Your family, Turkish.

What the programme actually looks like, end to end.

The $400,000 threshold

The Turkish citizenship-by-investment programme has run since 2017 and was reset to a $400,000 USD minimum in 2022. The threshold applies to a single property or a basket of properties acquired together, valued by an MOI-licensed appraiser using a methodology the Ministry has refined twice. In practice, the appraised value (rather than the contract price) is what counts — buyers should expect a 5–10% gap in either direction between contracted and appraised value, and budget accordingly.

The 3-year holding period

The investor commits, in writing, not to sell the qualifying property for three years from the date of acquisition. The commitment is recorded on the property title (TAPU) and removed once the period elapses. Selling or transferring inside the window does not just void the new sale — it triggers citizenship review, with documented cases of citizenship clawback in 2024-2025. This is the most-overlooked rule in the programme; advisors who downplay it are not serving their clients.

Family inclusion

One investment qualifies the principal applicant, their spouse, and unmarried dependent children under 18. Adult children, parents, and additional spouses are not included. Same-investment add-ons for siblings or extended family are not permitted under the current rules — each adult applicant requires their own qualifying investment.

Process and timeline

From signed reservation to passport delivery, the realistic timeline is 6 to 9 months. The longest-pole steps are typically: (1) opening a Turkish bank account and obtaining the tax ID — straightforward but document-dependent; (2) the MOI appraisal — 2-4 weeks; (3) title registration and the Conformity Certificate (Uygunluk Belgesi) — 4-8 weeks; (4) citizenship application and adjudication — 3-5 months. Document apostille / consular legalisation in the buyer’s home jurisdiction often runs in parallel and can extend the early phase by another 2-4 weeks.

What the Turkish passport offers

Visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to roughly 110 destinations(Henley Passport Index, 2025) — including Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the UAE, and most of Latin America. Türkiye is an E-2 treaty country with the United States, opening a separate non-immigrant investor pathway after citizenship. Schengen and the United Kingdom remain visa-required. Türkiye permits dual citizenship — applicants do not have to renounce their original nationality.

Where Next Level Istanbul fits

The flagship project we represent — Next Level Istanbul, in Etiler / Levent — clears the $400K threshold even at its entry tier (1+1 Loft House, from $1,112,000 USD). For citizenship-route buyers specifically, the combination of Tabanlıoğlu architecture, Pasifik GYO with Emlak Konut delivery assurance, and the Levent corridor’s defensive resale dynamics is one of the cleanest fits in the current Istanbul market. After the three-year holding window, Levent inventory tends to clear within 90 days at appraised value — so the citizenship investment doubles as a liquid asset rather than a locked one.

Tax considerations

Türkiye does not tax foreign-source income for residents who spend less than 183 days per year in the country, and does not levy worldwide income tax on non-residents at all. Property purchase incurs a one-time title transfer tax (currently 4%, typically split or borne by the buyer per contract). Annual property tax (Emlak Vergisi) runs ~0.2-0.6% of the cadastral (not market) value. Capital-gains exemption applies to property sold after the five-year ownership mark. Specific tax planning should always go through a Turkish CPA — the rules interact differently with each home jurisdiction.

Common mistakes

Three patterns recur in client follow-ups. First, agreeing to a contract price significantly above the appraised value to “hit the threshold” — the appraisal is what counts, not the contract; this only inflates the upfront cost. Second, signing a reservation before the qualifying-property certificate (Konut Belgesi) is verified — without it, the unit doesn’t qualify regardless of price. Third, assuming the holding period is informal — it is not. The TAPU annotation is binding, and the consequences of breaching it have hardened, not softened.