A criminal record certificate is required in official or informal transactions, especially for those who work in daily life and apply for new jobs. At the same time, foreign citizens also need a criminal record in foreign country applications such as university registration, visa application or green card. We will explain in this article how to get a criminal record -police report in other words- in Turkey.
What is a Criminal Record?
A criminal record is also known as a Police Clearance Certificate. Turkish citizens have convictions for crimes they have committed at home or abroad. In addition, the final convictions of foreigners who have committed crimes in Turkey are also included in the criminal record.
Topics included in the Criminal Record Certificate
-Imprisonment and postponement of imprisonment decisions
-Finalized judicial fines
-Short prison sentences
-Deprivation decisions
-Decisions rendered by the courts of the Republic of Turkey regarding the deprivation of rights caused by the convictions rendered and finalized against Turkish citizens from foreign courts under Turkish law
-Decisions made due to abandonment of the complaint or effective remorse
-Decisions on the determination of the expiration of the statute of limitations in the penalty
-Offences pardoned under the laws relating to amnesty
-Convictions under the Military Penal Code
-Decisions on security measures imposed due to mental illness
!! CRIMINAL RECORD COVERS ONLY FINAL DECISIONS
Matters Not Included in the Criminal Record Certificate
-Convictions for military offences and disciplinary offences
-Convictions under confinement or disciplinary confinement
-Decisions on administrative fines
-Offences counted under conciliation
-HAGB decisions are not recorded if all conditions are met.
Where to get a criminal record certificate?
-General Directorate of Criminal Records and Statistics
-Chief Public Prosecutor's Offices
-District Governorship
-E-government system
-It can be taken from embassies and consulates abroad.
Can the criminal record certificate be obtained from E-government?
If you are a foreign person who has lived in Turkey and you have a residence permit, you can obtain your criminal record document from the E-government system. However, if you do not have a residence permit, you can only obtain a criminal record document from the courthouses. If you do not know Turkish, it is very difficult to do this in courthouses and obtain the criminal record document. For this reason, it is important to contact a English Speaking Lawyer in Turkey.
In how many languages can a criminal record be obtained?
Criminal records can be obtained in 40 foreign languages.
English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, Portuguese, Bosnian, Croatian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Mongolian, Uzbek, Serbian, Tajik, Turkmen, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Slovak, Macedonian, Russian, Romanian, Latvian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Arabic, Montenegrin, Polish, Hungarian, Swedish, Finnish, Czech, Greek, Hindi, Bengali, Hebrew, Malay, Bahasa Indonesian. You can have more information about criminal record certificate, you can visit official website of General Directorate of Criminal Records and Statistics.
Originally Published by 19 September 2023
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.