After obtaining the title deed, the foreign buyer or his/her attorney must give a written promise on the Land and Registry office that he/she will not sell the property for 3 years. In the meantime, the property is rentable.

A foreigner can purchase multiple properties provided that he/she purchase them together and the total value of the properties must worth more than USD 400.000. besides, multiple foreigners can purchase one property provided that each of their parts will worth USD 400.000.

One of the most important parts of this process is the valuation report. The valuation report is required to be prepared by specialists who are licensed and authorized by the capital market board, in order to determine whether the acquired property is equal to the amount specified in the regulation (USD 400.000). The period of validity of the valuation report is up to 3 months before the purchase of the property. In case the foreign buyer has an attorney, the validation report will be provided by the Attorney/Law Firm.

Once the title deed, valuation report and receipts of the payment are obtained, the foreign buyer or his/her attorney can make the written promise (not to sell the property for 3 years) in the Land and Registry office. After the promise is made, the department of foreign affairs will send ‘’the title deed conformity document’’ to the foreign person’s or his/her attorney’s e mail address.

There is one more document that needs to be obtained before starting to fill the first application form: the health insurance policy. Foreigners must have a health insurance which is valid in Turkey. As the insurance period should cover the period of residence time required, the health insurance must be valid for at least one year. The health insurance should be supplied from Turkey. In case the foreign buyer has an attorney, the health insurance will be provided by the Attorney/Law Firm.

After submitting the required documents to the authorities on the residence permit appointment, the acquisition of Turkish citizenship process officially begins. The residence permit card will be prepared within a week and after receiving the card, foreign buyer or his/her attorney will fill up the Turkish Citizenship Application form from the official website of the government. In case he does not have an attorney, he/she must attend to the Turkish Citizenship Acquisition appointment once again at the foreigner citizenship application office with additional requested documents. On the other hand, if the foreign buyer has an attorney acting on his behalf, he/she won’t need to be present in the second appointment and his/her attorney can legally carry out the transactions on behalf of him/her. This will be the second step of the Acquisition of Turkish Citizenship process.

The required documents for the application of Turkish Citizenship are as following;

• Application form
• Passport, passport copy and notarized translation
• Civil status certificate as; marriage certificate, divorce certificate or the spouse’death certificate,
• Birth certificate showing the applicant’s identification information and birth certificate or certificate of identity register of spouses and children under 18 years old
• In case there is a child in the custody of one of the parents and is asked to acquire Turkish citizenship together with the parent, the document indicating the consent of approval of the other parent prepared by the competent authorities of his/her country or prepared by a notary in Turkey,
• 2 biometrical photos (also required on a CD)
• Service fee receipt

Briefly, foreign buyers should provide the following documents to his/her Attorney;

• Spouse’s and children’s birth certificates with an apostil and notarized Turkish translation prepared by the authorities of his/her county of residence.
• Civil status certificate; marriage certificate with an apostil and notarized Turkish translation prepared by the authorities of his/her county of residence.

Rest of the documents will be provided by the Attorney.

The foreign buyer’s spouse and children under the age of 18 will acquire Turkish Citizenship automatically once the main applicant in the family becomes Turkish Citizen.

Once the first (residence permit) appointment is made, it is expected to take about 3 months for the process of the acquisition of Turkish Citizenship to be concluded.

The Turkish Government will examine the file of each individual foreign investor and based on their research they will finalize the application.

In case the foreign buyer doesn’t have time to come to Turkey for performing all the transactions, he/she and his/her spouse should give a power of attorney to an experienced Law Firm/Attorney from the Turkish Embassy or a Notary in Turkey and the attorney will process the file on his/her behalf.

In that case, the foreign person should only attend the first residence permit appointment. After the appointment date he/she can directly return to his/her country and rest of the proceedings will be carried out by the attorney.

Briefly, in case the foreign buyer has an Attorney acting behalf of him/her, he/she must be present in Turkey only for the first Residence permit appointment and after the appointment the attorney will manage all the transactions behalf of the foreign client. After the finalization of Turkish Citizenship acquisition process, the foreigner and his/her family should come to Turkey to receive their Turkish id cards and passports.

In order to have an attorney that will legally represent him/her regarding the Turkish citizenship acquisition process, the foreigner and his spouse should give power of attorney to the Law Firm/Attorney from the Turkish Notary or the Turkish embassy in his county. The sample of POA (power of attorney) document will be send to the foreign Client by the Law Firm.