- Typical end-to-end timeline
- ~12 weeksTypical end-to-end timeline
- Parallel workstreams
- 3Parallel workstreams
- Turkish staff required per work permit
- 5:1Turkish staff required per work permit
Challenge
A production start date is committed before the entity structure is chosen, leaving roughly one quarter to incorporate, register for incentives, hire and run a first payroll — steps that are usually run one after another.
Our approach
Incorporation, incentive eligibility assessment and SGK registration are opened as parallel workstreams, and local hiring is sequenced ahead of the expatriate work permit applications because the permit depends on the headcount.
Result
The company trades and runs compliant payroll before the production start date, with the regional incentive certificate secured rather than applied for retrospectively.
Why the sequence matters more than the paperwork
Incorporating in Türkiye is not slow. A limited şirket can be registered at the Trade Registry in a matter of days once the articles are notarised and MERSİS registration is complete. What takes a quarter is everything that has to happen around it, and the order it happens in.
Three constraints drive the order:
- The work permit depends on headcount. The Ministry of Labour and Social Security generally requires five Turkish employees per foreign employee at the same workplace. If the expatriate plant manager’s application goes in before local hiring, it fails on a criterion that only time can fix.
- The incentive certificate is prospective. Investment incentive certificates cover expenditure incurred after the certificate is issued. Machinery ordered first and registered later can fall outside the customs duty and VAT exemptions entirely.
- SGK registration is deadline-bound, not lead-time-bound. The workplace declaration is due by the day the first employee starts. It cannot be brought forward to buy slack, and missing it carries a penalty on a company that has not yet invoiced anyone.
How the workstreams overlap
Weeks 1–4 — Formation. Articles of association drafted around the actual shareholding and signature authority rather than a template, notarised, capital blocked where required, and the Competition Authority contribution paid. Trade Registry filing, Chamber of Commerce registration, tax office registration and the signature circular follow. Foreign shareholders need a Turkish tax identification number before any of it.
Weeks 2–8 — Incentives, in parallel. Regional eligibility depends on the province and the sector, and the two interact: the same investment attracts different corporate tax reduction and social security premium support in different regions. This is assessed before the site is finalised, not after, because the site choice is the variable with the most money attached to it.
Weeks 4–10 — People. Local recruitment runs first. SGK workplace registration is filed, employment contracts are drawn under Turkish labour law rather than translated from the parent’s template, and payroll is configured to the correct minimum wage and premium rates. Expatriate work permit applications follow once the ratio is satisfiable.
Weeks 8–12 — Running. First payroll, first Muhtasar ve Prim Hizmet Beyannamesi, first VAT return, and e-Fatura and e-Defter set up before the first invoice rather than after it.
What usually goes wrong
The two failures we see most often in projects that come to us late are an incentive certificate applied for after the machinery arrived, and a work permit refused because the company hired the foreign manager first. Neither is recoverable by working faster. Both are avoided by deciding the order at the start.