Slikmrs, this was a renewal of my first residency which when I applied in 2010 was told it could only be for 3 years but when Mrs Hamlet applied for her first residency in 2011 she was able to get 5 years. Since then we know of people who have been told both versions. We live in Uzumlu and therefore ours are all dealt with in Fethiye.
I would definitely use a translator, we have employed both Ilknur Doody & Yakup Yilmaz for residency applications and feel that it is well worth paying 100tl for someone to complete all the paperwork correctly, to get the documents signed as required and submit them to the passport police, along with all the running around connected with the process is well worth it.
I'm not sure exactly how long it took for the application after the paperwork was submitted as I left collection until I was in that area again & that was 10 days later.
Hope this helps.