What is a Foreign Guest Commitment Letter?
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Author: Lawyer Cihat BALTAŞ / İstanbul / 15.10.2024
Taahhütname
A foreign guest undertaking means (yabancı misafir taahhütnamesi) that a Turkish citizen living in Turkey sponsors a foreign person who comes to Turkey to live. The Turkish citizen can issue the foreign guest undertaking by going to any notary public. As you will see when you read the example of the foreign guest undertaking below, in this undertaking, the Turkish citizen undertakes to the state to meet the accommodation needs of the foreign person
Letter of Undertaking Sample for Foreigners
Foreigners may use a letter of undertaking (yabancı misafir taahütnamesi) to be used by Provincial Migration Administrations in foreign address registrations when obtaining a residence permit or after obtaining a residence permit. What should be understood when we say a letter of undertaking (yabancı misafir taahütnamesi) is usually a statement taken from Turkish citizens and given by the Turkish citizen against the state.
Foreigners can create their addresses by obtaining a foreign guest undertaking (yabancı misafir taahütnamesi) from a Turkish Citizen.
How to Obtain a Foreign Guest Letter of Undertaking?
How to give a letter of commitment for foreigners’ residence permit or a letter of commitment for foreigners’ address registration?
The Turkish citizen who will give a letter of undertaking can go to any notary public in Turkey and say that he/she will give a foreign guest letter of undertaking. The foreigner does not need to go to a notary public. A Turkish citizen can give a letter of undertaking by going to a notary alone.
Is the Foreign Guest Undertaking Risky?
We do not think that there is a judicial risk for the person who gives a guest undertaking for foreigners. In other words, you are not responsible if the foreigner commits a crime. In practice, we have not encountered any criminal cases regarding the persons who give this commitment letter. There is no regulation in our laws and criminal code that defines this issue as a crime in judicial or administrative terms. However, we encounter some problems in practice. We recommend you to be careful in this regard and do not give a commitment letter if you do not really know the foreign person and if he/she will not stay with you.
It is risky to give an indefinite undertaking
In some cases, foreigners try to use this letter of undertaking as a lease contract and try to live in people’s houses without paying rent. However, the letter of undertaking and the lease contract are not the same legal document. It is not possible to use the letter of undertaking as a lease contract. However, the problem is the time and energy you will lose when you take people into your home with a letter of commitment and then ask them to leave the house.
Can a foreigner’s commitment letter be used as a lease contract?
In practice, some malicious foreigners try to use the commitment letter as a lease contract. However, this is not legally possible. The foreigner may have problems in the lawsuit to be filed against the foreigner and in the legal proceedings to be carried out. The Immigration Administration may cancel the residence permit of the foreigner by evaluating this misuse of the foreigner. The foreign person may think that he/she will benefit by using this letter of undertaking in the short term, but in the long term, it is not possible to use this letter of undertaking as a lease contract, and the foreign person is likely to be harmed by this situation.
We advise you not to give a letter of undertaking to strangers you do not know just for help and to provide an address. In some cases, while giving a letter of commitment to persons, it is useful to keep the duration of the letter of commitment for a period of time, not indefinitely, by writing phrases such as ‘for the duration of the residence permit’ or ‘for 1 year’.
The point to be considered when giving the foreign guest commitment is that you know the person you give and that you give it in case they actually stay in your home. In addition, the person to whom you give a letter of commitment is legally required to stay in Turkey. You need to examine whether the person to whom you give a commitment has the right to stay in Turkey legally. Foreigners can legally stay in Turkey either with a residence permit or if they are within the 90-day free visa period, they are considered to be legally staying in Turkey. To get help from a lawyer on this issue, you can send an e-mail to our company at the contact address.
How to Cancel the Letter of Commitment?
Foreign guest undertakings issued by a notary public are a form of undertaking that puts the person under debt in terms of its legal structure and states that the foreigner will cover the expenses of the foreigner in Turkey. However, the fact that the person who gives this commitment is bound by this commitment for the whole life is against the fundamental rights and freedoms of persons.
For the cancellation of the letter of undertaking given by the notary, any notary is visited and a declaration is given. In this declaration, ‘I gave the commitment numbered …. at the time of ……. Now I renounce this commitment due to … The commitment I gave regarding the foreign person …. is no longer valid.’ A statement is given in this way. With this declaration, the Immigration Administration is visited and this declaration is notified to the Immigration Administration with a petition. After this notification, your commitment will no longer be valid. Notaries will also officially send this declaration to the Migration Authority.
With your petition notified to the Migration Management, the person you have committed will no longer be able to make transactions using your commitment. As we have said above, the most logical approach to avoid these situations is not to give commitments with unlimited periods and no time limit.
Letter of Undertaking for Home Care Services
Approximately at the beginning of March 2025, the Ministry of Internal Affairs initiated an exceptional application for people who will work in domestic services. According to this application, the migration administration has brought the option to apply for a residence permit manually / manually petitioning for people who cannot apply for a residence permit by making an appointment from the e-residence system. People can apply for Home Care Services by going to Kumkapı Migration Administration with the petition in their hands and the undertaking they have given from the notary public. (Applications for after 14.03.2025 have started to be received from Kumkapı)
The letter of undertaking for home care services is a different letter of undertaking than the one we have shown above. This commitment letter is a commitment letter given for the foreign person who will apply for a residence permit and then apply for a work permit.
In the Letter of Undertaking for Home Care Services, in short, you make an agreement with the Migration Management and take responsibility for the actions taken by the foreign person in this process. You undertake that you will apply for a residence permit for the foreign person and then apply for a work permit.
You can get information on the subject free of charge by calling the Migration Management’s hotline 157. If you want to realise this process with the help of BaltaşGlobal lawyers, you can contact us at the contact address and get a price quote.
Home Care Services Work Permit Commitment Sample
It provides the opportunity for people working in home care services to obtain a work permit under the instructions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. According to this opportunity, people whose legal stay period has expired can apply from Kumkapı Directorate of Immigration Management with the manual residence permit application option. In applications to purchase a work permit for foreign caregivers, the Immigration Administration requests a copy of the undertaking from the employer, the example of which is given below.
Note: This commitment is not consistent with foreign guests. When obtaining a residence permit, this undertaking is not used, but the consistency of the examples mentioned above is used. The consistency in this example is used to apply manually to the Immigration Administration for a work permit. It is the consistency of foreign caregivers – people working in domestic services.
Work Permit consistency example;
Lawyer Cihat BALTAŞ
Lawyer Cihat BALTAŞ graduated from Police College in 2006, Police Academy in 2010, Yalova Law Faculty in 2016 with a degree and has worked and specialised in foreign law throughout his professional life. Cihat BALTAŞ, who is currently working as a lawyer in Kadıköy, Istanbul, is the founder of BaltaşGlobal law and consultancy office.
