Turkey announced its “Citizenship by Investment” program in 2016. It grants residence permits, citizenship and a Turkish passport to applicants who invest in either real estate or a bank deposit. The real estate route is particularly attractive to investors. This requires a real estate purchase of at least $400,000 + fees, making Turkey one of the lowest cost citizenship by investment programs on the market. The investment amount for real estate was originally set at $1 million, but was drastically lowered in September 2018.
A Turkish passport allows visa-free travel (or visa on arrival) to 125 countries worldwide. Turkey is also raising the possibility of visa-free access to the EU. Talks are currently underway, but Turkey has a long way to go to meet the EU’s conditions.
Turkey has some good global connections. It has an E-2 visa agreement with the U.S., which means Turkish nationals can apply for U.S. residency under the E-2 visa program.
CITIZENSHIP INVESTMENT LIMITS.
The minimum investments required for the citizenship program are as follows.
- Real estate investment $400,000
- Bank deposit $500,000
- Capital investment $500,000
Turkish citizenship is granted after 3-6 months of the applicant’s investment. The applicant must hold the investment for at least 3 years.
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