Acquisition of Turkish Citizenship for Foreign Investors

DEPARTMENT OF CITIZENSHIP SERVICES DATE SUBJECT : 03.10.2019
Article 12 of the Turkish Citizenship Law No. 5901 allows foreign investors to acquire Turkish citizenship in exceptional terms; with 18.09.2018 dated and 106 numbered Presidential Decree, amendatory new arrangements have been made regarding the amounts mentioned in the Article 20 of the Regulation on the Implementation of the aforementioned Law.
Within this scope, the foreign investors;
❖ who make fixed capital investment at least 500.000 US Dollars or equivalent foreign currency or equivalent amount of Turkish Lira and for whom certificate of conformity is issued by the Ministry of Industry and Technology,
❖ who purchase the immovable property at least 250.000 US Dollars or equivalent foreign currency or equivalent amount of Turkish Lira and attached annotation at land registration not to sell this property for three years and for whom a certificate of conformity is issued by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization,
❖ who employ at least 50 employees and for whom a certificate of conformity is issued by the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services,
❖ who invest at least 500.000 US dollars or its equivalent in foreign currency or equivalent amount of Turkish Lira and make commitment to hold the amount of deposits for three years at banks operating in Turkey and for whom a certificate of conformity is issued by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency,
❖ who purchase public borrowing instruments at least 500.000 US Dollars or equivalent foreign currency or equivalent amount of Turkish Lira and make commitment to hold these instruments for three years and for whom certificate of conformity is issued by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance,
❖ who purchase a real estate investment fund participation share or venture capital investment fund participation amount of at least 500.000 US Dollars or equivalent foreign currency or equivalent amount of Turkish Lira and make commitment to hold these participation shares for three-years and for whom a certificate of conformity is issued by the Capital Market Board,

In order to;
 Make the process of acquiring Turkish citizenship more efficient and faster,
 Provide services in support, consultancy and application tracking processes from the application for residence permit (6458-31/J) to the acquisition of Turkish citizenship,
 Provide quality service with qualified personnel working in manner of “customer representative”,
 Maintain foreign investors, who do not have a certificate of conformity, to contact with the relevant determining institutions and to direct them to the designated contact persons,

Operations have been started to provide faster service by establishing “special/joint offices”, mainly in Ankara and Istanbul.
Moreover, the documents requested for foreign citizens to acquire Turkish citizenship and the documents requested separately in citizenship applications were simplified in “private/common offices”; so residence permit and citizenship application shall be obtained at once together with the jointly determined documents.