Filming Permits & Licenses Turkey

Start with the General Filming Permit from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's General Directorate of Cinema, which covers documentaries, features, TV films, series, TV programmes, shorts, music videos and commercials. On top of it you need permission from the governorship or district governorship for each filming area, from the owner or public body of any special location, from the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums for heritage sites, from the DKMP Regional Directorate for national parks, and from SHGM for drones. News crews follow a different route through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Presidency's Directorate of Communications, and photography-only jobs go to the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism.

There are no official permit tiers; there are fixed minimums. The Ministry application must be complete at least 10 business days before filming, and the Ministry recommends all documents at least two weeks before the crew enters Turkey. Istanbul district governorships need at least 7 days' notice, and so does the municipality if you affect traffic. Ministry museums answer on availability within 10 business days. Foreign drone operators apply through diplomatic channels at least 20 business days ahead. Filming visas come last and can take up to 30 days after the consular interview, so for a crew needing visas we plan on six to eight weeks from a locked location list.

Costs are set location by location, so we quote them from the current tariffs once your list is fixed. In Istanbul, municipal fees under the 2026 rules apply when more than 3 large vehicles stay on set; they drop to one quarter for Ministry-supported projects and for shoots with 3 or fewer large vehicles, and handheld shoots that do not occupy public space pay nothing but must still notify. Ministry museums and sites charge under a fee list, paid in cash or by bank guarantee to DÖSİMM at least 10 business days before use. National parks charge foreign crews double the photo and film fee, and a shoot of less than a day is billed as a full day.

We handle the ones that can be permitted and tell you plainly about the ones that cannot. Filming in military zones is strictly prohibited. Commercials, series and films cannot be shot at Topkapı, Dolmabahçe or Beylerbeyi under the National Palaces procedures. Hagia Sophia has been an active mosque under the Presidency of Religious Affairs since July 2020, with foreign visitors on a ticketed upper-gallery route, and no published crew-filming procedure exists, so we plan it as exteriors from public space. Anıtkabir in Ankara is run by a military command that sets its own filming rules, which means long lead times. In Cappadocia, any set dressing on the rock needs explicit written approval from the Cappadocia Area Presidency: in 2022 a permitted commercial shoot that applied material to fairy chimneys was stopped and fined about ₺2 million.

Yes. The Ministry permit does not cover drones; applications go to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (SHGM) through diplomatic channels. Under the procedure still applied during the transition, foreign operators apply at least 20 business days ahead with their own aviation authority's approval of the aircraft and third-party insurance, and SHGM issues a NOTAM after positive opinions from civil and military bodies. The new SHGM instruction of 30 July 2026 requires at least a P1 licence for paid filming and accepts foreign-registered drones only if they are compatible with its İHATTYS tracking system; full compliance is due by 31 July 2027. Registering a commercial drone requires a Turkish ID or tax number, which is why we usually pair foreign crews with a Turkish licensed operator.

Producer and company details, a project description, the equipment list, every location by province, district and street, a crew list with passport images, executive producer details if you have one, and the script and synopsis, which we translate into Turkish. Missing passport data gets an application rejected, and if the Ministry later finds the file incomplete or incorrect it can revoke the permit and stop filming. Liability insurance is not on the Ministry's list, though drone operations need third-party cover and some location owners ask for it in their contracts.