Work Permit for Domestic Caregivers and Household Help:
An Employer's Guide

The Work Permit Framework for Domestic Work

Employing a foreign national at home as a caregiver, for childcare, elderly care, or general household work legally means establishing an employment relationship. This relationship is not a “grey area” distinct from employment in an office or a factory — it falls under the same Law No. 4817 on Work Permits for Foreigners and requires an official work permit.

The domestic work sector has, in recent years, become an area increasingly clearly regulated by the Ministry, which makes it easier for both employer families and foreigners wanting to work in this field to act within a registered framework. Certain exceptions or criteria specific to the sector are updated from time to time — we do not state an exact figure or quota in this article, because such details change according to the current official criteria and must be verified before applying. (For the general types of work permit, see: Work Permit Types.)

What matters is this: descriptions such as “at home, within the family, informal” do not take the job outside the official framework. Even though the nature of the employment relationship is domestic, the permit process moves through the same basic logic — application, evaluation, positive or negative outcome.

Another point that sets this area apart from other sectors is that the employer is not a company but a household / family. This affects how certain employer obligations (for example, notification and registration steps) work out in practice, but the underlying principle stays the same — whoever is doing the hiring is the applying and obligated party. For employers hiring a foreign caregiver or household worker for the first time, getting this “household, not company” distinction clear from the start makes it easier to set up the rest of the process correctly. (Process summary for household employers: domestic caregiver work permit.)

Who Applies? The Employer’s Role and Obligations

In a work permit application — unlike a residence permit or citizenship application — the applying party is legally the employer. In domestic work, this employer is you, or your household, employing the person you want to hire. So when people say “my caregiver’s work permit,” what’s actually being discussed is the application you make, as the employer.

The practical result of this is that several core obligations rest directly on the employer:

• Starting the application: For a first application from abroad, the process is started by the employer through the relevant Turkish mission; for a foreigner with a valid residence permit in Türkiye, it is started through e-Devlet.
• Describing the employment relationship accurately: It is the employer’s responsibility to present the job description, working conditions and form of employment consistently and accurately in the application.
• Obligations after a positive outcome: Once the application is approved, it falls to the employer not to miss the timeline for the resulting notification, fee payment and social security (SGK) registration steps.

Within this framework, “employer-side coordination” describes exactly this: you remain the legal party to the process, and we take on the paperwork and coordination — not a party who guarantees the outcome, but a partner who runs the process correctly.

The Process Flow: From Application to Outcome

At a high level, the work permit process for domestic work consists of the following steps:

• Preparation: Clarifying the employment relationship — determining who will work, in what role, and under what conditions.
• Application: The employer files the official application, either through a mission abroad or through e-Devlet.
• Evaluation: The Ministry reviews the file.
• Notification of the outcome: The employer is informed of a positive or negative decision.
• Fee payment and card delivery: After a positive outcome, the official fee and valuable-paper (card) charge are paid within the deadline, and the permit card is collected.
• SGK notification: The employment is registered with the social security system.

This flow overlaps with the general logic of the work permit process in other sectors (see: Foreign Work Permit Application: Process and What to Know); the difference specific to domestic work lies in how the employment relationship is defined. How long it takes varies from file to file — without implying any certainty, general work permit applications typically involve an evaluation period ranging from a few weeks to a few months on average; the exact duration depends on the current workload at the time of application and how complete the file is. For the current status of official fee amounts, see: Work Permit Fees 2026.

Within this flow, the point that most often costs the employer time is usually the pre-application preparation stage — details such as which information should be presented in which order, and whether the description of the employment relationship is consistent with the application. Because these details vary from file to file, proceeding from a generic “template” doesn’t always produce the right result.

The Risks of Unregistered Employment

Employment relationships that start at home, informally, or “through an acquaintance” sometimes carry on without ever entering the official framework at all. The risks this carries for the employer can be summarised broadly as follows:

• Risk of administrative sanction: If foreign employment without a work permit is detected, the employer may face an administrative fine.
• An unprotected employment relationship: In unregistered employment, the employee is also left without insurance and legal protections — a source of uncertainty for both sides.
• Retrospective evaluation: If an official application is made later, how a prior period of unregistered employment affects the evaluation of the process varies by file.

The point here is not to alarm anyone; it’s to remind you that domestic work, just like any other type of employment, has an official framework — and that framework serves a protective function for both employer and employee. For official sources and current legislation: Ministry of Labour and Social Security — Directorate General of International Labour Force.

The extent of these risks varies by file, by duration, and by the moment of detection; we do not give an exact sanction figure here, because that too changes with current legislation. The main message is this: registering the domestic employment relationship from the very start heads off uncertainties that could otherwise emerge later, for both employer and employee.

Why Does Proper Preparation Matter?

The most common problem in domestic work applications is that the employment relationship or the application information is described incompletely or incorrectly. An incomplete or incorrectly prepared application means lost days and effort for the employer; in some cases a reapplication becomes necessary. Because the legislation can change often, the criteria specific to domestic work can also shift over time — which is why it’s healthier to check the current status before applying rather than rely on a single source, such as an experience from last year.

A file that proceeds in the wrong order or is prepared incompletely can needlessly delay a process that could otherwise have ended positively. As the employer, your real job is running your home and your family — following the technical details of the application is a separate area of expertise. By taking on the paperwork and coordination throughout the process, we make sure you don’t have to carry that load. For more details: Work Permit Consultancy.