The Turkish passport file. 🇹🇷

Social security — the five deep files, verified

Whether your Turkish contribution years totalize toward a pension there — and whether the agreement carries health, which only the bilateral ones do. These rows render from the same verified fields the Life Fit hard line reads. One confusion worth killing early: social security, tax and the Ankara framework are three independent treaty layers — being outside one says nothing about the other two.

• 🇩🇪 GermanyBilateral — health includedThe German–Turkish Social Security Agreement of 30 April 1964 (in force 1 Nov 1965; amended 1984, in force 1987) is a full bilateral treaty covering HEALTH (Kranken-), accident, and PENSION insurance plus child benefit (Kindergeld). Unemployment insurance is NOT covered. It aggregates contribution periods (Turkey + Germany combine toward pension eligibility) and lets a German-insured worker cover family members living in Türkiye for free. HEALTH is covered. (Source: Deutscher Bundestag WD services.)more +
• 🇬🇷 GreeceNo agreementNO social-security agreement with Türkiye — Greece is absent from SGK's official list (checked 26 Jul 2026): Turkish contribution years do not totalize and pensions do not coordinate. The set's hardest coordination gap, worth naming plainly. Confirmed from the other side too (SGK Genelge 2021/34, 28 Jul 2026): Greece is also NOT a party to the European Social Security Convention — of our five, the one country with no instrument at all. On the citizenship axis (md. 92's agreement-country exception) Greece is the weakest of the four: no instrument on ANY reading — though its 7-year naturalisation is also the fastest, so the question arrives soonest.more +
• 🇮🇹 ItalyBilateral — health on paper, NOT yet appliedBilateral social-security agreement with Türkiye, in force 1 Aug 2015 — pensions, short-term benefits AND health provisions: the only agreement in the Latitude set that covers health (SGK list, checked 26 Jul 2026). CORRECTION (treaty pass 1, SGK page read 28 Jul 2026): the health chapter is ON PAPER but SGK states its application HAS NOT YET BEGUN — Italy is one of three such agreements (with Azerbaijan and Tunisia). Until it activates, plan as pension-totalization-only: do NOT rely on SGK cover at an Italian hospital desk. On the citizenship axis (5434 md. 92's agreement-country exception) Italy is the strongest of the four: Convention party PLUS a bilateral agreement whose scope EXPRESSLY includes the self-employed and civil servants (SGK's own agreements page, read 28 Jul 2026 — Italy sits with Germany, Belgium, KKTC, Montenegro, Hungary and Tunisia in that wider-scope group) — naturalising Italian would sit inside the exception on any reading. And the question may never open at all: Italian naturalisation does NOT demand renouncing the prior citizenship (Law 91/1992 — likely tier, convergent sources; primary text unread).more +
• 🇵🇹 PortugalEuropean Convention — pensions, no healthEuropean Social Security Convention (ASGS), in force since 1 Mar 1977 — pension and short-term-benefit periods totalize with Türkiye; HEALTH is NOT covered (SGK list, checked 26 Jul 2026). Instrument confirmed: the multilateral European Social Security Convention (SGK Genelge 2021/34) — same art. 26 structure as Spain: sickness provisions need a bilateral mutabakat, and public servants (4/1-c) sit outside the Convention on both limbs.more +
• 🇪🇸 SpainEuropean Convention — pensions, no healthEuropean Social Security Convention (ASGS), in force since 1 Mar 1977 — pension and short-term-benefit periods totalize with Türkiye; HEALTH is NOT covered (SGK's official agreement list, checked 26 Jul 2026). TREATY PASS DETAIL (SGK Genelge 2021/34, verified 28 Jul 2026): NO bilateral TR–ES agreement exists — the multilateral European Social Security Convention applies (8 parties, in force for TR since 01.03.1977). Two decisive limits: art. 26 sickness/maternity provisions are NOT applied between TR and ES (no bilateral mutabakat) — SGK cover buys NOTHING in Spain, which is why the NLV's full no-copay private policy has no public fallback; and PUBLIC SERVANTS (4/1-c) are outside the Convention entirely, on both limbs (last work 4/1-c, or a 4/1-c pension via service combination). NATURALISATION BRANCH, CORRECTED (28 Jul 2026): 5434 md. 92 is GENERAL, not limited to bought-back periods — citizenship loss lapses the rights, with two exceptions: keeping Turkish citizenship, or naturalising in a 'social-security agreement' country. Whether Spain (a multilateral-Convention party with NO bilateral) counts has TWO defensible readings — country-level yes, person-level open for Convention-excluded classes — a lawyer question. Spain is also the one core-four country whose naturalisation DEMANDS renunciation (verified, BOE). TVK 28's Blue Card preserves acquired social-security rights on a permitted exit; see /passport. On permanent residence none of this wakes.more +

The wider map — reported, not yet verified

The official listings report 35 bilateral social-security agreements; 19 cover health ON PAPER — but only 16 IN OPERATION, and in 12 of the 19 health reaches employees only. Below is that split as read on 28 Jul 2026 (treaty pass 1 — headline numbers VERIFIED on CSGB/SGK, with three corrections) — indexed, not deep-profiled: we haven't verified these treaty by treaty, and we say so rather than pretend. The verification pass is commissioned.

• NOT YET APPLIED: SGK states health benefits under the Azerbaijan, ITALY and Tunisia agreements have not begun to be applied — 19 on paper, 16 in operation.
• EMPLOYEES ONLY: in 12 of the 19, health cover reaches only persons working under a contract of employment (and their families) — self-employed people and, on the face of it, PENSIONERS are outside. A Turkish retiree moving to a 'health-covered' country cannot assume portability.
• Broader-scope seven (health beyond employees): Germany, Italy (on paper), Montenegro, Belgium, Tunisia (on paper), Northern Cyprus, Hungary.
• Libya's agreement contains no insurance branches at all — applicable-legislation rules only. And one instrument sits outside the 35: a Bulgaria cooperation agreement on paying Bulgarian pensions to post-1989 migrants.
• NAMING TRAP: CSGB's 'bilateral agreements' page also lists the multilateral Convention it runs Spain and Portugal under — a country can appear there with NO bilateral agreement. Spain and Portugal are exactly that case; never scrape that page into a bilateral map.
• DATE TRAP: guides dating the European Convention to 16.04.1964 have conflated it with the European Code of Social Security (ETS 48). The Convention is ETS 78, in force for Türkiye 01.03.1977 (SGK Genelge 2021/34) — a 1964 date is a red flag about the source.
• QUÉBEC IS A SEPARATE PARTY from Canada (it runs its own regime) — Türkiye holds both agreements; Canada routing must ask which province.

Official listings: SGK — Sosyal Güvenlik Sözleşmeleri (official treaty list) · CSGB — Sosyal Güvenlik Anlaşmaları (ministry overview)

The old treaties that still open doors

• Ankara Agreement (1963, ECAA) — a shield, not a door. The standstill clause has direct effect before national courts, but confers no right of entry or residence by itself and protects only those already lawfully resident (CJEU: Savaş, Tum & Dari, Abatay/Şahin). What it freezes: the host state's rules at its own reference date — Spain's is 1986, not the UK's 1973. Germany built an administrative pathway around it; no Spanish equivalent has surfaced (an honest absence). The UK route: closed to new applications— verified on the Home Office's own page (read 28 Jul 2026). The closure date now has named substance below the verified tier: both the Businessperson and Worker routes closed 31 Dec 2020 at 23:00 under the Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Act 2020 (practice tier — not yet read on gov.uk itself). Existing holders keep a generous transition (fee-free 3-year extensions, repeatable; settlement at year 5 via Appendix ECAA) and child dependants under 21 may still join — the one door still open. Never treat the standstill as a route in — the people most drawn to that reading are those with no other route. Official texts: Türkçe · English · MFA
• US E-2 investor access (1929 treaty). Türkiye is a US treaty country: Turkish nationals can run a US business on an E-2 visa with a proportionality-based investment — renewable, non-immigrant, no green card by itself. This is why foreign CBI programmes selling “E-2 access” (Grenada, Egypt, Jordan) are redundant for Turkish buyers — you already hold it.
• Visa-free travel & ID-card entry. Bilateral waivers cover 70+ countries for ordinary-passport holders (typically 90 days), and Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Northern Cyprus admit Turkish citizens on a national ID card alone — useful for scouting trips. The green and grey service passports carry wider lists — now verified in the passport-types card below. And whatever the passport type: visa-free entry is a short-stay privilege, never a residence door. Official list: MFA visa regimes
• Türkiye as a destination. The lens points both ways: our discovery index also files Türkiye itself (the ~US$400k CBI, the 2024 digital-nomad visa, property residence) — see the index →

One citizenship, four passports — and none of them is a residence door

Türkiye issues four passport types; what changes between them is the short-stay map, nothing else. The MFA's own closing note is the frame: these rules cover tourist single-entry visits — study, work and long stays always go through the destination's mission. Snapshot read 28 Jul 2026 (MFA visa-regimes page; 5682 md. 14 consolidated text); the MFA page changes and carries its own no-warranty disclaimer, so check it before travelling.

• Who holds the green (hususi) passport. GREEN (hususi damgalı), verified from 5682 md. 14/A: civil servants and other public officials in 1st–3rd degree kadro (or contracted against those kadros / Emekli Sandığı deductions at those degrees); the entitlement SURVIVES retirement or resignation; mayors during their term; BDDK/TMSF board members. Ek md. 4 extends it by equivalence to those who left service before reaching the degrees but whose service and rank equate. Family, verified: spouses get the same type (widowed spouses keep it unless remarried); children while minors, and to AGE 25 if unmarried, not employed, in education and living with the holder; disabled adult children without age limit.
• A dated-source trap. AMENDMENT TRAP, verified: former MPs and ministers were REMOVED from md. 14/A by law 7103 (2018) — older copies of the law still circulate with them listed. A source naming them is out of date. GREY (hizmet damgalı) — md. 14/B, officials sent abroad on duty who qualify for neither diplomatic nor hususi. Its full eligibility text was NOT read this pass — we publish nothing more about it (honest gap).
• Schengen is not one rule. The Schengen answer is NOT one rule. The common pattern — green/grey/diplomatic visa-exempt at 90-in-180, ordinary subject to visa — holds for 21 states (DE AT BE DK EE FI FR HR NL ES SE CH IT IS LV LU HU NO PL PT SI). EIGHT depart from it, each verified from the MFA's own wording. Bulgaria INVERTS the hierarchy: green 90/180 but diplomatic and grey only 30 days · Greece, Malta, Lithuania, Liechtenstein: 'vizeden muaftır' with NO duration stated · Romania: expressed as 'three months in six', not 90/180 · Slovakia and Czechia: 90 days with no 180-day window stated. For the no-duration states, two readings and we ship both: (a) the Schengen 90/180 ceiling applies anyway and the MFA merely didn't restate it — more plausible for an exemption inside the acquis — or (b) the bilateral wording is genuinely broader. The MFA page does not resolve it; we never average.
• Transit traps. Netherlands: airport transit visa needed for transits to non-Schengen destinations — the green passport does NOT exempt · Belgium: ordinary-passport transits need an airport transit visa since 1 Dec 2022 · Norway: transits via Oslo to third countries need a transit visa · Ireland (EU, not Schengen): ordinary, grey AND green are all visa-subject — only diplomatic is exempt.
• Where green changes nothing. Where the green passport does NOTHING: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia — the four destinations users most assume it opens — plus Ireland, Mexico, India and others. It shortens queues into Schengen and ~35 other states; it opens no residence door anywhere.
• The ordinary (bordo) passport's own highlights. Longest visa-free stays on the ORDINARY passport: Georgia 1 YEAR · Barbados 6 months (snapshot 28 Jul 2026, ~40 states at 90 days) · National ID card replaces the passport for: TRNC (new-generation card), Georgia, Ukraine (biometric, from Türkiye), Azerbaijan (tourist, direct from Türkiye) · Live conditions on 'visa-free': Georgia requires travel health insurance (≥30,000 GEL cover) from 1 Jan 2026 for ordinary-passport and ID travellers — official passports exempt; South Korea requires k-ETA registration before travel.

The status ladder — what each rung actually confers

The rungs are origin-neutral — every non-EU passport climbs the same ladder. What is passport-specific is what happens at home on the way up: the pension and Blue Card cards above carry the Turkish side. Read 28 Jul 2026 (Directive 2003/109/EC consolidated, EUR-Lex; TFEU art. 20).

• 0. Short stay (visa-free or C visa). 90 days in any 180, Schengen-wide. No work right, no residence — and time spent here counts toward NOTHING on this ladder.
• 1. D visa — national long-stay. REPORTEDIssued by ONE member state under its own law, to take up residence there. Holders are understood to travel the rest of Schengen on the 90/180 basis while it is valid — but the governing instrument (Regulation 265/2010 amending the Schengen Convention) was NOT read this pass, so the movement claim stays reported.
• 2. Residence permit. National status, national conditions, renewable and revocable — and COUNTABLE: the five-year clock toward EU long-term residence runs here. It confers nothing in other member states beyond short-stay movement.
• 3. EU long-term resident (Directive 2003/109/EC). After 5 years' legal, continuous residence (absences under 6 consecutive months and ≤10 months total don't break it) + stable resources + sickness insurance. Confers equal treatment with nationals (art. 11: work, education, diploma recognition, social security, tax benefits), enhanced expulsion protection, a 5-year auto-renewable permit — and a PERMISSION-BASED right to reside in a second member state (arts. 14–23: apply within 3 months of entry; the second state may restrict other employment for up to 12 months). Lost after 12 consecutive months outside EU territory. It is NOT free movement and NOT citizenship.
• 4. Citizenship of a member state. Union citizenship flows solely from member-state nationality (TFEU art. 20): free movement as a RIGHT, political rights, an EU passport, consular protection. Naturalisation conditions are national, NOT EU-harmonised — duration, language, integration tests and renunciation demands all vary by state (see the Blue Card card for the Turkish side).

Does the Turkish pension keep flowing abroad? RESIDENCE ANSWER: VERIFIED

The load-bearing question of many relocation files — now closed for the residence case: 28 Jul 2026 — the living 5434 text searched in full, and the two suspension articles read via SGK's own page. The one branch still alive is citizenship, and it has its own card below. No tool on this site computes with any of this.

• VERIFIED: residing abroad does not cut a Turkish pension. 5434's two suspension articles (quoted on SGK's own page) are md. 92 — loss of Turkish citizenship (with two exceptions: those who KEEP Turkish citizenship, and those naturalising in a country holding a social-security agreement) — and md. 99 — appointment to a Turkish public-service post (private-sector 4/1-a or 4/1-b work does NOT cut). Neither contains a word about residence, and a full-text search of the living statute finds no residence trigger anywhere.
• The frame matters: a pension is an EARNED right, not a residence-based benefit. Suspension cases are enumerated exceptions — and residence abroad is not on the list.
• WHICH rule-set governs you still depends on when and how you were first insured; the wrong regime produces a confident answer from the wrong statute (the 3201 leaflet answers a question about bought-back periods, not yours). Pre-Oct-2008 public-service entrants remain under 5434's revived rules via 5510 geçici m.4.
• The one live branch is CITIZENSHIP, not residence — md. 92 wakes only if Turkish citizenship is lost; see the Blue Card card below. Corrected this pass: md. 92 is GENERAL (an earlier note tied it to bought-back periods only — too narrow).

The part that IS product-ready: Ask SGK the PROCEDURE question, not the fear question — 'kesilir mi' invites a hunt for conditions on something already earned. Better: "Emekli olduktan sonra yurt dışında ikamet edeceğim. Aylığımın ödenmesinin devamı için yapmam gereken bildirim veya işlem var mı? Yaşam belgesi / yoklama yükümlülüğüm nedir, hangi sıklıkla? Aylığım hangi hesaba ve hangi para biriminde ödenir?" — that returns the mechanics you actually need.

Citizenship, a decade later — the Blue Card layer

Too late to discover at year ten, so it lives here from day one: what happens to earned Turkish rights if you ever naturalise abroad. Read 28 Jul 2026 (TVK 28 text via CSGB; 5434 md. 92 via SGK; ES renunciation via BOE).

• While you stay on permanent residence, NONE of this applies — md. 92 wakes only on loss of Turkish citizenship. Naturalisation timelines for Turkish nationals: Greece 7 years, Spain/Portugal/Italy 10.
• PATH A — keep Turkish citizenship. Where the new state allows dual citizenship, md. 92's own parenthesis ('those who keep Turkish citizenship excepted') means the question never opens. Spain is the one core-four country whose naturalisation demands renunciation (verified at the BOE) — Italy, Portugal and Greece do NOT (likely tier, 29 Jul 2026: convergent sources naming Law 91/1992, Lei Orgânica 1/2026 and Law 5100/2024; primary texts unread). The consequence is structural: in three of the four countries Turkish citizenship simply survives naturalisation, md. 92 never wakes, and the whole Blue Card chain below concerns only the Spanish path. The mechanics of Spain's renunciation declaration remain a grey area of Spanish law (reported).
• PATH B — exit with permission, take the Blue Card (Mavi Kart). TVK 28 covers birth-citizens who lost citizenship BY PERMISSION (TVK 25 — it is not automatic) and their descendants to the third degree. Its own sentence: acquired social-security rights are PRESERVED. The enumerated losses are four: voting/standing in elections · duty-free vehicle/household import · military-service duty (ends) · core public-service posts. TC identity number is kept; no separate work permit needed.
• THE OPEN TENSION, stated honestly: TVK 28 preserves acquired rights; 5434 md. 92 says rights lapse on citizenship loss unless the new country holds a social-security agreement. Whether 'agreement country' includes multilateral-Convention states — and whether it works at country level or person level for classes the Convention excludes (public servants) — has TWO defensible readings. Newer-and-special TVK 28 should prevail over older, repealed-but-revived md. 92 (reasoning, not record), and institutional practice has lagged the text before (SGK once refused Blue Card holders' buy-back applications until a law change). A lawyer question and a written-opinion question — never assume.
• A possible third protection: ILO Convention 118 (equal treatment in social security, incl. payment of pensions abroad) — Türkiye ratified, in force 25 Jun 1974. But it binds only where the OTHER state ratified AND accepted the old-age branch, and such instruments often carve out public-service regimes; Spain's ratification status is unverified. A chain to check per country, not a blanket shield.
• Comparative axis: Italy strongest (Convention party + a bilateral agreement that EXPRESSLY covers the self-employed and civil servants — SGK's own page, verified 28 Jul 2026; the same wider scope applies to the Germany, Belgium, KKTC, Montenegro, Hungary and Tunisia agreements); Spain and Portugal middle (Convention party — country-level yes, person-level open for excluded classes, reported); Greece weakest — no instrument on any reading.