Foreign Documents in Turkish Customs Procedures

Every import into Türkiye brings foreign paperwork to the customs office: invoices, certificates of origin, contracts. The Customs Law and the Customs Regulation set out which documents accompany a declaration and when customs can ask for more.

Documents with the declaration

All documents needed to apply the rules of the customs procedure declared are attached to the declaration; where the declaration is made electronically, customs may waive their submission with it. The regulation limits the attachments to documents listed with codes on the Ministry's website and allows customs to ask for originals where needed. Customs may check the declaration and its attachments and ask the declarant for other documents to verify the information. Amounts in foreign currency on invoices are converted into Turkish lira at the Central Bank's selling rate on the date the customs debt arises.

A declaration can be lodged by anyone able to present the goods and the necessary documents to the competent customs office.

Certificates of origin and translations

A certificate of origin issued by the competent authorities of the country of origin or export is presented to show that goods originate in a WTO member country; it must bear the issuing authority's endorsement with date, signature and seal or stamp. Even with a certificate, customs may ask for further evidence in case of serious doubt, and doubtful certificates are sent for later verification. For Form A certificates, the beneficiary countries must have notified Türkiye of the issuing authorities and their seals. Export certificates of origin may be filled in Turkish or another language as trade requires.

The regulation names translation in specific procedures: for a binding tariff information application, printed documents in a foreign language need translations certified by sworn translation offices; for temporary import, a contract between sender and recipient is submitted in the original with its translation; and in authorisation procedures, foreign nationals who cannot provide a criminal record submit a sworn translation of their passport. We prepare such translations in Ankara through translators sworn before a Turkish notary. Customs decides.