Most important amendments to the Turkish Citizenship Law 2021

Aiming to regulate real estate transactions between foreigners, the General Directorate of Land Registry and Real Estate Survey in Turkey issued a statement regarding the amendments to the Turkish Citizenship Law, effective as of March 2021.

The provisions of the executive regulations of Article G underwent few amendments. In reference to the Tabu Department clarification, such amendments took place for the purpose of preventing circumvention of the Turkish nationality law in relation to real estate ownership. That is to say, either by transferring ownership to relatives or foreigners of the same nationality, or by manipulating the value of the registered real estate while applying to obtain the Turkish passport and Turkish citizenship.

Most prominent amendments to the Turkish Nationality Law

The most prominent recent amendments to the Turkish Citizenship Law came under the title “Transactions between Foreigners”, as follows:

Property Recycling is prohibited

The owner of the property that was purchased for the purpose of obtaining citizenship is not entitled to sell it to a Turkish citizen upon obtaining the nationality. Consequently, this same citizen, circumventing the law, sells it to another foreign investor of the same nationality as the original property owner.

Initially, the Turkish Citizenship law prohibits selling the property unless 3 years have passed since its purchase date. Moreover, in the amendments to the new Turkish citizenship law, the buyer must be of a different nationality than the original property owner.

It is prohibited to resell the property to its owner again

The second amendment of the Turkish Citizenship Law prohibits reselling the property that was previously purchased to obtain Turkish citizenship, to its original owner again, upon the expiry of previously mentioned set period. In fact, in the event that this occurs, all legal measures will be taken against the owner.

Turkish Citizenship not granted for buying same property again

According to the third amendment to the Turkish Citizenship through Investment, it is not possible to obtain citizenship by buying a property whose previous owner was granted citizenship though buying it.

Withdrawing Turkish citizenship if papers are false

The Fourth Amendment stipulated the legality of revoking or withdrawing Turkish citizenship even after obtaining it, in case it is proven at the Tabu Department that there are false official papers in the file for applying for Turkish citizenship by investment.

A pledge not to sell the property before the legal period

Regarding the pledge not to sell the property before 3 years have passed since its purchase, the fourth clause obligated the real estate buyer to sign a new pledge form, in which he acknowledges that he knows about the possibility of canceling the decision to acquire citizenship in exchange for buying a property, in case it is proven that there is fraud in the papers of applying for nationality, or Providing false or false information.

This was a presentation of the most prominent provisions of the recent amendments to the Turkish Citizenship Law. You can contact us to get more information about the naturalization law, and we are pleased to assist you in choosing properties that perfectly fit the conditions of the new Turkish citizenship law.

Edited by: Properties Gate^© – Real estate portal in Turkey.

Source: Directorate of Tabu.