A New Era for Investment in Turkey: An Opportunity for Acquiring Turkish Citizenship

A new regulation, which amends the Regulation on Application of Turkish Citizenship Law, published in yesterday’s Official Gazette (12 January 2017) (“Regulation”). 

This Regulation introduces an opportunity for acquiring Turkish citizenship by means of investment in Turkey.

According to this Regulation, a non-Turkish investor may acquire Turkish citizenship by the proposal of Ministry of Internal Affairs and decision of the Council of Minister’s if such person:

• makes a fixed capital investment at least in an amount of USD 2,000,000 in Turkey,
• purchases an immovable asset at least in an amount of USD 1,000,000 in Turkey subject to a prohibition of sale of such property for 3 years,
• creates employment for at least 100 persons in Turkey,
• deposits money at least in amount of USD 3,000,000 to the banks in Turkey subject to a condition of maintaining such deposit for three years, or
• purchases public debt instruments at least in amount of USD 3,000,000 subject to a condition of maintaining such instruments for 3 years,

In order Ministry of Internal Affairs to make a proposal to the Council of Ministers for granting Turkish citizenship to the concerning investor, the relevant Turkish public authority must confirm that such investor has met the relevant condition (e.g. Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, Ministry of Labor and Social Security). Hence, such investor should be ready to go through several application and evaluation stages. In this regard, if you think of initiating this application preceding, I kindly advise you to liaise with a legal and a financial advisor in order to finalize the application process in the most time and cost efficient manner.

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Publication Date: 13 January 2017