Cell phone registration. (Istanbul)

Hello everyone.

I heard that there is a new procedure to register your foreign phone which requires us to pay a 100TL tax which is ok but does anyone know if the phones can be registered to a foreign passport? My wife and Daughter, who are both American Citizens, have American passports and are awaiting their residency permits in October of this year and we are getting conflicting reports when attempting to register them. The phone companies do not know the procedure for registering to a foreign passport and ask me to bring their residency or "Ikametgah" which they don't have yet. How do foreigners register their phones within 30 days when the appointment for a residency permit is made 3 months later.

Thank you in advance for your help.