Turkish citizenship
Proving the existence of Ottoman origin is one of the ways through which the Turkish law grants the right of obtaining Turkish citizenship, which is issued in a period between six months to one year from the application date after proving the existence of an Ottoman origin or proving affiliation to any Turkish origin whether grandfather, grandmother, father, or mother using any birth certificate document or a military certificate, after that you need to obtain a Turkish government document called (Ottoman Origins Document).
Some foreigners can obtain Turkish citizenship in some exceptional cases, if they do not pose a threat to national security and do not threaten public order, such as:
- Everyone who contributes and is expected to contribute to the effective and fundamental development of industry, technology, economic, social science, art, and sports.
- People who are believed that they must obtain Turkish citizenship.
- People who have been accepted as refugees.
Generally speaking, Turkish citizenship and the Turkish passport can be obtained in several ways, some of which fall under the investment clause, others fall under the clause, in addition to other situations through which the Turkish citizenship can be acquired.
- Obtaining Turkish citizenship through investment according to one of the following items:
- Real estate ownership
- Financial deposit
- Investing in Turkey
- Hiring 50 Turkish citizens.
- Obtaining Turkish citizenship through marriage or lineage
- Other situations for obtaining Turkish citizenship
- Residence in Turkey with a 5-years work permit period
- Exceptional nationality which is usually granted to certain people like those with university certificate of who came to Turkey and live in it.
The Turkish passport is one of the strongest passports in the world, and while so many countries require a visa, they grant it for the holders of Turkish citizenship with easy terms. The Turkish passport holder can travel to more than 80 countries with a Turkish passport without a visa, or with a visa issued upon arrival at the airport.
What are the requirements for Turkish citizenship?
The conditions for obtaining Turkish citizenship differ based on the different cases that lead to it such as real estate investment, shares investment, employing Turkish employees, etc... but they all have these conditions in common:
- The person must be of one of the nationalities allowed to benefit from the Citizenship Law.
- The person must be an adult.
- The person must adhere to the provisions of the Citizenship Law and its details that fall under it.
- The person must be free of serious infectious diseases.
- The person must have a clean criminal record.
Briefly, applying for Turkish citizenship and the stages of obtaining it are seven stages, but they can be summarized in the following four points:
Submitting the citizenship application request to the competent authority such as the investment office for investors and the Population Department for in case of marrying a Turkish person; after preparing the required documents and papers according to the case (investment, real estate ownership, Turkish origin...).
Then the request is transferred to the Population Department for necessary action.
The study and security research stage.
The decision-making stage.
The conditions for obtaining a Turkish passport and obtaining Turkish citizenship differ according to the different ways that lead to obtaining the citizenship (real estate investment - shares investment - employment Turkish citizens...), and these conditions all have these items in common:
The person is of one of the nationalities allowed to benefit from the nationality law.
The person must be an adult.
Adherence to the provisions of the Nationality Law and the details it falls under them.
The person should have no serious infectious diseases.
Clean criminal record.
According to the decision of granting Turkish citizenship to investors that was issued in 2018, obtaining Turkish citizenship in exchange for a real estate investment worth only $250,000 has become possible, the decision specified buying a property worth $250,000 at least and not selling it for three years; instead of one million US dollars in the previous decision, and according to the real estate ownership law, the owner has the right to apply for Turkish citizenship.
You can also obtain a Turkish passport by:
1.Investing in Turkey with a value of 500 thousand dollars.
2.Depositing $500,000 in a Turkish bank for 3 years.
3.Buying shares of government bonds worth $500,000.
4.Employing 50 Turkish citizens.
5.Turkish citizenship by residence permit for 5 years.
6.Turkish citizenship by marrying a Turkish person.
- Turkish citizenship by proofing Turkish origins.
Right now, the Turkish passport holder can enter the following European countries: Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, and Montenegro, and if Turkey joins the European Union, the option to enter European countries will be available of course.
The Turkish passport is one of the strongest passports in the world, and many of the countries that require visa grant holders of Turkish passport the visa with easy conditions.
The Turkish passport allows its holder to enter more than 43 countries without being required to obtain a visa in advance, including Qatar, Tunisia, Jordan, Iraq, Morocco, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Brazil, Argentina, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Georgia, Paraguay, Serbia, South Africa, Thailand, Northern Cyprus, Ukraine, Uruguay.
The Turkish passport holder can also enter more than 40 countries with a visa issued upon arrival, the most important of which are: Kuwait, Bahrain, Lebanon, Sudan, and most African countries, in addition to three countries that issue an electronic visa online, they are Ivory Coast, Jamaica, and Mexico.
In 2020, the Turkish passport was ranked 24th in the world after the Corona pandemic, recording 86 points on the passport index, it allows its holder to enter more than 40 countries without obtaining an entry visa in advance, and holders of Turkish passport can enter more than 40 countries with an entry visa issued upon arrival, and more than three countries grant the Turkish passport holder an electronic entry visa online. It is expected that the Turkish passport will return to its rank after Corona which removed it from its previous position slightly.