Residence Permit After Graduation

As is known, after your graduation, you must leave Turkey within 10 days after the expiration date of your student residence permit card. However, some of our students wish to stay in Turkey for reasons such as finding a job or continuing their education. To enable these students to stay in Turkey legally without needing to leave the country, all our full-time students who meet the condition of having graduated within the last 6 months from the university can apply for a short-term residence permit transition from a student residence permit. In this way, you can get a short-term residence permit for about up to 1 year. We briefly mention the general information on the issue here. However, you can call 157 for the details and the best answers.

Note: We have been informed that if students' current residence permits extend beyond their graduation date, these permits will remain active. However, we do not know how long they will remain active, and it is generally understood that residence permits may be canceled within 90 days after graduation. Therefore, we recommend that you apply for a short-term residence permit 5 days before your graduation date, which you can find out from student resources. You can check the status of your permit by calling 157.

To apply for this type of permit, if your current card has not expired, you can apply for a transfer on the official website a couple of days before your official graduation date. However, if your card has expired and the period you have stayed in the country does not exceed 10 days, you may need to make a first application for a short-term residence permit and select 'graduation' as the reason. The important thing here is to apply within 6 months after graduation. Additionally, if you apply after your residence permit card has expired and this exceeds 10 days, the Directorate General of Migration Management may negatively evaluate your application or require you to leave and re-enter Turkey. Therefore, the expiration date of your current card and your graduation dates are very important in your application. This is why we recommend applying for this type of permit before your current card expires.

Application link for the transfer application to a short-term residence permit:https://e-ikamet.goc.gov.tr/Ikamet/UzatmaGecisGiris/GecisBasvuru

This situation DOES NOT apply to the students who cancel their registration, the students who freeze their registration, the students who have a hold, or the students who have dismissal from the university.

After completing the online application form, the graduate student must go to their appointment with the following documents (Additional documents may be requested from you if deemed necessary.):

  • Online application form
  • Photocopy of passport ID and entry stamp pages to Turkey
  • Original passport
  • Copy of old residence permit card
  • 4 biometric photographs. (It is recommended that the photo size be 4 x 6 and have a white background. They may not accept biometric photos in smaller sizes.)
  • Photocopy of temporary graduation certificate or diploma. This document should be obtained from the Student Resources.
  • Residence Certificate (Yerleşim Yeri Belgesi). If your address is not registered in the e-devlet address system, you can register your address by going to the Immigration Office with your valid residence permit card before it expires.
  • Health insurance (Private, full 1 year, obtained from Turkey)
  • Residence permit fee and card fee. The residence permit fee and card fee are also written on the application document that is printed out as a result of the online application. After paying it to the tax office, the student has to add the receipt to the application file as well.
  • UETS Code Copy

You can complete these documents and submit them to the Immigration Office on your appointment day.

  • You can learn your graduation date only from the Student Resources.

If you are no longer a Sabancı University student, as the IRO and the University, we are not responsible for the residence permit applications after your graduation.

If you are going to continue your education at Sabancı or another university after graduation:       

Students who will graduate from our university from a program and continue their education with another program from our university, must make a first-time application and apply for a student residence permit and prepare extension documents within 20 days after their graduation. They must attach the student certificate of the department that they are newly registered with and use their graduation certificate taken from e-devlet. Even if your card has months until its expiry, this step is required for the ones who upgrade their education level (from undergrad to grad). 

If you will continue your education out of Sabancı, the steps are the same but you must get your own university's help in this regard.