The perennial problem of work permit issuance -- or lack thereof -- continues to plague skilled foreign workers in Turkey, as work permit applications with everything in order can take months, or even years, to process. 

Perusal of Turkey´s Ministry of Labor and Social Security Web site makes the application process for a work permit seem to be a deceivingly simple process. You need to fill out an application form, translate your passport and diplomas, hold a residence permit and provide a copy of your curriculum vitae. What should be a simple process sometimes is; some foreigners receive work permits with little hassle, their employers able to pull the right strings to get their papers approved quickly. For others, an extended waiting period ends in rejection -- with no or weak reasoning provided -- and the unhappy news that another application cannot be submitted for 12 months.

Speaking with Sunday´s Zaman last week, lawyers, workers and ministry employees -- just about everybody -- agreed that bureaucracy is the culprit in the perennial work permit dilemma. But nobody´s sure just quite why.

"Failing to provide a work permit in a situation where the criteria are met by the applicant is a flawed act by a government authority," says Berk Çektir, an Ýstanbul-based attorney and expert in laws related to expats. What´s the problem with the bureaucracy at the Labor and Social Security Ministry? "There is no precise answer to this. In some cases, a work permit may be granted after long debates. … In other cases, there is no delay and the work permit is granted easily," Çektir says.

http://www.sundayszaman.com/sunday/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=170305&bolum=101