Since 2024, a number of amendments have been made in Turkish citizenship and residence permit applications. When applying for Turkish citizenship by investment, firstly, residence permit application is made and citizenship application is made after the residence permit is approved. With the practice change made in February 2023, it became compulsory for the investor to provide fingerprints in Fatih Immigration Office by visiting Turkey.
With the change in practice made in 2024, the investor is obliged to attend the appointments both the residence permit application and the citizenship application in person. For all residence and citizenship applications made after the new change, the investor and his/her spouse (if married) must provide fingerprints in Turkey and then first submit the residence application file to the Immigration Administration in person. Apart from this changes, criminal record of the applicant and spouse obtained from the country of which the person is a citizen or legally resides, which were not required in previous residence applications but are requested with the new change, are now required in residence applications. These changes are intended to provide a preliminary check for people who want to live in Turkey and become Turkish citizens.
Amendments to be applicable in residence permit and Turkish citizenship applications as of 2024:
- A criminal record obtained from the country where the investor is a citizen or legally resides will be included in the residence permit application file.
- Before the residence permit application, the investor and his/her spouse will come to Turkey and provide fingerprints.
- The investor and his/her spouse shall will be in Turkey during the application for residence permit.
- The investor and his/her spouse will be in Turkey during the application for citizenship.
If the criminal record record is obtained from countries that are parties to the apostille, it must be apostilled and its Turkish translation must be notarized. If you are a citizen of a country that is not a party to the apostille agreement, your criminal record document must be certified by the relevant country authorities. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Turkish Consulate)
The relevant amendments started to be effective as of 2024.