Turkey Citizenship by Investment

Article 20(2) of the Regulation lists seven routes, and a foreign national satisfying any one of them may acquire Turkish citizenship by Presidential decision under Article 12(1)(b) of the Law. The seven, with the body that determines each:

In converting those monetary values, the effective selling rate and cross exchange rate of the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye on the date of determination apply.

The outcome is Turkish citizenship, but it arrives by a decision of the President rather than as a right the law confers in advance — and that is the most important distinction this route carries.

The basis is subparagraph (b) added to the first paragraph of Article 12 of Citizenship Law No. 5901, in force from 28 July 2016, while the scope and the amounts are set by regulations published in the Official Gazette on 18 September 2018.

An applicant who meets the criteria may acquire citizenship subject to the President’s decision; they do not acquire it automatically.

Nor is the path as direct as sales material usually implies: the text itself describes two consecutive stages.

The foreign national must first hold a residence permit under subparagraph (j) of the first paragraph of Article 31 of Law No. 6458 on Foreigners and International Protection, granted on the basis of an investment within the scope and amount determined by the President. Only then does the person reach the citizenship step.

There is also a second, parallel door that introductory material almost never mentions: foreigners holding the turquoise card may acquire citizenship under the same provision.

A route for people with particular qualifications or contributions, not measured in money, so it stands alongside the seven investment doors rather than among them.

Each investment route is confirmed by a different body, and that body is the one that must issue the paperwork. Fixed capital is confirmed by the Ministry of Industry and Technology.

Real estate is confirmed by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, together with an annotation of refusal of sale for three years entered in the title deed registry.

Creating employment for at least 50 people is confirmed by the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services.

A deposit in a bank operating in Turkey is confirmed by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, on condition it is kept in the account for three years. Participation shares in a real estate or venture capital investment fund are confirmed by the Capital Markets Board, likewise on a three-year holding condition

This route carries no presence obligation, and that is read from the text itself rather than inferred from its reputation.

Article 20 of the regulation — the single article governing exceptional acquisition of Turkish citizenship — does not mention residence anywhere.

What Article 20 imposes in place of a residence duty is an obligation to hold the asset, and it is written onto the register rather than left to the buyer's promise:

Real estate from USD 400,000 must carry an annotation on the title register that it will not be sold for three years, while a notarised promise-to-sell contract must carry an annotated undertaking not to transfer or deregister for three years.

A deposit from USD 500,000 with banks operating in Türkiye must be held for three years.

The contrast sharpens the point: the regulation's heaviest residence requirements sit not in Article 20 but on the ordinary naturalisation route.

There an application is refused if the applicant has not resided five uninterrupted years counting back from the filing date. A severe clock-breaking rule also applies: more than six months in aggregate spent outside Türkiye during the residence period breaks that period, and all time before it is disregarded.

The investment route stands outside both rules.

Article 20(3) sets out the file compiled by the receiving authority on the written instruction of the Ministry, and two of its documents concern family ties.

The first is the civil status document: a marriage certificate where the applicant is married, a divorce certificate where divorced, and the death certificate of the spouse where widowed.

The second is that, where the applicant is married, they must file a population register extract or equivalent document evidencing the family tie of the spouse and the children.

In addition, where the applicant has Turkish citizen relatives of the first or second degree, the receiving authority itself obtains those persons population register extracts from the system

A person granted citizenship under this programme receives the Turkey passport, so the figure in this cell is the figure for that passport itself.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Turkey passport reaches 105 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

Citizenship Law No. 5901 mentions tax only in Article 45 on service fees: a person with no income under Income Tax Law No. 193, and accompanying minor children, does not pay the citizenship service fee — a matter of fees, not of a tax regime.

The implementing Regulation 2010/139 likewise mentions tax only in the list of documents evidencing income for ordinary naturalisation; the investment route requires no tax document at all.

There is nonetheless one tax provision attached directly to the property route, and it repays close reading because its condition is an exclusion.

Article 13(i) of Value Added Tax Law No. 3065, added by Law 6824 of 23 February 2017, exempts from VAT the first delivery of a dwelling or workplace, on condition that the money is brought into Türkiye in foreign currency.

Those eligible are only foreign nationals not settled in Türkiye, and Turkish citizens living abroad for more than six months holding a work or residence permit.

Also eligible are legal persons with neither a legal seat nor a place of management in Türkiye and earning no profit there through a place of business or permanent representative. The same article excludes persons falling under Article 3(1)(2) of the Income Tax Law.

Two sanctions accompany that exemption. First, where the exemption is found to have been applied without entitlement, the purchaser is jointly and severally liable with the taxpayer for the tax not collected in time, the tax-loss penalty and late interest.

Second, where property bought under the exemption is sold within three years, the uncollected tax must be paid before the title transfer is registered, together with deferment interest under Article 48 of Law 6183; that period was raised from one year to three by Article 10 of Law No. 7394 of 8 April 2022.

On tax residence, and this is the pivot of the record: Article 3 of Income Tax Law No. 193 makes persons settled in Türkiye liable on their entire income both within and outside Türkiye, together with Turkish citizens working abroad for bodies seated in Türkiye;

Article 4 defines settlement on two tests, having a domicile in Türkiye under the Civil Code, or staying continuously for more than six months in a calendar year, with the note that temporary departures do not interrupt the period of stay.

Neither article takes nationality as a test, so acquiring Turkish citizenship does not of itself make a person fully liable.

Article 5 adds a further exclusion. A foreign national is not treated as settled despite staying more than six months where they came to Türkiye for specific and temporary work or assignment, as businesspeople, scientists, experts, officials, reporters and persons in like positions.

The same applies to those who came to study, for medical treatment, for rest or for tourism, and likewise to those detained by arrest, sentence or illness.

Article 6 closes it: persons not settled in Türkiye are taxed only on income earned in Türkiye.

The investment thresholds, under Article 20(2) of the implementing Regulation as added by Decision 2016/9601 and amended by Decision 5072 of 6 January 2022, are as follows:

The private pension channel was added by Decision 5554 of 13 May 2022.

Read this cell within its scope: the citizenship instruments are silent on any tax regime. The VAT Law supplies one exemption tied to the property route with its exclusion and its sanctions.

The Income Tax Law states the scope of liability by settlement, but gives no rate applicable to investors under this route, says nothing about double taxation treaties, nothing about land registry transfer duty, and nothing about foreign asset reporting.

The property route carries three constraints the sales pitch tends to omit.

First, the investment is locked for three years: an annotation must be entered in the land registry that the property will not be sold for three years.

On the notarised promise-to-sell variant, at least US$400,000 must be paid in cash up front and an undertaking not to transfer and not to cancel the registration for three years must be annotated.

Second, the range of qualifying assets has been narrowed twice: Presidential Decision 5554 published in the Official Gazette of 13 May 2022 raised the figure from 250,000 to 400,000 US dollars.

Then Presidential Decision 7938 published in the Official Gazette of 12 December 2023 replaced the words "immovable property" with "immovable property on which condominium ownership or a condominium easement has been established, or land-qualified immovable property with a building on it" — excluding bare land from the category.

Third, switching between investment types is permitted in order to complete the prescribed period, under Article 20(8).

The file must also carry the receipt showing the service fee paid to the Finance treasury; and the Ministry of Interior may establish a commission of representatives from four ministries to follow the progress of applications under paragraph 2