turkish citizenship

As it is known, in order to apply for Turkish Citizenship through purchase of property, the property must first be examined by the Land Registry Office.  If the property complies with the provisions of the relevant guideline, the Land Registry Directorate gives approval that the immovable property is eligible for citizenship. This approval was called “Conformity Letter” before the changes in the guideline, but with the new amendments, the name of the relevant document has been changed to “Property Investment Determination Certificate”. In this article, we have published the Circular Amendment No. 2019/5. Amendments made within the scope of the Regulation on the Implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law are contained.  In the article, the relevant amendments will be mentioned article by article.

1. The name of the document called “CONFORMITY LETTER” in the latest guideline published on 01/02/2023 has been changed to “PROPERTY INVESTMENT DETERMINATION CERTIFICATE”.

Former Article – For applications regarding the acquisition of Turkish citizenship exceptionally based on the purchase of property, the determination of our Directorate General is essential in accordance with the legislation determined and a certificate of conformity will be issued within this framework.

New Article – In the applications regarding the acquisition of Turkish citizenship exceptionally based on the purchase of property, the determination of our Directorate General is essential in accordance with the legislation determined and “Property Investment Determination Certificate” will be issued within this framework. Acquisition of citizenship based on this document depends on the evaluation and decision of the relevant Authority.

2. In the article under the title of BASIS, the phrase “property” is clearly stated as “property with condominium ownership or construction servitude or property with a building on the land“.

Former Article – Within the scope of subparagraph (b) of paragraph 2 of Article 20 of the Regulation on the Implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law; “The property in the amount of at least 400.000 US Dollars or equivalent foreign currency has been purchased with the condition that the title deed records are annotated not to be sold for three years, or a condominium or condominium easement has been established, at least 400. 000 US Dollars or equivalent foreign currency amount is deposited in advance and it is determined by the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change that the sale of the immovable is promised with a notarised contract on the condition that the commitment that it will not be transferred and abandoned for three years is annotated in the land registry.” foreign persons may acquire Turkish citizenship with the Presidential decision.

New Article – Within the scope of subparagraph (b) of paragraph 2 of Article 20 of the Regulation on the Implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law; “The property with condominium ownership or construction servitude or property with a building on the land in the amount of at least 400.000 US Dollars or equivalent foreign currency has been purchased with the condition that the title deed records are annotated not to be sold for three years, or a condominium or condominium easement has been established, at least 400. 000 US Dollars or equivalent foreign currency amount is deposited in advance and it is determined by the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change that the sale of the immovable is promised with a notarised contract on the condition that the commitment that it will not be transferred and abandoned for three years is annotated in the land registry.” foreign persons may acquire Turkish citizenship with the Presidential decision.

3. An addition has been made to the provision titled “PREREQUISITE FOR APPLICATION”:

Former Article – Since the Regulation includes the personal property purchases of foreign real persons, the property purchases made on behalf of the spouse, child, etc. or on behalf of the legal entity of the company which they are a manager/partner will not be evaluated within this scope.

New Article – Since the Regulation includes the personal property purchases of foreign real persons, the property purchases made on behalf of foreign real persons, such as their spouses, children, etc. will not be taken into account in the calculation of the value sought in the Regulation. In addition, property purchases made on behalf of the legal entity of the company in which these persons are managers or partners will not be evaluated within this scope.

4. New provisions have been added to the article titled “NATURE OF THE PROPERTY”:

Former Article – There is no restriction on the nature of the immovable property that can be purchased through sale (residence, workplace, land, field, yard, etc.). 

The applications to be made based on the preliminary sales contracts issued by the notary public are valid for the immovables for which condominium ownership or construction servitude has been established. 

Rights registered in the land registry as timeshare cannot be subject to acquisition of Turkish citizenship through a purchase of property.

New Article – As of 12/12/2023, the immovables to be purchased for the purpose of acquiring citizenship; Within the scope of the Property Ownership Law No. 634, it must be reserved as an independent section in the registry or, in the case of land-qualified immovables, the immovable must be registered as land and the existence of a permanent structure in accordance with the legislation with a certificate of occupancy permit must be determined.

It is not possible to acquire unstructured properties specified in the fourth paragraph of Article 35 of the Land Registry Law No. 2644 and immovable properties with the obligation to develop a project within two years and agricultural lands in order to acquire citizenship.

The applications to be made based on the preliminary sales contracts issued by the notary public are valid for the immovables for which condominium ownership or construction servitude has been established. 

Properties subject to timeshare rights cannot be subject to acquisition of Turkish citizenship through purchase of property.

5. The following additions have been made to the article titled NUMBER OF PROPERTY:

New Article – In the applications made based on the preliminary sales contract, the amount sought in the Regulation must be provided with a single contract and the properties subject to the promise must be determined in this contract. Within this framework, it is possible to subject more than one property to preliminary sales contracts under a single contract. However, applications made based on more than one preliminary sales contracts will not be taken into account. In cases where the purchased in accordance with the provisions of this Guideline do not meet the amount required for the acquisition of citizenship, it is not possible to complete the remaining amount with a preliminary sales contract.

6. The following article has been added to the article 1 of the provision titled “DETERMINATION OF THE INVESTMENT AMOUNT” which is the PROPERTY VALUATION REPORT provision:

New Article – Reports other than the reports uploaded to the system and taken as basis for the transaction during the annotation of the sale or preliminary sales contract and the valuation reports issued by the instruction of our Institution are not taken into account in the determination of value.

7. The following phrase has been added to the 2nd article of the provision titled DETERMINATION OF INVESTMENT AMOUNT, “FOREIGN EXCHANGE CERTIFICATE”:

New Article – The foreign currency certificate must include at least the name and surname of the person on whose behalf the foreign currency is exchanged, passport number or foreign ID number, propery number, the US Dollar equivalent of the foreign currency purchased and the phrase stating that this transaction was carried out within the scope of the acquisition of Turkish citizenship or Article 13 of the Capital Movements Circular. In cases where the propery number cannot be obtained, the block and independent section number information should be included, if any.

8. The following article has been added to the article titled “BANK RECEIPT”:

New Article – On the receipt, it is required to include the property information in the foreign exchange certificate or to refer to the transaction in the relevant foreign exchange certificate.

9. The following article has been added to the 3rd article of the SALE PROMISE TRANSACTION under the provision titled “INSTALLMENT SALES”:

New article – The receipts paid before 07.12.2018 and the receipts regarding the payments made after the contract date for the amount to be paid in advance will not be taken into consideration.

10. An additional phrase has been added to Article 3 of the provision titled “CONDITIONS REGARDING THE PARTIES”:

New Article – The second-hand property(ies) subject to sale or promise to sell must not be property that has been transferred to a Turkish citizen/company within the last three years by a foreign natural person or a person who has acquired citizenship within the scope of subparagraph (b) of paragraph 1 of Article 12 of the Turkish Citizenship Law. Acquisitions arising from work contracts are excluded from the scope of this article.

11. Article 6 of the provision titled “CONDITIONS REGARDING PARTIES” has been amended: 

New Article – For the property/properties registered in the name of the legal entity of the company (with foreign/international capital) within the scope of Article 36 of the Land Registry Law and subject to sale or sales promise, provided that the condominium servitude/ownership is established in the name of the owner company and the independent section has not been subject to any transfer process before; The owner company will be accepted as the investor company in cases where the construction investment is documented by the construction license that the entire construction investment is made by the owner company (the owner and contractor is the owner company from the date the construction license is first obtained), or in cases where the construction license holder and the contractor are different, the owner company will be accepted as the investor company in cases where the construction investment is documented by the service contract that the entire construction investment is made by the owner company.

the owner company.If these conditions are met, the independent sections registered in the name of the owner company may be subject to citizenship acquisition under this article. However, in cases where the construction license holder and the contractor are different and it is documented that the construction is carried out by the contractor company with a work contract in the form of a construction contract in return for flat, the independent sections registered in the name of the contractor company can be subject to investment under this article.

The independent sections remaining in the name of the owner company will not be subject to investment (acquisition for citizenship purposes). The registration made in the name of the contractor within the scope of the work contract is considered as the establishment of the condominium servitude/ownership in the name of the contractor company.

12. Article 8 of the provision titled “CONDITIONS REGARDING PARTIES” has been amended:

New Article – In the event that foreign real persons who have acquired Turkish citizenship through purchase of property transfer the property to the previous owner after the expiry of the commitment period, the General Directorate is notified to be transferred to the General Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs in order to review the citizenship acquisition process.

13. An additional sentence has been added to Article 2 of the provision titled “PROPERTY WITH LIMITATION”:

New Article – Mortgaged or attached properties may be subject to sale or sale promise agreements, and the prices herein shall not be taken into account in the calculations regarding the property investment determination certificate. In the event that the properties acquired with mortgage or lien are disposed of through forced sale, the property investment determination certificates issued shall be notified to the General Directorate in order to be canceled and transferred to the General Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs.

14. Article 3 of the provision titled “PROPERTY WITH LIMITATION has been amended:

New Article – Legal mortgages arising from previous acquisition will be evaluated in the same way. Properties with legal mortgages will not be subject to citizenship acquisition. 

If there are any encumbrances on the property subject to sale or promise of sale that may cause a change of ownership (promise of sale, 150-c, defendant, etc.), it will not be subject to citizenship acquisition. In case of hesitation, the matter will be referred to the Department of Foreign Affairs and the process will be directed in line with the opinion to be received.

15. An addition has been made to the article titled “COMMITMENT AND PROPERTY INVESTMENT DETERMINATION CERTIFICATE”:

New Article – In the event that a commitment is requested together with the sale transaction, a commitment is established by the title deed directorate that made the sale transaction, regardless of the number of property purchases in other directorates. In cases where the commitment statement is requested with a different application on the date after the sale transaction, in case there is more than one property purchase, the commitment is taken by the land registry directorate where the highest number of properties have been purchased; in case of equality, the commitment is taken by any land registry directorate where there is a purchase.

The property investment determination certificate shall be issued by the authorized regional directorate to which the directorate that issued the commitment statement is affiliated. In cases where properties in different directorates are subject to the commitment statement together and the regional directorate to which the title deed directorate that made the transaction is affiliated does not have the authority to examine the property investment determination, it is made by the authorized regional directorate to which the title deed directorate that acquired the highest number of properties or made the previous sale/promise to sell annotation transaction is affiliated.

Land registry offices, during the process of obtaining the commitment, the transactions are met by carefully examining the total amount(s) in the valuation report, the sales amounts in the official deed(s) and the amounts in the receipts, the authorization in the power of attorney, the acquisition of unstructured real estate, the purchase of real estate subject to permission, the reasonable interest and approvals in the receipts, the documents related to the determination of property investment and the documents taken as the basis for identification.

Necessary measures are taken by the title deed manager/authorized assistant manager to prevent transactions with incomplete information and documents.

16. Article 3 of the provision titled “REVIEW OF DETERMINATION OF PROPERTY INVESTMENT” has been added to the article Transactions for the conversion of sales promises into sales: 

New Article – Transactions of Conversion of Sales Promises into Sales: It is essential to sell the ownership of the property of the property subject to the sales promise of foreign real persons who have acquired Turkish citizenship through the preliminary sales contract to the promise creditor.

17. An addition has been made to the article titled “COMMITMENT CANCELLATION”:

New Article – Within the scope of the Regulation, the declaration of commitment entered in the declarations section shall be canceled upon the request of the owner upon the expiration of the three-year period. However, the declaration will not be canceled before the sale transaction is made on behalf of foreign real persons who have acquired Turkish citizenship through a sales promise annotation.

After the issuance of the “Property Investment Determination Certificate” and before the expiration of the 3-year commitment period, if the owner or the sales promise creditor requests the cancellation of the commitment statement, the request of the foreigner is met and the Provincial Directorate of Population and Citizenship is informed immediately.

18. An addition has been made to the provision titled “TRANSACTIONS ON COMMITTED PROPERTY”:

New article – In the event that a transfer transaction is requested for properties with a commitment, the transaction will be fulfilled provided that the declaration of commitment is carried on behalf of the heirs.

The above-mentioned guideline provisions are effective as of 01/02/2024.