UK Name Change Documents for the Turkish Registry
Which UK name change documents the Turkish civil registry needs, how they are apostilled in the UK, and what the nüfus müdürlüğü checks.
To have a UK name change recorded in the Turkish civil registry (nüfus kaydı), you need the UK document showing the change, issued or certified so that it can be legalised in the UK. Your Turkish record must also already note your multiple citizenship. Without that note, personal status changes made under your British identity are not entered in the Turkish register.
The UK document and its apostille
The UK route depends on the document family. The Legalisation Office of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office can legalise a birth or marriage certificate from a public registry. General Register Office certificates get a paper apostille. The e-Apostille is not available for them. A court order must carry a wet ink court seal. A letter from a government department must be signed by an official. Any other name change document can be legalised once a UK public official, such as a UK notary or solicitor, has certified it. If you need a certified copy instead of the original, a notary based in the UK must make it. An e-Apostille is possible for PDF documents electronically signed by a UK notary or solicitor. You apply online for both the paper apostille and the e-Apostille.
What the Turkish registry checks
You notify your British citizenship with a form petition (form dilekçe) at a civil registry directorate (nüfus müdürlüğü) in Türkiye or through a Turkish mission abroad. The directorate compares the name, surname, date of birth and sex in your Turkish record with the identity details in the documents showing your British citizenship. If the details differ, the request is refused. If you present a document from the competent authority showing that you chose a foreign name and surname when you acquired British citizenship, that foreign name is also entered in your record.
For a later change made under your British identity, you or your representative (vekil) make the request in writing. The change must have taken place in conformity with Turkish law.
Some changes follow their own rules. A married woman can ask in writing at the marriage, or after it in writing or by e-application to the directorate, to use her previous surname together with her husband's. She can later ask to use her husband's surname alone. Correcting an entry in the register requires a finalised court judgment (kesinleşmiş mahkeme hükmü). Where a court corrects a man's surname, his wife's and minor children's surnames are corrected as well. Missing details of a foreign spouse or translation errors in a marriage record registered from abroad are corrected by the General Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs on presentation of the duly certified original and a notarised Turkish translation.
The Turkish provisions reviewed do not name the apostille or a translation requirement for the other name change steps. Confirm the required form of your UK document and any translation with the civil registry directorate or the Turkish mission handling your file.