About

The responsibility for the execution of the works and procedures related to the work permit process to regulate the access of foreigners to the labour market in our country was assigned to our Ministry by the Law No. 4817 on Work Permits of Foreigners, which entered into force on 06.09.2003. Pursuant to Article 25 of the aforementioned Law and subparagraph (h) added to Article 9 of the Law No. 3146 on the Organisation and Duties of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, the Department of Work Permits of Foreigners was established under the Directorate General of Labour and until this date, the authority to issue work permits to foreigners of different institutions such as the former Undersecretariat of Treasury, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, former Ministry of Public Works and Settlement was taken over by our Ministry.

However, since 2003, for various reasons, Türkiye has become a target country in the field of migration and the number of work permit applications, which was around ten thousand in the early 2000s, has increased exponentially. As a result of the increasing demands, different needs such as developing comprehensive policies specific to different economic sectors, bringing highly qualified labour force to our country and ensuring legal access to employment for foreigners with different legal status have emerged and in this direction, establishing a comprehensive legal infrastructure and strengthening the institutional structure became essential.

In this respect, International Labour Force Law No. 6735 was published in the Official Gazette on 13.8.2016 and entered into force in order to determine, implement and monitor the policies related to the international labour force and to regulate the work and operations related to the work permits and work permit exemptions to be granted to foreigners; and the Law No. 4817 on Work Permits of Foreigners was repealed.  Our Directorate General of International Labour Force was established as one of the main service units of our Ministry in accordance with the International Labour Force Law, and has been providing services since the day it was established.

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