SGK for Foreign Employees in Türkiye 2026: Registration and Family Benefits

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SGK for Foreign Employees in Türkiye 2026: Registration and Family Benefits

A foreign national employed lawfully by an employer in Türkiye is normally insured through SGK under category 4/a. The employer handles registration, declares contribution days and insurable earnings, and remits contributions. The employee should still check e-Devlet to confirm that those steps were actually completed.

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Discussing care during a medical consultation​

1️⃣ What 4/a covers​

Category 4/a generally applies to employees working under a service contract. Its insurance branches include healthcare, retirement, disability and death, workplace accidents and occupational diseases, and certain temporary incapacity and maternity benefits when their conditions are met. An employee properly insured under 4/a should not normally have a separate 60/d health-premium assessment for the same period.

👶 Maternity and paternity changes in 2026: Law No. 7578 extended employees’ standard maternity leave to eight weeks before birth and sixteen afterwards: 24 weeks in total, or 26 for a multiple pregnancy. It also extended statutory employee paternity leave to ten days. The law separately amended the SGK maternity-benefit period to eight weeks before and sixteen after birth. Employment leave and approval of SGK cash benefit are different rights: payment still depends on the insurance conditions, medical certification and qualifying days. Being granted leave does not automatically establish an SGK payment, and paternity leave is not ordinary sickness benefit.

2️⃣ The employer’s responsibilities and the foreign-worker timetable​

The employer must obtain a work permit or verify a valid exemption, submit the SGK employment-start notification, declare days and insurable earnings, deduct the lawful employee share, add the employer share, remit the total on time, and notify SGK when employment ends.

The Ministry of Labour’s foreign-worker guidance distinguishes domestic and overseas applications. For a domestic application, work must begin with the relevant obligations fulfilled within one month of the permit’s start. For an overseas application, work must begin within one month of arrival and, in any event, within six months of the permit’s start; the permit’s entry deadline must also be respected. Where notification to the employer occurs on a different date from the permit’s start, the rules address SGK notifications submitted within 30 days of that notification date.

These are administrative timing rules. A work permit being issued does not, by itself, prove that registration has been completed or health entitlement is already active.

3️⃣ Checking your own registration​

Use 4A İşe Giriş Çıkış Bildirgesi to check recorded start and end dates; 4A Hizmet Dökümü to check declared days and earnings; SGK Tescil ve Hizmet Dökümü for insurance registrations; and SPAS Müstehaklık Sorgulama for current healthcare entitlement. Receiving a salary is not proof of SGK registration either.

4️⃣ When healthcare entitlement becomes available​

For ordinary non-emergency healthcare, the general rule requires 30 days of health-insurance contributions during the preceding year. A newly employed person may not have active cover on the first working day. Check SPAS before attending an appointment. SGK also explains that qualifying transfers between insurance categories, or from dependant status to being insured personally, do not require a fresh 30-day waiting period. Not every new job starts the qualifying period from zero.

Special rules apply to genuine emergencies, occupational accidents and diseases, road traffic accidents, certain notifiable infectious diseases and specified preventive services. Do not use these exceptions to assume that any routine appointment is immediately covered.

5️⃣ Cover for a spouse and children​

Eligible family members can be registered as dependants where independent cover does not take precedence. For foreign dependants, SGK may require valid residence documents, marriage or birth certificates, translations and authentication, and official information about overseas insurance. After submitting the documents, check each family member’s SPAS result individually.

CheckRecord or documentWhat to confirm
Employment registration4A start/end notificationThe correct employer and start date
Monthly declaration4A service recordAccurate days and insurable earnings
Healthcare entitlementSPASAn active result for the patient
Family coverDependant records, then SPASEach eligible family member appears correctly

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Checking and signing a contract​

6️⃣ Contributions, salary records and previous GSS debt​

Part of the contribution is the employee’s share and part is the employer’s, but the employer is responsible for remitting the total to SGK. Compare payslips with the 4A record regularly: employer name, declared days, insurable earnings, and registration dates all matter. Underdeclared earnings or days can affect future health, pension and benefit rights.

Starting a job does not automatically cancel every debt from an earlier GSS registration. If GSS assessments overlap a 4/a period, obtain the service record, compare the dates with the debt enquiry and ask SGK to correct the overlap. Establish the reason for the debt and ask how to handle any payment deadline during review: requesting a correction does not automatically suspend that deadline.

7️⃣ What happens when the job ends?​

Following the end of compulsory insurance, healthcare entitlement generally continues for 10 days. Where there were at least 90 days of compulsory-insurance contributions during the preceding year, entitlement may continue for a further 90 days: up to 100 days in total, including eligible dependants. Confirm the actual result in SPAS.

After that period, establish the next basis of cover: a new job, dependant status through an insured spouse, a suitable GSS category if eligible, a bilateral agreement or private insurance. Do not assume an automatic move from 4/a to 60/d.

After compulsory insurance endsGeneral positionPractical action
Initial continuation10 days of healthcare entitlementCheck the recorded end date and SPAS
With 90 qualifying days in the prior yearA further 90 days; up to 100 overallCheck qualifying days and the actual entitlement
After the continuation periodA new basis of cover is neededReview employment, dependant status, GSS or an agreement
Earlier premium debtsThey are not all automatically cancelledCorrect proven overlaps after comparing periods

8️⃣ Workers posted from an agreement country​

A social security agreement may allow a temporarily posted worker to remain insured in the sending country for an agreed period. The applicable institution normally needs to issue the official certificate. The country, posting period, work arrangement and branches covered by the agreement all matter.

SGK lists 19 agreements containing healthcare provisions, while stating in its current information page that implementation of healthcare provisions with Azerbaijan, Italy and Tunisia has not yet begun. The existence of an agreement therefore does not prove that every healthcare arrangement is operational or applies to you. Ordinary overseas insurance paperwork is not a substitute for the required official form.

9️⃣ Warning signs and missing registration​

Investigate a missing 4/a start notification, repeated months without contribution days, materially understated earnings, the wrong employer, inactive SPAS despite apparently meeting the qualifying period, GSS debts for employment months, or work for an employer different from the one named on your permit.

Keep your contract, payslips, bank transfers, communications and attendance evidence. Ask the employer to correct the record and, if it remains unresolved, contact SGK or the Ministry of Labour’s official channels. Posting, self-employment and work-permit exemptions require individual review rather than applying every ordinary 4/a step mechanically.

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Organising documents and an online application​

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