Americans are now a large share of the buyers in this programme, and the reasons are consistent: a second jurisdiction, a place to go, an asset outside the dollar, and for some, the first step toward a decision they may never make. The mechanics are the same as for anyone else. The consequences are not.
Yes, you can hold both
The United States permits dual citizenship. Naturalising in Turkey does not endanger your US citizenship and requires no notification to the US government. You keep your American passport and use it to enter and leave the United States, as you are required to do.
Turkey likewise permits dual citizenship, so there is nothing to renounce on either side.
The tax question, answered honestly
This is where most of the marketing you have read is wrong, and it is worth being blunt about it.
The United States taxes its citizens on worldwide income regardless of where they live. Turkey introduced a twenty-year exemption on foreign-source income for new tax residents in June 2026, and it is being sold hard to American buyers. It does not help you. The saving clause in the Türkiye–US treaty preserves the US right to tax its own citizens, so a Turkish exemption removes a Turkish tax layer you were never going to pay in the first place.
If an adviser tells you Turkish citizenship reduces your US federal tax, ask them to show you the saving clause. They will not be able to.
Two things that are true and do have value:
- State tax. Ceasing California or New York residency is worth roughly eleven to thirteen per cent on income. That has nothing to do with Turkish citizenship, but if a move to Turkey is what breaks your state residency, the saving is real and substantial.
- Optionality. Renouncing US citizenship is the only step that actually ends the federal claim, and you cannot renounce without holding another nationality first. Most of our American clients have no intention of renouncing. They want the door to exist. Note that renunciation triggers the expatriation tax under section 877A for those above the asset and income thresholds, which is a serious analysis in its own right.
The trap: which investment route you choose matters more for you than for anyone else
US persons and foreign funds
Turkey offers several qualifying routes. Alongside property, you can qualify through investment fund units or a private pension contribution — routes we generally rate well, and which avoid buying an apartment altogether.
For a US person these routes carry a complication that does not exist for other nationalities. Holdings in foreign pooled investment vehicles can fall within the passive foreign investment company rules, which apply a punitive tax and interest regime and demanding annual reporting. Whether a particular Turkish pension arrangement is caught, and whether any treaty provision assists, is a US tax question that turns on the specific structure — it is not something a Turkish lawyer can resolve for you, and it is not something to assume away.
The practical consequence: for American buyers, the property route at USD 400,000 is usually the cleaner choice, and any fund or pension route should be run past your US tax adviser before you commit rather than after.
You will also have reporting obligations once you have Turkish accounts: FBAR filing where aggregate foreign account balances exceed the threshold, and potentially Form 8938. Turkish real estate held directly is not itself an FBAR asset, but the bank account you open to buy it is. These are compliance items, not reasons to avoid the programme, but they need to be in your plan from the start.
Military service — the question to ask if you have sons
Turkish citizenship carries a military obligation for men, and it applies to naturalised citizens as well as those born Turkish. There is an important carve-out.
Under the Military Service Law, those who are twenty-two or older in the year they acquire Turkish citizenship are deemed to have completed their service, and are exempted without needing to apply in person. So the investor is almost always outside it.
| Family member | Position |
|---|---|
| You, aged 22 or over at naturalisation | Deemed to have completed service. No obligation. |
| A son aged 21 or under at naturalisation | Subject to the obligation as a Turkish citizen of his age group. Service can be deferred for two years on request from the date of naturalisation. |
| Anyone who has served in the US military | Exempted on documenting that service. |
| Daughters and wives | No obligation. |
Nobody raises this in a sales conversation. If you are including a teenage son in the application, it should be discussed before you file, not after.
Your documents
The United States is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, which makes this straightforward. Birth certificates, marriage certificates and any name-change records are apostilled by the Secretary of State of the issuing state — not federally — and the state that issued the document is the state that must apostille it. Documents issued by federal agencies go to the US Department of State instead.
Two practical points that cause delays. First, the state process can take weeks by mail; expediting services are worth the money. Second, everything must then be translated by a sworn translator in Turkey and notarised here, so bring originals rather than copies.
What a Turkish passport actually does for an American
Not much for travel, and you should be sceptical of anyone who suggests otherwise. Your US passport already reaches more destinations than a Turkish one, and Turkey has no visa-free access to the Schengen Area, the United Kingdom or the United States.
What it does provide:
- The unconditional right to live, work, own and open accounts in a country of 85 million people with functioning infrastructure and a cost of living well below the US
- Access to Turkish healthcare and schooling for your family
- A jurisdiction outside the reach of any single Western policy shift
- Citizenship that passes to your children and their children
- The prerequisite for any future renunciation decision
- An asset — the apartment — that remains yours and is sellable after three years
If your objective is easier travel, a Caribbean passport does that better and we will tell you so. If your objective is a real second country and a hard asset outside the dollar, Turkey is a stronger answer than anything at the price.
How the purchase works from the United States
- You visit Istanbul once, for a single day, to open the bank account, sign at the notary and grant a power of attorney. Everything after that is handled here.
- Funds move by wire from your US bank and are converted through the Turkish banking system with the required certificate. Send from an account in your own name; third-party transfers cause problems.
- The appraised value, not the price you negotiate, is what is measured against the USD 400,000 threshold.
- A three-year restriction is noted on the title deed. After it expires you are free to sell.
- Expect roughly four to six months from purchase to passports for the family.
Who advises you on what
We are Turkish lawyers. We handle the property, the purchase, the citizenship file and the Turkish side of the tax position. We do not give US tax advice and you should not accept it from a Turkish firm — particularly on the fund routes and on anything touching renunciation. Bring your CPA into the conversation early; we work alongside them regularly and it costs far less than fixing something afterwards.