One of the most fascinating countries in the world, Turkey is located between continents, which makes it a crossroad of historical cultures, great civilizations, and influences. Besides being a famous tourist spot, Turkey falls among the founding members of the G-20 and the OECD. It has the world’s 13th largest GDP by PPP and 17th largest nominal GDP.
Turkey has a sizeable automotive industry, which produced over 1.3 million motorcycles in 2015, ranking as the 14th largest producer in the world. Other key sectors of the Turkish economy includes construction, banking, electronics, textiles, home appliances, food, mining, petrochemical, iron & steel, and machine industry.
Turkey Citizenship by Investment
On January 12th, 2017 the Regulation for the Amendment of the Regulation on the Application of the Citizenship Act of Turkey was published in the T.C. Resmi Gazette (Official Gazette of Turkey). An Economic Citizenship program that allows the acquisition of Turkey citizenship by investment was released under this amendment. The main objective of this Citizenship by Investment program is to stimulate the Real estate market, with a current oversupply, receive foreign currencies and create jobs.
The Citizenship by Investment Program offers five types of investment opportunities:
- Investment of fixed capital of at least USD 500,000 confirmed by the Ministry of Economy
- Acquisition of a real estate for a minimum value of USD 250,000, including an annotation in the cadastral records of a commitment to not sell the property within 3 years from the date of purchase, confirmed by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanism
- A foreign employer who, through his business, has generated employment for at least 50 Turkish people, confirmed by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security
- A foreigner who holds a bank deposit of at least USD 500,000 for three years, under the supervision of the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK)
- A foreigner who invests in Treasury bonds or any type of government loan instruments worth USD 500,000 and maintains them for three years, under the supervision of the Under-secretariat of the Treasury.
The applicable exchange rate shall be that established by the Central Bank of Turkey (CBTR) at the time of the transaction.
It is important to note that Turkey allows dual citizenship.
The Council of Ministers is the competent authority in charge of deciding the granting of citizenship to a foreigner, therefore, even if the aforementioned requirements have been fulfilled, they reserve the right of approval.