Turkish Citizenship by Investment Program

Since reducing the minimum property investment qualification amount down from US$ 1 million to US$ 250,000 (in 2018), the Turkish Citizenship by Investment program has been a resounding success. In just the last 2 years, Turkey has been issuing passports to primary foreign applicants at a rate of 800 every month – if we include the numbers for spouses and dependent children, this adds up to more than 20,000 ‘new’ citizens in just 2 years! This has had a significance impact on the economy – Turkey is bringing in an average of US$ 250 million every month from its foreign investors, equating to a staggering US$ 3 billion a year! No other RCBI (Residency and Citizenship by Investment) program comes close to matching these figures.

There are a number of features of the Turkish scheme with which other overseas schemes can not compete; one is that citizenship is normally granted within just 60 days of the application (and supporting documentation) being submitted; another is that the ‘new’ citizen is not required to spend any minimum number of days residing in Turkey; thirdly, this ‘new’ citizen only has to retain their property for 3 years before they can exercise the right to sell – even when this right is exercised, the citizen status is retained!