Free tool · Route finder
Six investment routes qualify for Turkish citizenship. Real estate starts at USD 400,000. Bank deposits, government bonds, investment fund participation and the private pension route each start at USD 500,000. The sixth route is employment of fifty people. Every one of them leads to the same passport, so the choice turns on what you want the money to do while it is committed.
Each route locks the capital for three years. What differs is liquidity, currency exposure and how you exit. A deposit and a bond leave you holding Turkish lira for the full period, which means the exchange rate decides the outcome in dollar terms. Property converts the money once and then leaves you holding an asset that reprices with the dollar. The pension route sits in between: the plan is denominated in lira, but the fund inside it can track a dollar-linked asset.
There is also a documentary difference. The property route adds a valuation report and a title transfer, which is why it typically runs seven to eight months against six to seven for the others. The deposit route has the simplest file and the strictest bank compliance review.
Answer the six questions below and you will get a written recommendation explaining which route fits your objective, what it means for liquidity and exit, and what to watch out for.
Reviewed by Av. Arda Şardağ, Istanbul Bar Association no. 70004 · last updated 8 September 2026
Investment finder
Every route leads to the same passport, so the choice comes down to what you want the money to do afterwards. Answer six questions and you will get a written recommendation explaining which route fits your objective, what it means for liquidity and exit, and what to watch out for.
Common questions
Six. Real estate from USD 400,000; bank deposit, government debt instruments, investment fund participation shares and private pension contributions each from USD 500,000; and employment of at least fifty people. All are set out in Article 20 of the regulation implementing Turkish Citizenship Law no. 5901.
Real estate, at USD 400,000, is the lowest threshold. It is not automatically the cheapest overall, because title deed fees, valuation and transaction costs sit on top of it, while the deposit and pension routes have almost no additional official costs.
No. On the property, deposit, bond and fund routes the foreign currency must be sold to a bank operating in Türkiye, and by that bank to the Central Bank, before the transaction. On the deposit and bond routes the resulting lira must then be held in lira for the full three years.
The regulation permits movement between qualifying investment types in order to complete the three-year period, but it is rarely necessary and should be planned rather than improvised.
No. There is no minimum stay requirement, no language test and no interview on any of the investment routes.
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.
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
WhatsApp — fastest reply
+90 545 830 93 22
arda.sardag@icloud.com
We answer in English and Turkish. If you write outside Istanbul working hours, you will still get a reply the same day in most cases.