Turkish citizenship through investment

Getting Turkish citizenship through investment

According to the last amendment to the Turkish Citizenship law in 2018, Turkish citizenship could be obtained through a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of real estate ownership instead of $1 million.

Turkish citizenship law:

On 12-01-2017, the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urbanization issued a decision on the Turkish Citizenship Act, which provides the eligibility of a property owner in Turkey worth $1,000,000 to apply for Turkish citizenship.

But this decision was amended on 18/09/2018 where the purchase value of the property declined to reach $250,000.

Properties owned in Turkey that are paid for in installments are acceptable as long as the first payment is made after December 1, 2017, and the ownership documents are received after the date of the most recent revision.

Options for obtaining Turkish citizenship for investors:

1. Bank deposition of $500,000 for 3 years without withdrawal or modification.
2. Buying $500,000 of government debentures for 3 years without withdrawal or modification.
3. establishing a company employing 50 Turkish employees.
4. citizenship in exchange for buying a property worth at least 400,000 dollars and keeping it for 3 years minimum.
5. Also, you can apply for citizenship for a property that is purchased in installments.

Conditions for obtaining Turkish citizenship in exchange for property:

• All financial transactions must be through the bank, and no transfers are accepted outside the banking system.
• To obtain citizenship you cannot buy a property from any nationality rather than Turkish.
• In the case of ownership in installments, the value to be calculated is the total value of the property to be paid.
• Although the required value is a quarter of a million, there may be differences in the evaluation phase so it is preferable to own a property higher than the minimum to ensure the result.
• For a minimum of three years after the date of purchase, the ownership of the property purchased for Turkish citizenship cannot be transferred.
• The total payment receipts must be transferred from the buyer’s account to the seller’s account accompanied by mentioning the reason for the transfer, and the address of the property as in the official papers.
• There is no time limit for the purchase but it must be in a period after the citizenship law has been made and amended.
• In the case of a mortgage, it is preferable to lift it before transferring ownership of the property to the buyer.

Papers and documents required to apply for Turkish citizenship:

• Passports are translated into Turkish and certified by the notary (the passport of the owner is required in addition to family members who are entitled to citizenship, ex: the spouse and children under the age of 18).
• In the absence of proof of nationality in the passport (such as some Palestinian passports), it is necessary to provide official proof of the investor’s nationality, which is translated and certified at the Turkish Embassy.
• 10 Personal photos of the investor and each member of the family “wife and children under 18 years of age” each size 50*60 mm, with white background
• A translated family statement or notebook for all those entitled to citizenship.
• A translated and certified copy of the marriage document, that has been extracted during the last six months or the original marriage contract regardless of its date or single document for unmarried persons.
• Residency statement.
• Photocopy of the last entering Turkey stamp on the passport
• Photocopy of the last visa.
• Extracting the tax number.
• The form of the title deed of the property purchased (tabu), or the contract of the promise of sale/contract for the future (when purchasing for under constructed, or on the map property) at the Cadastre (Notre).
• The reserve document for the property, in which the buyer agreed not to sell it until three years had passed since the acquisition.
• Real estate value report: which is an evaluation of the real worth of the property by a formally licensed institution. The validity of this report is 3 months, which is usually extracted within two or three working days.
• Original payment Receipts from the buyer’s account, marked by the stamp of the sent bank.
• An official agency by the investor to the authority authorized to carry out legal procedures and official transactions whether persons or real estate companies.

     Agency processing options:

1. Either the husband and wife come to Turkey and prepare the agency in the Turkish notary,
2. Or preparing the agency at the Turkish Embassy in their country, each embassy has certain procedures different from each other to organize the agency, so you should contact the embassy to find out the required procedures.

In accordance with recent updates in the Law on Obtaining Turkish Citizenship through Real Estate Investment, attention should be paid to the following points:

1. All of the above papers and documents must be issued by the country of nationality or its embassy in any country.
2. Certification and translation of these documents by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
3. All papers and documents need to be certified by the Turkish Embassy, or from the Embassy of the buyer’s country if they are in Turkey.
4. Original Arabic documents must be sent like: the birth certificate, marriage contract, and family book
5. documents to be provided must contain the place of birth as a city, not a country, for example, one of the documents must contain the place of birth (Baghdad, not Iraq, Dubai, not the UAE, etc.). This applies to the whole family.
6. The marriage certificate must be extracted from the country you want to provide its passport when you apply for Turkish citizenship. This means that if your passport is Palestinian, you are not allowed to produce a Saudi marriage certificate, etc.

Edited by: Dari Real Estate

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