Moving from France to Turkey (2026): Complete Guide

Relocating from France to Turkey means handling two separate customs systems: French export rules on one side, and Turkish import rules on the other — governed by two different authorities, forms and timelines. Because Turkey is outside the EU customs union, this is not a simple intra-EU move: France’s Direction Générale des Douanes et Droits Indirects (DGDDI) treats your shipment as an export, and Turkey’s Ministry of Trade (Ticaret Bakanlığı) treats it as a residence-transfer import that only qualifies for duty exemption once you meet its prior-residence and documentation conditions. This guide is written for a French resident — employee, retiree, remote worker or property buyer — planning a household move to Turkey, and covers both halves plus a short note on moving back the other way.

Key takeaways

• French customs do not require an export declaration for your personal effects or your own car when leaving for a non-EU country — but you must still present a change-of-residence file (inventory, proof of new address, landlord/municipal attestation) to French customs, and certain goods (weapons, precious metals, high-value jewelry/art/antiques, protected species, cultural goods) do need a formal export declaration (douane.gouv.fr).
• Carrying cash, gold or bearer instruments worth €10,000 or more out of France to a non-EU country must be declared to customs, via the online DALIA service or at the border (douane.gouv.fr).
• In Turkey, duty-free import of used household goods ("ev eşyası nakli") requires proof you lived outside the Turkish customs zone continuously for at least 24 months and a residence-transfer certificate; the goods must arrive within 6 months of your own arrival (ticaret.gov.tr).
• A Turkish residence permit (ikamet izni) is the document that supports the customs exemption — apply for a short-term residence permit, valid up to 2 years, through the Presidency of Migration Management (goc.gov.tr).
• Notify French health insurance (CPAM) with form S1105 within about a month of leaving; your carte Vitale is deactivated once you register your departure (ameli.fr).
• Pets need an ISO-compliant microchip, rabies vaccination and (for Turkey) a rabies antibody titration test plus an official veterinary health certificate — maximum 2 animals per traveler (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry / vskn.tarimorman.gov.tr).
• Bringing your own car requires the temporary-import regime (up to 730 days for holders of a Turkish residence permit; just 90 days without one), and generally requires having been abroad at least 185 consecutive days before entry (Gümrük Rehberi, Ticaret Bakanlığı).
• Register with the French consulate in Turkey via the registre des Français établis hors de France — it’s what French authorities use to reach you abroad and is valid for 5 years (diplomatie.gouv.fr).

1. Your prior-residence status decides your customs treatment

Everything downstream — whether Turkish customs treats your shipment as a duty-free household-goods transfer or as a commercial import subject to full duty and VAT — depends on your documented residence history at the time your goods arrive. The Ticaret Bakanlığı exemption applies to people who have resided outside the Turkish customs zone continuously for at least 24 months (short stays in Turkey of under 6 months in a given year don’t break continuity, but don’t count toward the 24 months either) and who present a residence-transfer certificate (obtained via e-Devlet or the Turkish consulate before departure) together with a population-registry record and an itemized goods list (ticaret.gov.tr). In practice this means securing your Turkish residence permit — most commonly the short-term residence permit issued for up to two years by the Presidency of Migration Management (Göç İdaresi) — before or shortly after your goods are shipped, since customs and your mover will need it as supporting documentation (goc.gov.tr). Move without a confirmed residence status and documentation and your shipment risks being cleared as a standard commercial import, with duty and VAT charged on the declared value of everything you own.

2. The France export side: customs, deregistration and tax exit

Customs authority. France’s customs administration is the Direction Générale des Douanes et Droits Indirects (DGDDI), reachable on the Infos Douane Service line (0 800 94 40 40, free from France). For a move to a non-EU country like Turkey, DGDDI does not require you to file a customs declaration for your ordinary personal effects or your own non-commercial vehicle. What it does require is a change-of-residence file: proof of your new address abroad, a landlord or municipal attestation (or a sworn statement if unavailable), and a detailed, dated, signed and paginated inventory of the goods you’re shipping, produced in duplicate (a third copy if you clear through an inland customs office rather than a border post). If you’re exporting your car, include a photocopy of its carte grise (registration certificate). The export can be carried out in one or several shipments within 12 months of the transfer of residence (douane.gouv.fr).

A handful of goods trigger a genuine export declaration and, for some categories, a flat-rate tax regardless of the reason for export: weapons and ammunition, dual-use technology, protected wildlife specimens, and cultural goods all require an export declaration; separately, non-temporary exports of precious metals are subject to France’s flat-rate tax on precious objects (TFOP) at 11% of customs value, and exports of jewelry, art, collectibles or antiques are taxed at 6% — though the latter category is exempt below a €5,000 customs value (the exemption does not apply to precious metals themselves). A 0.5% social-debt contribution (CRDS) applies on top of the TFOP rate (douane.gouv.fr — TFOP; douane.gouv.fr — déménagement hors UE; douane.gouv.fr — export procedures). Separately, if you are physically carrying €10,000 or more in cash, bearer instruments, gold or prepaid cards out of France to a non-EU destination, EU Regulation 2018/1672 obliges you to declare it — either in advance through the online DALIA service or at the border crossing itself (douane.gouv.fr).

Deregistration. France has no municipal population register to formally deregister from, unlike some other EU countries. The steps that matter instead are: notify your CPAM (health insurance fund) of your departure using form S1105 – "Déclaration de transfert de résidence hors de France", sent together with your carte Vitale, within about a month of ceasing to reside in France; this closes your French health-cover rights and deactivates the card (ameli.fr). It’s also strongly advised to register with the French consulate covering your new address in Turkey via the registre des Français établis hors de France — a free, five-year registration that lets consular services reach you and your family in an emergency (diplomatie.gouv.fr).

Tax residency exit. For the year you leave, you file with the French tax administration (impots.gouv.fr) a return covering the income you received while still resident in France, together with the relevant non-resident declarations; any French-source income you continue to receive after departure (rental property, pensions, etc.) is then managed on an ongoing basis by the non-resident individuals’ tax service (impots.gouv.fr). Owning property in France after you leave does not end your liability for local property taxes on it, and your fiscal domicile is assessed under French domestic law and the France–Turkey tax treaty, so it’s worth confirming your specific situation with the French tax authorities before departure.

3. Ports and transit — realistic routing (industry estimates, not official figures)

For sea freight, the natural gateway is Marseille-Fos, France’s main Mediterranean container and RoRo hub, which sits far closer to Turkish ports than the Channel/Atlantic ports. Le Havre, France’s largest container port, is also used, typically for consolidated groupage loads routed via larger transshipment hubs. On the Turkish side, shipments typically land at Ambarlı (Istanbul), Alsancak (İzmir), or Mersin, depending on where in Turkey you’re settling. As a freight-industry rule of thumb — not an official schedule — a full or shared container from Marseille-Fos to an Istanbul-area port runs roughly 7–14 days transit depending on routing and transshipment, with Le Havre departures often a few days longer; air freight is typically 2–4 days door-to-door including customs handling. Actual transit always depends on the carrier, sailing schedule and customs clearance speed at each end — treat these only as planning estimates.

4. The Turkey import side: the customs process

Once your residence documentation is in order, the duty exemption for used household goods ("ev eşyası") is administered by Turkish customs under Ticaret Bakanlığı rules. You (or your appointed customs broker, commonly used for household-goods clearances in Turkey) submit: the residence-transfer certificate (obtainable via e-Devlet or your nearest Turkish consulate before you ship), a population-registry record, and an itemized list of the goods being imported. Customs verifies the 24-month prior-residence condition and — if approved — clears the shipment under the residence-transfer exemption rather than as a commercial import. Goods must physically enter Turkey within 6 months of your own arrival and can come in a single shipment or several batches within that window; items intended for professional or trade use are excluded from the exemption, as are motor vehicles, which fall under a separate temporary-import regime (ticaret.gov.tr). Using the exemption again later requires another 24 months of continuous residence abroad — it isn’t a repeatable annual allowance.

5. Pets: bringing an animal both ways

Into Turkey. Turkish rules, set by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, require an ISO 11784-compliant microchip (HDX or FDX-B, readable by an ISO 11785 reader) implanted before an inactivated rabies vaccine is given, plus a rabies neutralizing-antibody titration blood test (minimum result 0.5 IU/ml) taken at an approved laboratory at least 30 days after vaccination — the blood sample must be no more than about 3 months old at the time of entry. You also need an official veterinary health certificate issued by an authorized vet in France. A traveler may bring a maximum of two animals (e.g., two cats, or one cat and one dog), each with its own paperwork.

Leaving France. Before departure, have your vet in France issue the export health documentation for a non-EU destination and check current pet-travel requirements via the EU’s Your Europe pet-travel portal and French customs’ own pet-travel guidance.

Turkey → France (reverse direction). Coming back into the EU from a non-EU country not on the EU’s approved low-rabies-risk list requires the same rabies antibody titration test (taken at least 30 days after vaccination), with the blood sample dated no more than 90 days before your EU health certificate is issued — confirm Turkey’s current listing status before you travel, since this determines whether the titer test is required (European Commission – bringing a pet into the EU from a non-EU country).

6. Vehicles, money, and things people forget

Vehicles. You cannot simply drive your French-plated car into Turkey and keep it indefinitely. Turkish customs allow a temporary import of one foreign-plated vehicle registered in your name, provided the vehicle and its owner have genuinely been abroad for at least 185 consecutive days immediately before entry. Holders of a Turkish residence permit can keep the vehicle in Turkey up to 730 days (or for the length of a shorter residence permit); foreign nationals without a Turkish residence permit are limited to 90 days. After the permitted period the vehicle must be re-exported, permanently imported with duty paid, or otherwise regularized (Gümrük Rehberi, Ticaret Bakanlığı). On the French side, exporting your own car only requires a photocopy of the carte grise as part of your change-of-residence file — no separate export declaration for a private, non-commercial vehicle (douane.gouv.fr).

Money. Beyond the €10,000 cash-declaration threshold when leaving France, Turkey applies its own cash-declaration rules under Decree No. 32 on the Protection of the Value of Turkish Currency, covering both Turkish lira and foreign currency carried across the border; the specific thresholds are revised periodically by circular, so confirm the current figures with the Ministry of Trade before you travel (gumrukrehberi.gov.tr — nakit ve ziynet eşyası rehberi).

Things people forget. Property owners keeping a home in France remain liable for local property tax even after moving abroad. The CPAM S1105 notification and consulate registration are easy to skip but matter for continuity of any French-side administrative contact. And because the Turkish household-goods exemption hinges on the 24-month prior-residence test and a confirmed residence permit, timing your move (and gathering the residence-transfer certificate) before your shipment leaves France avoids the goods sitting in bond at a Turkish port while paperwork catches up.

How Flyto handles your France to Turkey move

Flyto runs its own offices, warehouses, crews and vehicles across Northern, Central and Southern Europe, so the French collection, packing and consolidation on your move is typically handled by our in-house teams rather than outsourced end to end. For the ocean or air leg into Turkey and final-mile delivery, we work through a carefully vetted network of partner carriers and licensed local agents, plus trusted on-the-ground partners in Turkey who handle customs clearance and last-mile delivery under the residence-transfer exemption. This combination gives you the consistency of an in-house European operation with the local expertise needed to clear a non-EU import correctly the first time.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a Turkish residence permit before I can import my household goods duty-free?
In practice, yes — the exemption is tied to proving you’re transferring your residence to Turkey, and customs will ask for supporting documentation that in most cases means an active residence process (ticaret.gov.tr).

Does French customs need to inspect or approve my shipment before I leave?
No declaration is required for ordinary personal effects or your own car heading to a non-EU country, but you must still assemble the change-of-residence file (inventory, proof of address, landlord attestation) that your mover and Turkish customs will rely on (douane.gouv.fr).

How long do I have to bring the rest of my belongings once I’ve arrived in Turkey?
Up to 6 months from your own arrival date, and you can bring goods in more than one shipment within that window (ticaret.gov.tr).

Can I keep driving my French car in Turkey long-term?
Only under the temporary-import regime, capped at 730 days for residence-permit holders (90 days without a permit), and only if you meet the 185-day prior foreign-residence condition; it isn’t a path to permanently keeping a foreign-plated car in Turkey (Gümrük Rehberi).

What happens to my French health cover once I move?
Once you submit form S1105 to your CPAM, your French health-insurance rights close and your carte Vitale is deactivated — plan alternative cover (private, Turkish, or the CFE voluntary scheme) before you rely on it (ameli.fr).

Do I still owe French tax after I leave?
You must declare the income received while you were still tax-resident in France, and any ongoing French-source income (rental property, pensions, etc.) continues to be managed by France’s non-resident tax service — check the France–Turkey tax treaty for your specific income types (impots.gouv.fr).

Sources

• DGDDI — Transfert de résidence hors de l’Union européenne
• DGDDI — Déménagement hors de l’Union européenne (mariage, expatriés)
• DGDDI — What you need to know about export procedures
• DGDDI — S’acquitter de la taxe forfaitaire sur les objets précieux (TFOP)
• DGDDI — Traveling with cash ≥€10,000 to/from a non-EU country
• DGDDI — You are traveling with a dog, cat or ferret
• impots.gouv.fr — Je pars à l’étranger ou j’arrive en France
• ameli.fr — Formulaire S1105, déclaration de transfert de résidence hors de France
• France Diplomatie — S’inscrire au registre des Français établis hors de France
• T.C. Ticaret Bakanlığı — Ev Eşyası İşyeri Nakli Muafiyeti
• Presidency of Migration Management — Residence Permit Types
• T.C. Tarım ve Orman Bakanlığı (Trabzon) — Türkiye’ye kedi-köpek girişi için gerekli şartlar
• Gümrük Rehberi (Ticaret Bakanlığı) — Geçici ithal edilen taşıt rehberi
• Gümrük Rehberi (Ticaret Bakanlığı) — Nakit ve ziynet eşyası rehberi
• European Commission — Bringing a pet into the EU from a non-EU country
• Your Europe (EU) — Travelling with pets and other animals