Current Status at Turkish Citizenship Applications – January ’19

As known, Amendment Regulation of Regulation on Implementation of Turkish Citizenship Law (“Regulation”), announced at the Official Gazette dated 7 December 2018 and numbered 30618, has enabled foreign real persons to apply for Turkish citizenship upon annotation of a promise to sell agreement executed by and between seller and buyer before notary public, provided that property purchase price of 250.000 USD is paid in advanced.

With respect to the above, General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadaster has clarified the below matter through its Announcement dated 31 December 2018 and numbered 4227790:

  • Buyer stipulated under the promise to sell agreement shall be a citizen of the country, who is allowed to buy property in Turkey,
  • Annotation of promise to sell agreement will be realized upon all the requirements (incl. military area assessment) are satisfied in terms of property acquisition of foreign real persons,
  • Seller stipulated under the promise to sell agreement shall be the owner of the said independent section before land registry,
  • If there is an existing promise to sell agreement annotation, a secondary annotation will not be registered on the same independent section,
  • Real estate appraisal reports, required for annotation of promise to sell, shall evidence value of the target independent section on the date of its completion.

On the other hand, Turkish citizenship applications made within this scope are received by Ministry of Interior Special Joint Office for Foreign Investors’ Citizenship Application, which recently started its operations at Eminönü. Compared to the past period, the application procedure is carried out in a more healthy and tidy manner. The applications are finalized within approx. 3-4 months.

We will keep you abreast of the developments, if any.

Please contact us if you have any queries.