Further update: lawyers are now saying:
(1) Applicants must appear in Turkey in person for fingerprinting both at the time of residency application AND again at time of citizenship application.
(2) Dependents must also appear in person for fingerprinting both at the time of residency application AND again at time of citizenship application, though the in-person appearance of dependence need not be at the same time as the principal applicant, and can be done after the principal applicant’s application has already been processed and approved (as the right to add dependents is already vested).
All these newly added hurdles may indicate negative attitudes toward the CBI program in the political sphere with the program on the path to eventual abolishment or unaffordability. If you are seriously considering this program, would advise proceeding ASAP.
July 16 Update: Primary applicant completed residency fingerprinting in mid-May, received residence card mid-June. Spouse completed residency fingerprinting early July, now awaiting spouse’s residence card before citizenship application can be filed.
The thing it is taking Portugal more than 2.5 years and counting to do (issue residence card), Turkey did in one month.
July 27 Update: Spouse’s residence card issued, now preparing citizenship application.
Aug 9 Update: Flew to Istanbul for the citizenship application submission only for the “computer system” to be “down” the entire day I was there. Time and money wasted, must return again. Would advise anyone doing this to allow multiple days in case of “computer system outages”.
Aug 19 Update: Flew to Istanbul again, completed citizenship application as computer system was working this time. Received reference number, can check online system for updates. Expected processing time until citizenship issuance is 6-9 months.
Can you shed a bit more light - what do you mean he “tried all options”?
Did you go with the RE path or bank deposit or smth else? And what seems to be the blocker?
I suspect your case is stalled because someone in Ankara believed you had a missing document whether it’s true or not does not matter, but that’s what you need to clear up between Istanbul and Ankara. Who is your lawyer?
Current update:
My application in the online system has experienced various status updates, with the current status of “the evaluation of your application is continuing” staying consistent since around a month ago. 5-month mark reached now, expecting final result in Feb-May.
Under the current system, which is new as of last year, receiving citizenship in less than 9 months from investment no longer appears realistic as Turkey is striving to improve [the appearance of] its due diligence.
Even so, it still appears likely that I will receive my Turkish passport before my Portugal residence card, despite making my investment in Turkey more than two full years after Portugal.
Citizenship award notification received today! Eight months and a few days since application, and 14 months since investment.
Passport requires an application to Turkish embassy / consulate, which I will be making soon, then waiting for centralized passport production which may take 6-8 more weeks.
While the passport may not come before my Portugal residence card (still waiting), the citizenship declaration did, despite a 2+ year head start for Portugal.
Congrats!
Once you get your kimlik in hand, also get your e-devlet password at the PTT and you’ll be all set.
And later on check your SGK status to make sure you are not enrolled automatically and not accumulating any debt unknowingly (unless you actually want to be enrolled and pay your SGK contributions).
Might I ask why you decided to pursue Turkey in addition to Portugal? Did you work with a lawyer there to manage the process? If your GV in PT is based on real estate, did you find the purchase process more or less complicated in TR? Mostly just curious, but as a fellow passport collector, you never know.
1a. Extremely good RE investment opportunity at the time (not so anymore)
1b. Cost of CBI among the lowest globally at the time (again, that has changed since)
1c. Foothold into a ‘non-Western’ world for geopolitical risk hedging
2. Yes
3. More or less the same process with some RE eligibility limitations as compared to PT.
One general observation is that most things move at the speed of light in TR, not just CBI (relatively speaking, of course )
My trigger point was seeing a certain political figure leading in the polls and anticipating the damage that person would do to my country and my original passport, while at the same time realizing that my Portugal citizenship might not come this decade, if ever.
This led me to the conclusion that I wanted another citizenship in hand as close as possible to the time that such political figure would assume power. At the time, the options were:
Egypt & Jordan - rejected due to lower-value passport than Turkey without having any other significant advantage relevant to me;
Cambodia - low-value passport. Only two benefits I could see of this citizenship are (a) visa-free access to ASEAN; and (b) right to legally buy land in Cambodia. This country had given me food poisoning on every visit, so I had no interest in the latter, and while the former would be interesting, it wasn’t worth the cost at that point. Plus I had concerns about the legal legitimacy of this program and the risk of future revocation.
Vanuatu - explored, but rejected due to poor due diligence process and likelihood of losing EU access (which ended up happening);
Caribbean Five - rejected due to high cost, excessive influence from the US despite not receiving US visa-free access;
Malta - completely out of the question due to cost;
Turkey.
The advantages for Turkey were:
(1) Investment options allowed the possibility to achieve close to normal rate of return on investment and also obtain citizenship, while the fees were minimal. This was/is not the case with any other CBI program. I chose the bank deposit pathway, BTW, which in my understanding has been eliminated for new applications.
(2) Different sphere of influence geopolitically. While it does have a handful of historical adversaries, Turkey plays all sides and avoids making enemies of superpowers, and conversely the superpowers avoid making an enemy of Turkey (despite butting heads periodically). This was also borne out by most of the small-island CBI countries ending up on Trump’s new entry ban Yellow List, while Turkey was not banned.
(3) As a large and well-known country, the likelihood that my passport would be seen by immigration officers of other countries as illegitimate appeared much lower than other CBI countries. In particular, I have read that holders of Vanuatu passports obtained via CBI have encountered significant skepticism.
(4) Turkey has a significant consular presence globally, with its number of embassies and consulates in the Top 5 globally among all countries. Very convenient for replacing passports or seeking other services.
(5) (Although now likely undesirable due to tax policy) Turkey was the one country on the CBI list I was fairly certain I would enjoy living in. I had traveled to Turkey previously and had positive experiences — great food, reasonable cost of living, nice people. Plus, Turkish Airlines makes access easy from nearly anywhere in the world, compared with the Caribbean Five and Vanuatu that often require multiple expensive connecting flights. So I saw it as a two-for-one: a citizenship plus a “PR” that I might actually use.
And yes, I did work with a lawyer there, and wouldn’t recommend going it alone unless you already speak Turkish.
Awesome, great insight here. Thanks for sharing. Always nice to have data points from people who are pursuing things other than the Portugal GV (or in addition to it).
Addendum: Recently from further inquiries I have discovered that Turkish citizens, even dual citizens who hold other passports, are generally not allowed to naturalize in Armenia or Cyprus at all. You could attempt to conceal your other citizenship and take the risk, but then if your new government ever finds out, your new Armenian or Cypriot citizenship is likely to be revoked.
This shouldn’t be so surprising due to historical reasons, but what is more surprising is that Serbia, a country that normally allows dual citizenship, requires Turkish citizens to renounce their nationality upon acquiring Serbian citizenship. So if you were thinking of acquiring Serbian citizenship after Turkish without renouncing your Turkish, that is off the table.
In this Wikipedia table, Serbia was listed as “Yes” for multiple citizenship allowed, but I edited it to “Partial”. The detail Wikipedia article says it’s allowed in certain cases only.
This states dual citizenship is allowed, but must be outdated or incorrect: Serbia - Dual Citizenship
In the same inquiry in which I learned renunciation is required of Turkish citizenship to become a Serbian citizen, I learned that renunciation of US citizenship is not required, so perhaps the requirement or lack thereof depends primarily on the country of other citizenship.
Thanks for contributions! It was awesome read your story and main reason why I signed up here.
I was wondering if you could share some of this info:
What was value add of consultancy/lawyer - Considering I already speak language (Azerbaijani - 90% same as Turkish), is there a good reason to engage consultancy, providing that I am not aiming to buy real estate? Investment in government bonds
Have you been required to provide Apostiled copies of all document or just passport? (ex. marriage certificate, criminal record, proof of residency)
I am citizen of Azerbaijan, but have been living in Denmark for 5 years. Do I even need to mention that?
Is there any reputable bank, where I can open account remotely (without POA issued lawyer)
How much due diligence banks require with funds? Are payslips enough, or as in many EU countries, they require entire chain of money transactions? (example: salary transfer to broker account, investments, gains, withdrawals and what not)
If you were very satisfied with your legal assistance, would also appreciate you sharing their contacts and cost of assistance (family of 5) t
Hi Eldorado, not sure if this is addressed to me, but will comment where I can.
It comes down to how much time versus how much money you’re willing to spend. I only used a lawyer, not a consultant, but I used the (now extinct) bank deposit pathway, which was simpler. You may be able to sort through everything yourself since you basically speak the language, but the government changed the rules several times in the middle of my process, so you may end up wasting a lot of your own time figuring it out.
Every foreign government document submitted (criminal check, marriage cert, etc.) must be apostilled.
Not sure.
I was told all bank account openings required an in-person visit, but I did not check every bank, only HSBC and Turkiye Finans.
The banks looked at the statements from my source-of-funds bank, which was also the bank into which my salary had been deposited, so the process was relatively straight-forward. Overall the due diligence may be less onerous than the EU unless you are using an EU-headquartered bank.
Legal service I got was so-so; they were not dishonest, but didn’t make the best use of my time in certain cases. If you’d like to speak with them, please PM me.
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