İ am living with my turkish husband in İstanbul. We decıded it is so difficult to get a visa and i am really happy here. However İ need some advıce about visas for here. İ only have a tourıst vısa at the moment and although i have been offered a job ı do not want to work ıllegally. do you have to get a settlement vısa before workıng here or can you get a work permıt? İ would be grateful for some relıable ınfo on thıs !!!

Ask your employer to provide you with a work permit.

The difficulty of working illegally is that it can become a game of blackmail in the end.

Perhaps you can get work with a travel agent doing airport transfers - I think the travel agents can apply now for a special work permit for these purposes or holiday reps, otherwise a work permit is very costly and difficult to obtain. Also you have to have a separate work permit for every job you do.

if you get caught you can be deported or fined.

Here in Fethiye where I live the Jandarma do the rounds trying to catch yabancı working without permits. However I should imagine it would be harder for you to hide in a bigger City and go undetected.

If you are married you should apply for your kimlik card. Also if you got married you were entitled to apply for turkish citizenship, so therefore you will and should be legal to work there.