Free tool · Document checklist
To begin, two documents: a copy of your passport and a power of attorney. Everything else is collected later, at the stage where you travel to Türkiye to file. That later set is built from civil status documents issued by the country that issued them — birth certificates, marriage certificates and a criminal record certificate from your country of citizenship — each apostilled and translated by a sworn translator in Türkiye.
The power of attorney is what allows the investment to be completed without you travelling. Issued at a Turkish consulate it needs nothing further; issued before a local notary it needs an apostille and a sworn translation.
What complicates a file is rarely the ordinary documents. It is a divorce that was never registered, a child born outside marriage, a birth certificate from a country that has stopped issuing them, or a surname that appears three different ways across three documents. These are the things that hold applications up for months, and each has its own evidentiary treatment.
Answer the questions below and you will get the list for your situation rather than a generic one.
Reviewed by Av. Arda Şardağ, Istanbul Bar Association no. 70004 · last updated 8 September 2026
Document checklist
Every citizenship file needs civil status documents from the country that issued them, legalised in a particular way and translated in another. Which ones you need depends entirely on your family's shape — a previous marriage, a child not joining the application, or a name that changed at some point each add their own requirements. Answer the questions below and you will get the list for your situation, not a generic one.
Please do not enter names, passport numbers or dates of birth — the list does not need them. Your answers are sent to an AI service to generate the list and are not stored by us. This is a general checklist of what files of this shape usually require, not advice on your specific case.
A divorce decree that never got registered, a birth certificate from a country that has stopped issuing them, a name that appears three different ways across three documents — these are the things that hold files up for months. Send us your list and we will tell you which items to start on first, and which ones we can obtain on your behalf.
Ask us about your documentsCommon questions
Passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate where relevant, a criminal record certificate from the country of citizenship, biometric photographs and health insurance. Foreign civil status documents require an apostille and a sworn Turkish translation.
Yes, for foreign public documents where the issuing country is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention of 1961. Where it is not, the document is legalised at the Turkish consulate instead.
A passport copy and a power of attorney. Nothing else is required to begin the process.
Only from your country of citizenship. Certificates from other countries of residence are not requested.
Criminal record and civil status certificates commonly carry a validity period of a few months, which is why they are collected late in the process rather than at the outset.
General information about Turkish law, not advice on your own circumstances. Thresholds and processing times change; the review date above is when this page was last checked.
Prepared for your family situation
Contact
Tell us the outcome you are after and the budget you have in mind. If a Turkish route is not the right answer for you, we will say so — that is a cheaper conversation for both of us than the alternative.
SARDAG Law & Consultancy
Nurol Tower, Office 2109
Şişli, Istanbul, Türkiye
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arda.sardag@icloud.com
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