August Amendment to the Notary Fee Tariff: Out-of-Office Procedures and Its Impact on Notary-Approved Translation

Notary-approved document procedures are something that everyone who sends documents abroad, establishes a company, issues a power of attorney or carries out official transactions with a foreign spouse encounters at some point. For this reason, every update to notarial legislation directly concerns not only notaries, but also translation agencies, sworn translators and, most importantly, the public. With the latest amendment made by the Ministry of Justice, certain fee items applicable to notarial procedures were restructured; in particular, the travel allowance charged for procedures carried out outside the notary's office and the travel expenses relating to the physical delivery of notarial documents were the headline items of the regulation.

In this article, we take a step-by-step look at what this current regulation, in force as of the date of publication of this article, actually means, who it affects, and what changes in practice, especially for readers who will have a notary-approved translation done. We also examine the translator's role in out-of-office notarial procedures, the most common mistakes, and the apostille stage that awaits you if your document is destined for use abroad.

What Changed on 26 August 2026?

Let's clarify the timeline first. The 2026 Notary Fee Tariff had been published in the Official Gazette dated 30 December 2025. What happened in August was not a complete renewal of this tariff, but an amendment to specific provisions. The regulation was published in the Official Gazette No. 33352 dated 26 August 2026 and entered into force on the same day.

The amendment focuses on two issues. The first is the travel allowance notaries receive for procedures performed outside their office: notaries and their deputies authorized to sign will, when they leave their place of duty to perform a notarial procedure, receive a daily travel allowance of 319.60 liras per procedure in addition to their transport expenses. The second is the physical delivery of notarial documents to official authorities: in cases where the original of a notarial document requested by a court, a criminal judgeship of peace or a chief public prosecutor's office must be delivered in person, travel expenses may be reimbursed; the travel expense payable under this heading may not exceed TRY 750 per delivery assignment, and where the use of public transport is declared, no additional documentation will be required. Furthermore, a single travel expense will be paid for multiple deliveries carried out on the same route and within the same journey.

Is This a "Notary Fee Hike"? The Real Scope of the Amendment

In news headlines, the regulation was occasionally presented as a "hike in notary fees"; the picture, however, is different. The amendment is not a general tariff change increasing fees across all notarial procedures; the standard travel allowance of TRY 319.60 and the special-procedure travel allowance of TRY 2,928.05 already existed at the same amounts in the current tariff that entered into force on 1 January 2026. What the new regulation did was to clearly define the scope, payment method and the TRY 750 upper limit of the travel expenses arising specifically from the physical delivery of documents.

In other words, there is no fundamental increase under this regulation in the charge and fee structure of standard notarial procedures such as powers of attorney, signature circulars or the certification of translations. What has changed is the clarification of the cost framework for out-of-office procedures and document delivery processes. This clarity is actually a positive development for citizens who want to estimate costs before a procedure: it is now more evident which item applies in which situation. The amounts cited above belong to a third-party official tariff and are valid as of the date of publication of this article; the current figures should be confirmed with the relevant notary's office or the Official Gazette before any procedure.

What Is an Out-of-Office Notarial Procedure, and Where Does It Intersect with Translation?

An out-of-office procedure is one in which the notary, or a deputy authorized to sign, carries out the transaction not at the notary's office, but at a hospital, nursing home, prison, company headquarters or another address where the party to the transaction is located. A bedridden patient granting a power of attorney, an elderly person with limited mobility signing for the sale of real estate, or the drawing up of minutes at a company general assembly are typical examples of this scope. The travel allowance item clarified by the August regulation comes into play precisely in these scenarios.

So where does translation come in? If one of the parties to the transaction does not speak Turkish, the presence of a sworn translator before the notary is mandatory; the translator conveys the content of the transaction to the party concerned orally and signs the record. In out-of-office procedures, this need does not disappear; on the contrary, in settings such as hospitals or prisons, the translator must also travel to the location of the transaction. In such cases, working with an experienced interpretation team is critically important, both for the legally sound conduct of the procedure and for appointment coordination. Ziya Tercüme assigns sworn translators for both in-office and out-of-office procedures, in coordination with notary offices across Istanbul.

Sworn Translator Certification and Notarization Are Not the Same Thing

At this point, a frequently confused distinction needs to be clarified. Sworn translator certification is the verification of a translation, by stamp and signature, by a translator whose oath record is registered with a notary; it is a professional declaration as to the accuracy of the document's translation. Notarization, on the other hand, is a separate procedure: the notary certifies the signature of the translator whose oath record is held at that notary's office, and a separate fee accrues for this certification under the notary fee tariff. In other words, not every certified translation is automatically notary-approved; notarization is an additional layer of certification required by the institution requesting the document.

It is the institution requesting the document, not the translation agency, that determines which level of certification is required. Some universities and consulates are satisfied with the sworn translator's stamp alone, while land registries, courts and many official authorities require a notarized translation. For documents going abroad, an apostille is often added on top of the notarization. Asking the institution to which you will submit the document "which level of certification do you require?" before starting the process is the quickest route in terms of both time and cost.

Sample Scenario: A Power of Attorney at a Hospital and a Sworn Translator

Let's make it concrete. A person living in Germany who does not speak Turkish wants to have a power of attorney drawn up for the real estate transactions of their spouse, who is undergoing treatment in Istanbul; the spouse is hospitalized and cannot go to the notary's office. In this scenario, the process runs roughly as follows: first, an out-of-office procedure appointment is obtained from the notary; a translator whose oath record is held at that notary's office is assigned for the party who does not speak Turkish; the notary or an authorized deputy goes to the hospital together with the translator; the content of the transaction is conveyed to the party concerned through the translator, the parties' intentions are established and the power of attorney is signed.

The effect of the August regulation on this scenario is that the framework of the travel allowance applicable when the notary leaves the office has been clarified: notaries and their deputies authorized to sign will, when they leave the office to conduct business outside the notary's office, receive a daily travel allowance of TRY 319.60 per assignment. This amount is an official item of the notary tariff; it is independent of the translation service and should not be confused with the translator's fee. If the power of attorney is to be used later in Germany, its German translation must also be produced by a sworn translator, and, where necessary, the notarization and apostille stages should be planned. For such multilingual scenarios, you can find the full list of languages we work in on our translation languages page.

What Drives the Cost: What Should You Watch Out For?

The total cost of a notary-approved translation process does not consist of a single item and varies with every file. On the translation side, the decisive factors are the language pair (there is a difference between common and rare languages), the length of the document and its page/character volume, terminology density (legal and medical texts require greater expertise) and delivery urgency. On the notary side, the certification fee is calculated under the notary fee tariff according to the number of documents and copies; for out-of-office procedures, the official travel allowance item mentioned above is added.

When planning your budget, the following headings should be considered separately:

• Translation service: determined by language, volume, field of expertise and urgency.
• Notarization: subject to the official tariff; varies with the number of copies.
• Out-of-office procedure: the travel allowance item in the tariff comes into play.
• Apostille: no separate state charge is collected at governorships and district governorships; however, the preparatory steps beforehand incur costs.
• Courier/shipping: must be planned separately if the document is to physically travel abroad.

We can provide up-to-date, file-specific information on our own service fees most reliably after seeing your document; simply reach us via the free quote form to do so. The third-party official items valid as of the date of publication of this article can be summarized as follows:

The amounts in the table belong to the notary fee tariff and are not Ziya Tercüme's service fees; the current amounts should be confirmed with the relevant notary's office before any procedure.

If the Next Step Is Abroad: Apostille and e-Apostille

If your notarized translation is to be used abroad, and the destination country is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, an apostille stage awaits you as well. The critical point here is this: the apostille is issued not by the translation agency or the notary, but by governorships and district governorships for administrative documents, and by the competent judicial authorities for judicial documents. The translation agency's role is to make the document apostille-ready and to structure the correct sequence (translation first, or apostille first) according to the destination country's requirements. For those who want to plan this process end to end, our apostille attested translation service ensures the certification chain is completed in full.

There is also a significant convenience on the digital side: under the e-Apostille scheme, civil registry extracts, multilingual birth, marriage and death record extracts, court decisions and criminal record certificates can be obtained with ease. Use of the system is also growing steadily: from 2019, when the project was launched, until the end of March 2026, a total of 70,616 e-Apostilled document transactions were carried out. If your document falls within the e-Apostille scope, you can obtain a digitally annotated document without any physical paperwork at all and leave only the translation stage to the professionals.

Common Mistakes and Practical Tips

The most frequent mistake we see in this process is failing to clarify the certification level from the outset: a translation bearing only the sworn translator's stamp being rejected by an institution that requires notarization, or, conversely, unnecessary extra certifications being obtained. The second common mistake is having the translation done by a translator whose oath record is not held at the notary's office where the procedure will take place; in that case, since the notary cannot certify the translator's signature, the process has to be set up from scratch. The third is guessing the apostille–translation sequence without asking the destination country; some countries also require a translation of the apostille itself, while others expect the apostille before the translation.

In out-of-office procedures, appointment coordination is also vital: the notary, the translator and the party to the transaction must all be in the same place at the same time; in settings such as hospitals, physician availability must also be factored in. For last-minute files, the process can be compressed with urgent translation support; however, the soundest approach is to plan the entire certification chain (translation → notary → apostille) with an allowance of at least a few business days. If you are unsure which chain is required for which document, you can consult us via our contact channels before the procedure; after seeing your document, we will map out the right route together.

Conclusion: Clearer Rules, Proper Planning

The regulation of 26 August 2026 did not bring a general increase in the notary fee tariff; it did, however, make the rules on out-of-office procedures and document delivery expenses more explicit. This means predictability, particularly for citizens who will have a notarial procedure carried out at a hospital, prison or company address and who will need a sworn translator for that procedure. Legislation is subject to change; the amounts and rules in this article are valid as of its publication date and should be confirmed via the Official Gazette and the relevant notary's office before any procedure.

At Ziya Tercüme, we are by your side in Istanbul throughout the entire process: notary-approved translation, the assignment of sworn translators for in-office and out-of-office procedures, and pre-apostille document preparation. Whatever the type, language and destination country of your document, let's plan your file together to build the certification chain in full.

Sources

• Ministry of Justice, Directorate General of Legal Affairs — The 2026 Notary Fee Tariff Published in the Official Gazette
• BirGün — 2026 Notary Fee Tariff: How Much Are Notary Fees, in TRY?
• Samsun Gazetesi — Has the notary fee tariff changed? New regulation published
• Haber61 — Amendment to the notary fee tariff: Published in the Official Gazette
• Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure — Official documents reach the world digitally via e-Apostille