Turkish nationals
Establishing yourself in business
This section explains how Turkish nationals may benefit from the European Community Association Agreement (ECAA) with Turkey if they want to establish themselves in business in the UK.
If you are a Turkish national and you want to establish yourself in business in the UK, you can apply to come to or remain here in the Turkish ECAA business category. We will consider your application under the business provisions that were in force in 1973. See the Can you apply? page for further information.
To find out how to make an application, see the Applying from outside the UK or Applying from inside the UK pages.
If you are already in the UK and your family members are living with you, they may be able to extend their stay under the ECAA. See the Dependants of Turkish ECAA nationals page for details.
You cannot benefit from the ECAA if you have breached UK immigration law in order to be able to apply to establish yourself in business here. If this is the case, you will need to meet the requirements of the current immigration rules - which means that you will need to apply as an Entrepreneur under Tier 1 of the points-based system.
This section contains a brief guide to the rules. For more information, you can read the full casework instruction in Chapter 6, Section 6 of our Immigration directorate instructions.