Turkish citizenship by investment is not an automatic citizenship programme in the strict sense. The applicant must satisfy one of the investment conditions prescribed under the applicable legislation; obtain a certificate of eligibility from the competent public authority; complete the short-term residence permit and citizenship application file; and ultimately receive citizenship by a Presidential decision following national security and public order checks.
This guide has been prepared by Resen Legal with reference to Turkish Citizenship Law No. 5901, the Regulation on the Implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law, Law No. 6458 on Foreigners and International Protection, the Title Deed Law, and administrative materials concerning the mandatory foreign currency conversion procedure. The guide reflects the principal rules in force as of 12 June 2026.
The principal statutory basis for citizenship by investment applications is Article 12 of Turkish Citizenship Law No. 5901. Under this provision, certain foreign nationals may acquire Turkish citizenship exceptionally by Presidential decision, provided that they do not pose an impediment in terms of national security or public order. Article 12 also covers investors who obtain a residence permit under Article 31/1-j of Law No. 6458, Turquoise Card holders, and specified family members.
The investment categories, monetary thresholds, three-year holding or non-transfer obligations, and the competent authorities issuing certificates of eligibility are regulated under Article 20 of the Regulation on the Implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law. Accordingly, investment planning should not be limited to the purchase price or bank receipt alone; the nature of the real estate, the order of payment and currency conversion, title deed annotations, valuation, and certificate of eligibility process must be assessed as a whole.
Pursuant to Article 20 of the Regulation, fulfilment of any of the following investment categories may allow the applicant to obtain a certificate of eligibility:
In determining the monetary value of the investment, the effective selling rate or cross exchange rate of the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye on the determination date is taken into account. Therefore, it is not sufficient for the investment amount to appear in the contract alone; payment records, valuation, foreign currency conversion, bank documentation, and the official determination date must be considered together.
The most commonly preferred route in practice is real estate investment. Under the current rules, the real estate must be worth at least USD 400,000 or its equivalent in foreign currency. The previous threshold of USD 250,000 was increased to USD 400,000 by the amendment dated 13 May 2022. Accordingly, any reference to the USD 250,000 threshold in older guides, advertisements, or non-official materials should not be relied upon as current law.
The amendment dated 12 December 2023 is also significant in terms of the legal nature of the property. The Regulation now requires the real estate to be subject to condominium ownership or construction servitude, or to be land with an existing structure. Vacant land or real estate that does not meet the prescribed characteristics should be reviewed separately before being used as the basis for a citizenship application.
In a direct purchase, an annotation restricting the sale of the property for three years must be registered on the title deed. In a preliminary sale contract route, the property must be subject to condominium ownership or construction servitude, at least USD 400,000 or its equivalent in foreign currency must be paid in advance, and the notarised preliminary sale contract must be annotated in the land registry with a three-year undertaking not to transfer or cancel the annotation.
The fact that the property will be used for a citizenship application does not remove the statutory restrictions on real estate acquisition by foreign nationals under Article 35 of the Title Deed Law. Foreign natural persons may acquire real estate only within the statutory limits and subject to the countries determined by the President. District surface-area limits, the nationwide per-person area limit, special security or military restricted zone checks, and the legal nature of the property should be reviewed before the transaction.
For real estate, bank deposit, government debt instrument, fund participation share, and private pension contribution categories, the relevant foreign currency amounts must be sold, before the transaction, to a bank operating in Türkiye and then by that bank to the Central Bank. In real estate transactions, the foreign currency purchase certificate must be issued before the title deed transaction, and the payment flow must be traceable through bank receipts.
The foreign currency purchase certificate should contain, at a minimum, the name and surname of the person on whose behalf the currency is converted, passport number or foreign identity number, the USD equivalent of the purchased foreign currency, the Turkish lira equivalent, and a statement indicating that the transaction has been carried out under the relevant legislation. Currency converted through an exchange office or by hand is not sufficient for citizenship file purposes.
In a real estate citizenship file, the foreign currency purchase certificate alone is not sufficient; an approved bank receipt evidencing that the converted amount was transferred to the seller’s account is also required. In practice, many defects arise where payment is made first and the documentation is attempted to be completed later. For this reason, the contract, valuation, currency conversion, bank transfer, and title deed application should be planned as a single integrated file.
The first step is to select the investment category and structure it in compliance with citizenship legislation. For real estate, the title deed status, seller profile, valuation, payment method, and annotation must be reviewed. For deposits, the source of funds, bank procedure, and three-year holding arrangement are critical. For funds and government debt instruments, custody and holding requirements must be verified in advance.
After completion of the investment, a certificate of eligibility is obtained from the competent public authority. For real estate investments, the process proceeds through the land registry and the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change; for deposits, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency; for government debt instruments, the Ministry of Treasury and Finance; for fund investments, the Capital Markets Board; for fixed capital investments, the Ministry of Industry and Technology; for employment creation, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security; and for private pension contributions, the Insurance and Private Pension Regulation and Supervision Agency.
Under Article 31/1-j of Law No. 6458, foreign nationals who do not work in Türkiye but make an investment within the scope and amount determined by the President, together with their foreign spouse and their own or their spouse’s minor or dependent foreign children, fall within the short-term residence permit category. Residence permits under this subparagraph may be issued for periods of up to five years at a time.
The citizenship file includes the application form, passport or equivalent document, civil status documents, birth certificate or civil registry extract, documents proving family ties, service fee receipt, and the certificate of eligibility according to the relevant investment category. Once the file is complete, archive checks and national security/public order assessments are carried out. If the assessment is positive, the file is submitted for Presidential decision.
The investor’s foreign spouse, the investor’s minor or dependent foreign child, and the spouse’s minor or dependent foreign child may be included in the application. For adult children, dependency must be assessed and documented separately. Marriage, divorce, custody, name discrepancies, and incomplete birth date records should be resolved before the citizenship file is submitted.
Two implementation sources were also reviewed in the preparation of this guide. The frequently asked questions document concerning the mandatory foreign currency conversion requirement for foreign real estate buyers is dated 03.02.2022 and remains useful in explaining the practical logic of the foreign currency purchase certificate, bank-mediated sale to the Central Bank, and bank receipt sequence. However, it does not, by itself, reflect all subsequent legislative amendments.
The metadata date of the Invest in Türkiye English guide on foreign citizens’ acquisition of Turkish citizenship is 30.07.2025. Nevertheless, certain parts of that PDF refer to a USD 250,000 threshold for real estate investment. Under the current Article 20 of the Regulation, the real estate threshold is USD 400,000. Accordingly, the former threshold should not be used in application planning.
The final assessment of citizenship applications depends on the administration’s current practice, document review, and security checks. This guide is intended for general information purposes and does not constitute legal advice for any specific investment, real estate transaction, or family file.
Resen Legal approaches citizenship by investment matters not merely as an application form process, but as a multi-stage legal structure that must be correctly designed from the outset. The eligibility of the real estate, payment flow, foreign currency conversion documents, certificate of eligibility, residence permit, and citizenship file are reviewed as part of a single file strategy.
A properly structured file reduces the risk of document deficiencies, payment inconsistencies, and certificate of eligibility issues that may be difficult to remedy later. For this reason, legal due diligence specific to the selected real estate or financial investment route should be carried out before the investment decision is finalised.
