Document translation and certification in company formation with a foreign shareholder

Setting up a company with a foreign shareholder in Türkiye involves a few extra document steps compared with a wholly domestic formation. Documents drawn up in the foreign shareholder’s own country pass through translation and certification before they can be used in proceedings in Türkiye.

Signature circulars and certificates of activity come to the fore

Where the foreign shareholder is a legal entity, papers such as the certificate of activity from its own country and the signature circular of its authorised representative are frequently requested. Where the shareholder is an individual, a passport and similar identity documents come into play. These documents are expected to be rendered into Turkish by sworn translation and usually to carry an apostille or consular legalisation.

The certification route depends on where the document comes from

Whether the apostille or the consular legalisation route is followed depends on whether the country in which the document was drawn up is a party to the Hague Convention. This needs to be confirmed document by document; no single pattern holds for every country. Translation is carried out after the legalisation, and the annotations are included in the translation as well.

The most common delay in the formation process is a foreign document being submitted to bodies such as the trade registry without legalisation or with an incomplete translation. Planning the documents in the right order from the start speeds the process up. At our Ankara Kızılay office we work through formation files involving a foreign shareholder with you, clarifying which document is to be prepared with which certification and which translation.