Family Law for Expats

Family law becomes complicated the moment a family crosses a border. Two questions decide almost everything, and they are decided before the merits are ever argued: which country's court hears the case, and which country's law that court applies. In Türkiye both are governed by the Code on Private International Law and Procedure (Law No. 5718), and the answers are frequently not what the parties assume.

For mixed-nationality families the recurring issues are familiar. A divorce granted abroad has no automatic effect on the Turkish civil registry until it is recognised here, which means a person can be divorced in one country and still married in another. A child's habitual residence, not a parent's nationality, usually determines which court decides custody and whether an abduction remedy is available. A prenuptial agreement drafted abroad may or may not be effective against Turkish-situated assets. And protective measures are available to a foreign spouse on the same terms as to a Turkish one, without needing residence status.

Timing matters more here than in almost any other area. Several of these remedies have short windows, and in child cases the passage of time itself changes the legal answer.

The guides below cover cross-border divorce, custody and abduction, recognition of foreign decrees, marital property and protective orders. For the procedural detail of divorce itself see divorce law in Turkey.