Hello,

My partner and I live in the UK, London. He is british born and bred with Turkish roots. He speaks Turkish. I am German but been here 15 years so used to upping sticks and starting afresh with not knowing anybody. I don't speak Turkish except for holiday phrases but love languages and would study extensively prior to our move (planned for 2019/2020).

We have a 1.5 year old little girl and are looking for a better quality of life and work life balance. We've dreamt about moving to warmer climates for a number of years and now with little one even more so.

With family in Turkey (Adana, Mersin and Elazig) we are regular visitors and love the country, people, food.

When in Turkey... we don't want to work. We are lucky enough to have a house that's on a low mortgage and would provide us with 1300GBP income per month. We are not looking to sell our house as we wouldn't be able to buy anything similar again if we decide to return to the UK at some stage (you never know...) and to have income.

We are looking for a simple lifestyle, 2 bed house with garden or land to grow food and little one to run around.

I have looked into legal requirements, permits etc and wondered if anyone is in a similar situation who can advise us.

Tesekür ederim

I don't know if there will be many people on this forum who can give you information about Turkey. Being from Germany, you are probably better off also asking on a German forum when it comes to permits, legal requirements etc. and they have a much larger Turkish community and know everything. Of course you have a home in the UK but since you are German, it might be better going through that route.

• Having a small girl to raise
• Better quality of life
• Better work-life balance

I am sorry but as a Turkish citizen who recently fled the damned country, none of the targets above resonate with living in Turkey. Even the filthy rich Turks who have the means to have their own schools, live in their own enclosed neighborhoods are buying Maltese citizenships and running out of the country. There are a lot of decent EU countries whose currency's value is much less than GBP. Just choose one of them. Some roots are moved from their original place for a reason.

Something you'll need to consider if you're planning to rent your UK house - you'll need to contact your mortgage provider as most mortgages prohibit renting the property out. You'd most likely have to switch to a BTL mortgage which is generally more expensive.

We love Turkey. I understand your choice! We don't have any Turkish background, but we feel very welcome in Turkey and we love the Turkish people. We go on holiday as of 2007.
Good idea to rent out your house in the UK and live on the money you receive. Check the tax treaty between the UK and Turkey. It will be taxed in the UK, but you need to fill in a tax return in Turkey as a resident.

Your husband has family in Turkey and that makes everything easy for you. Your baby girl will pick up the language without any problem.
Enjoy!!

Be aware that your girl will grow up in Erdogan's new Ottoman State and live in a heavily Islmicised culture. The secular state created by Ataturk has gone.

I have owned a property in Turkey since 2004. We moved here back on june 2016 bringing our 11 year daughter. We put our daughter into a state school for the first year then into private school for the last 2. She loves it here. is now fluent in Turkish and loves the Turkish way of living. We live in Ovacik. There is a really good site called Yell Ali, everything you need to know you will find here. Do I regret moving here? No. Do I feel safer here than Uk? Yes. Is it a better place for our daughter to live and grow up in? Yes. There are no handouts (like in Uk), which is great, you have to pay your own way, prove that you can sustain yourself and your family. We have just renewed our residency today for another 2 years {approx. 5500tl) this includes the residency, health insurance and the cost of the agent to help us with this process. We did live here for approximately 18 months back in 2008, our daughter did attend the local nursery, we returned to the UK when she was 4 as at that time we felt she would benefit from a UK education. Not sure if I have helped on just rattled on abit

I think they live in Ovacik. That is a modern part of Turkey. We have a holiday house in Kusadasi and love it. Not excluded that we will live there in the future. Turkish people are wonderful. I feel 100% safe there.
I can imagine that the daughter of SJP66 has a safer and better youth in Turkey than in the UK.

100% our daughter has a safer enviromemt and feels safer living in Turkey. Sadly whilst back in UK in January she felt scared on the tubes, walking round London etc. Living iwhere we do norethete is no perrs pressure or rush to grow up...

"renewed with the help of an agent.."
I'm just curious if you could get residency without the help of an agent? Or could you not get it without his "help"?

Official business has to be conducted in the official language of the Republic of Turkey,. Is that surprising ?

My question re using an agent was not because I expected to be able to do paperwork in English.
In Thailand folks use agents to "facilitate" the visa process if paperwork and financial requirement is questionable.

Just to stick my oar in a bit. Personally I think you must be mad wanting to go and live in a country like Turkey under the present political conditions and leadership regime. But that's up to you.... What I really wanted to note is that London is probably about the worst location in the UK in terms of cost, quality of life, and personal safety, and in no way represents an illustration or cross section of life in the rest of the UK. I'm located in the North East and it feels altogether more sane up here than in London, and whenever I have the misfortune to find myself in London or environs all I want to do is get out again as quickly as I can. Certainly as a country The UK is in decline in many ways and most of our cities are fast becoming festering cesspits, but London is the outright leader in cesspit factor and is head and shoulders above any other UK location I can think of in any perceived 'race to the bottom'...

Just my opinion and no offence intended to anyone.