Turkish Citizenship by Investment in 2026 and the US E-2 Visa

The property minimum has been changed twice by presidential decision: from USD 1 million to USD 250,000 in September 2018, and to USD 400,000 with effect from 13 June 2022, a month after publication in the Official Gazette. The Regulation itself has been amended more often, most recently in December 2023. Reports of a rise to USD 600,000 have circulated since 2023. As at October 2026 no such change has been enacted. When a change is made, the transitional provisions decide which applications fall under the old threshold; in 2022 the operative date was the registration of the no-sale commitment rather than the date of purchase.

A grant of citizenship obtained on a false declaration or by concealing a material fact can be cancelled under Article 31 of Law No. 5901, and a grant later found not to have met the legal conditions can be withdrawn under Article 40. Under Article 32 a cancellation extends to the spouse and children who acquired citizenship through the principal applicant. Completing the three-year holding period does not cure an original defect, and defects can be discovered after the passport has been issued.

By September 2026 the Interior Ministry had announced the cancellation or withdrawal of citizenship for 6,134 people connected with 1,413 principal investors: 5,391 people linked to 1,150 investors whose investment eligibility certificates were cancelled over irregular or collusive transactions, and 743 people linked to 263 investors on public order or national security grounds. Of the 6,134, 1,393 people linked to 458 investors lost their citizenship between 11 February and 21 September 2026, so the enforcement is current rather than historic. In its statement of 21 September 2026 the Ministry also said that an Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's investigation into sham property sales had identified 1,070 people (263 investors and 807 family members) who had obtained citizenship in that way, and that every irregularity amounting to an offence was being referred to the courts. It did not say what citizenship action would follow, or whether those people are counted within the 6,134. Turkish counsel can advise on the administrative court remedies against such a decision; the period for bringing a challenge is generally sixty days from notification, and filing does not suspend the decision. Where the cancellation decision so provides, the former citizen must liquidate Turkish assets within a year, failing which the Treasury sells them and deposits the proceeds in the person's name. Independent title and valuation work by advisers who are not paid by the seller gives the investor a separate check on title and value, free of the seller's conflict of interest; it does not remove the risk.

The property route has the lowest prescribed amount and is the one most agents promote. Property is an asset you can use or let, but the investment is exposed to the chosen properties, their valuation and their resale market. Transfer tax, currency conversion costs, valuation fees and the costs of ownership and eventual sale all sit on top of the USD 400,000, so the lowest threshold is not necessarily the lowest overall cost.

The bank deposit route needs more qualifying capital, and at the end of three years the deposit and the interest earned become available again, subject to the bank's terms and to ordinary bank risk. The three-year holding condition has applied since the route was created, and since January 2022 the deposit must be held in Turkish lira for the whole period; older descriptions of a foreign-currency deposit no longer apply. The investor's real exposure is to the lira against their reference currency over three years, net of the lira interest earned and of Turkish tax on that interest. Model it with your bank before choosing this route, and check the bank's own terms for release of the funds.

Turkish income tax applies to the gain on a sale of property by an individual within five years of acquisition, at progressive rates, after an annual exemption and an inflation adjustment where the producer price index has risen by at least 10 per cent. After five years a gain on privately held property acquired for consideration is generally exempt. An investor who intends to sell at the three-year point should take Turkish tax advice before buying. Your home country may also tax the disposal.

A family that moves to Turkey to satisfy the US domicile rule will usually become Turkish tax resident, through domicile or through more than six months' continuous presence in a calendar year, short absences not interrupting the count. Law No. 7582, in force from 2026, added Article 20/D to the Income Tax Law and can exempt qualifying foreign-source income and gains of new residents for twenty years, provided the individual had neither Turkish domicile nor Turkish tax liability in the preceding three calendar years; earlier Turkish liability arising only from property income, investment income or capital gains does not disqualify. An exemption certificate must be applied for by the end of the calendar year in which residence begins (or by the end of the following February where residence begins in November or December), and no credit is given for foreign tax paid on the exempt income. Turkish-source income, including rent and deposit interest, is not covered. Because the certificate deadline runs from the start of residence, the regime has to be considered before the move.

Agents and developers are generally paid a commission on the property they sell, and that commission is often built into the price. Deposit, bond and pension placements rarely carry a comparable commission. Ask anyone advising you, including us and our partner firm, how they are paid and whether they receive anything from the seller.

• Closed neighbourhoods. Between July 2022 and mid-2026 more than a thousand neighbourhoods, including parts of Istanbul, Antalya and Alanya, were closed to new foreign residence registrations where foreign residents exceeded 20 per cent of the population. Turkish practitioners report that the closures stopped being applied from June 2026, but the Presidency of Migration Management has published no general statement and can reimpose them. A foreigner can buy in such an area; whether a residence permit can be registered at the address is a separate question. Have Turkish counsel confirm the position for the specific address before buying a home you intend to live in while establishing domicile.
• Military service. A son who is under 22 in the calendar year in which he acquires Turkish citizenship becomes liable for Turkish military service, with call-up from age 20; a man who is 22 or older in that year is treated as having served. Deferment and a paid exemption option exist. Take advice before including a son in the application.
• Loss of existing nationality. Indian nationals lose Indian citizenship on voluntarily acquiring another; Chinese nationals settled abroad do likewise. Several other countries restrict dual nationality. Check your own position first.
• Secondary market. A property that an earlier foreign buyer used for citizenship cannot be used again.

The E-2 allows a national of a treaty country to live in the United States to develop and direct a business in which they have invested substantial capital. Turkey is a treaty country, so Turkish nationality satisfies the nationality requirement. Nationals of China, India, Nigeria, Vietnam and many other countries have no treaty of their own, and Turkish citizenship has been used to supply one. A person who also holds another treaty nationality may already qualify without it.

Section 5902 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (Pub. L. 117-263, signed on 23 December 2022) enacted the text of the AMIGOS Act and amended 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(15)(E). Where a person acquired the treaty nationality "through a financial investment" and has not previously been granted E status, the treaty country is one in which the person has been domiciled for a continuous period of not less than three years at any point before applying for an E visa. We have found no published Department of State or USCIS guidance on the provision; 9 FAM 402.9 is silent on it as at October 2026. Four points follow from the wording:

• The three years can have been completed at any time before the application. Whether a period completed before the person became a Turkish national counts is not addressed in any published guidance; in our reading of the wording it does.
• The exception is for a person previously granted E status. On the wording, that includes E-1 and E-3 as well as E-2 status and, in our reading, status held as a spouse or child; an E visa that was issued but never used to obtain status is not the same thing.
• The rule applies to both the E-1 treaty trader and the E-2 treaty investor categories.
• The wording refers to applying for a visa, but the amendment sits in the definition of the E classification itself. How USCIS applies it to a change of status inside the United States is unsettled, and it should not be relied on as a way round the rule.

The property, deposit, bond, fund, pension and fixed capital routes all involve capital placed in exchange for property, a financial instrument or a business interest, and the employment route requires a business that the applicant owns or participates in. There is no donation route. Our view is that Turkish citizenship obtained under the programme should be treated as acquired through a financial investment, and that planning should assume the three-year rule applies. Turkish law offers no quick alternative for a spouse: citizenship by marriage under Article 16 of Law No. 5901 requires at least three years of marriage to a Turkish citizen, a continuing marriage and cohabitation as a family.

Domicile for this purpose is a question of US law, decided by the consular officer on the whole of the evidence. The statute does not define it, and the Department of State has not published detailed guidance. The ordinary meaning is a principal and permanent home kept with the intention of remaining for the foreseeable future, which is a different test from residence, from holding a residence permit, or from counting days. Officers can be expected to look at where the family lives, where the children are at school, where bank accounts, employment and property are, and whether the evidence is contemporaneous. Turkish address registration, tax residence and the Turkish Civil Code's own concept of domicile go to evidence of those facts; the test remains a US one. A holiday flat and occasional visits will not do.

The E-2 derivative category covers the principal's spouse and unmarried children under 21, and they do not need to hold Turkish nationality themselves. A family therefore needs one qualifying principal, not Turkish citizenship for everyone. Ages matter for teenagers: a child aged 17 when the family takes Turkish citizenship will be 20 or older after three years of domicile, and derivative E-2 status ends at 21.

In practice Turkey makes sense in four situations:

• The investor has already lived in Turkey for three continuous years at some point, which expatriate residents and returning diaspora sometimes have (on our reading of the statute, which no published guidance has yet confirmed).
• The family is prepared to make Turkey its home for three years before moving to the United States, and to document that.
• The investor has previously held E status, which the statute excepts from the domicile rule.
• Turkish citizenship is wanted for its own sake, with the E-2 as a possible later option.

Grenada's programme is structured differently, and whether its donation route or its spousal registration falls outside the "financial investment" wording is a question on which there is no published US guidance. Our analysis of both programmes is set out in Obtaining an E-2 Visa Through Citizenship by Investment.

Turkish nationality settles only the treaty question. The Turkish investment does not count towards the E-2: the applicant must make a separate, substantial, at-risk investment in a real and operating US enterprise that is more than marginal, and must be coming to develop and direct it. The E-2 is a nonimmigrant visa with no automatic path to permanent residence; a green card requires a separate immigrant route for which the family qualifies on its own facts. Read more about the E-2 Treaty Investor Visa.

What does Turkish citizenship by investment cost in total?

The qualifying amount is USD 400,000 for property or USD 500,000 for the financial routes. On top of that, budget for the 4 per cent title transfer fee on property, the currency conversion spread, valuation and notary fees, government application fees for each family member, Turkish legal fees, and the costs of holding and later selling the asset. Non-resident buyers of a new-build property paid for in foreign currency may qualify for a VAT exemption on a first sale, provided the property is kept for at least three years and the buyer is not resident in Turkey at the date of delivery, which a family that has already moved to Turkey will not satisfy.

What happens to the money if citizenship is refused?

The investment remains your property whatever the outcome, though recovering it is subject to the bank's terms, transaction costs and the market. The no-sale annotation or block can be lifted on application to the relevant authority, but a property still has to be sold on the open market, and a lira deposit or bond is still in lira. The eligibility and source-of-funds checks, and a frank assessment of anything in the applicant's background that could raise a security or public-order objection, should therefore come before any money moves.

Can I use more than one property to reach USD 400,000?

Yes for completed properties with title deeds, provided each carries the three-year no-sale annotation. Off-plan purchases under preliminary sale contracts cannot be combined.

If I have already lived in Turkey, does that count towards the three years?

It may. The statute looks for three continuous years of domicile at any point before the E visa application rather than three years after the passport is issued, but whether a period completed before you became a Turkish national counts has not been addressed in any published guidance. In our reading it does. The evidence of that earlier period would have to be strong enough to persuade a consular officer.

Does my spouse need Turkish citizenship for the E-2?

No. If one spouse qualifies as the E-2 principal, the other spouse and unmarried children under 21 are eligible to apply as derivatives in whatever nationality they hold.

Will I lose my current nationality?

Turkey does not require it, but your own country might. India is the clearest case: an Indian citizen loses Indian citizenship on voluntarily acquiring another. A Chinese national settled abroad loses Chinese nationality in the same way. Check before you apply.

• Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye Investment Office: Acquiring Property and Citizenship
• General Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs (NVİ)
• Capital Markets Board: citizenship through fund participation shares
• 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(15)(E)
• US Embassy and Consulates in Türkiye