In the letter dated 05.01.2021 of the General Directorate of Civil Registration and Citizenship of the Ministry of Interior, it has been decided to establish a commission to accelerate and facilitate the citizenship procedures of foreign investors and to take relevant measures quickly. The commission held its first meeting on 20.01.2021 and took additional measures in terms of acquiring Turkish Citizenship by purchasing immovable properties.
In this direction, the Articles which are regulated in order to prevent fictitious transactions under the section “TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN FOREIGNERS” which is in the annex of circular about “the Regulation on Implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law” dated 30.05.2019 and numbered 2019/5 which regulates acquiring citizenship through sale contract or preliminary contract for sale are re-regulated as follows and has been announced with the letter dated 22.03.2021 of the Department of Foreign Affairs of Directorate General of Land Registry and Cadastre of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation.
Article 1: “Immovable/immovables subject to sale contract or preliminary contract for sale; should not be registered in the title deed in the name of any foreign real person( including their spouse and children).”
Article 2: “The immovable/immovables subject to sale contract or preliminary contract for sale should not be among the immovables transferred to a Turkish citizen/company after 12.01.2017 by the foreign person himself who would acquire Turkish citizenship, their spouse, their children or any other foreign real person who has the same nationality. However, after the date of 12.01.2017, after the immovable is transferred to a Turkish citizen/company while it was registered under the name of a foreign person, this immovable can be purchased by a foreign person who has a different nationality.”
Article 3: “Immovable/immovables subject to sale contract or preliminary contract for sale should not be registered under the name of a company’s legal entity which the foreign person himself who would acquire Turkish citizenship, their spouse or their children are shareholders or managers or a company’s legal entity which the same nationals are shareholders and which are subject to Article 36 of Land Registry Law.”
Article 4: “After acquiring citizenship through sale contract or preliminary contract for sale, the same immovable or immovable's share cannot be subject to citizenship acquisition again.”
Article 5: “In case the immovable is sold or transferred back to the legal entity or Turkish citizenship person or the annotation of preliminary contract for sale is removed from the title deed and the immovable is transferred to a third party after the commitment period of the foreign real person who acquired Turkish citizenship through purchasing immovable has expired, the General Directorate shall be informed about the situation and the status of the certificate of conformity, which is the basis for the acquisition of Turkish citizenship, shall be re-evaluated.”
In addition to these articles, and additional text has been added after the indication of “I undertake..” under the “COMMITMENT” section in the sale contract or preliminary contract for sale about the decision-making authority which decides on citizenship affairs may cancel their decision if it is determined that documents to-be-submitted within these transactions are missing, wrong or misleading and if it is understood that the citizenship is acquired as a result of these missing, wrong or misleading documents.