annotations or other narrative entries, so it is worth asking the specific office in advance.
Six months from the date of issue under Article 7 of Convention No. 20. After that it cannot be used for a marriage application in Türkiye.
It cannot demand an apostille for a document a treaty exempts, but under Article 3 of Convention No. 17 it may ask the issuing authority to verify the document if it has serious doubts about the signature, seal or signatory.
No. Convention No. 34 of 2014 on multilingual and coded extracts entered into force on 1 July 2022 for a small number of states, but Türkiye has not ratified it, so Convention No. 16 remains the relevant instrument.
No. Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 applies only between EU member states, so documents moving between the EU and Türkiye rely on the CIEC conventions, bilateral treaties or an apostille.
Yes. As a party to Convention No. 16, Türkiye issues Formula A, B and C extracts at the request of an interested party, and they are accepted without an apostille in the other contracting states.
Yes. Some judicial assistance treaties, such as the 1996 agreement with Georgia (Article 14), exempt documents issued or certified by the competent authorities of the other party, but the scope differs in each treaty and must be checked in its text.
Türkiye accepts certain foreign civil status documents without an apostille because of three CIEC conventions: Convention No. 16 for multilingual birth, marriage and death extracts from 23 other states, Convention No. 17 for civil status, capacity, nationality and residence documents from nine states, and Convention No. 20 for certificates of marital capacity from ten states. The exemption is narrow. It depends on ratification of the specific convention, on the correct form of the document and on the document concerning civil status. Criminal records, court judgments, notarial powers of attorney, diplomas and company papers remain within the Hague apostille system, and bilateral treaties add exemptions only to the extent their text allows.
Checking these points before a document leaves the issuing country saves weeks and repeated courier costs, and it prevents a residence, marriage or citizenship file from stalling over a single page. If you are assembling documents for use in Türkiye and are unsure whether an apostille is needed, you can send scans to our legal team.
Documents referenced in this article, free to download.
Sample Birth Certificate Formula a CIEC TurkeyDownload
