The Turkish presidential decision on 19 September opened the door to large facilitations for foreigners to acquire Turkish citizenship. The most important of these facilities is the acquisition of Turkish nationality through investment in real estate.
In
this article I will talk about the new amendments on the law of acquisition the
Turkish citizenship through real estate investments, and the problems faced by
foreign investors to obtain it.
First,
it should be noted that the wife and children under 18 of the applicant investor
may obtain Turkish citizenship at the same time. That is, the wife and children
will not wait for 3 years. However, children over the age of 18 will not be
able to obtain citizenship. They are required to apply for citizenship
independently.
For
investors wishing to acquire Turkish citizenship through real estate investment
in accordance with the new laws after, will have to prove their payments of $ 250.000
worthy property which its title deed obtained after 19.09.2018 and all the
payments were made through banks transfers when reviewing to obtain
citizenship.
Statements
about hand-to-hand payment will not be accepted.
The
new amendments to the Nationality Law mention that the property or properties shall
not be transferred to the applicant investors by his wife or children after
12.01.2017.
The
new amendments to the Nationality Law state that if there is a mortgage on the
property mentioned in the citizenship application, it will not be accepted.
If
there is a partial mortgage on the property, it is accepted to obtain the
nationality in case the value of the property that does not have a mortgage equals
or exceeds the value of $ 250.000.
Our
consultations with the Turkish state officials, with whom we discussed the
proposals in this regard, that these are the recent amendments concerning the
acquisition of Turkish nationality through real estate investment to foreigners.
We can say that no further changes to the law will be made unless there is a
major problem later on.
Lawyer: Khalil Arslan - Legal Counsel of Prestige Istanbul Real Estate.