1,800+ applications closed · operating since 2016
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1,800+ applications since 2016 · 19 client nationalities · the desk closes at 30 concurrent files
Real-estate route at $400K, bank-deposit at $500K. Both still issuing. The honest answer on visa-free reach, the E-2 angle for US-bound founders, and the kinds of files we now turn down.
Türkiye’s citizenship-by-investment programme is the most-filed programme in our office and one of the most misunderstood in the broader market. It is also the programme most likely to be oversold to the wrong client. Here is the working picture for 2026.
| Route | Minimum | Hold period | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Real estate purchase | USD 400,000 | 3 years | Property valuation by SPK-licensed appraiser; ownership registered with the General Directorate of Land Registry. | | Bank deposit (TRY-converted) | USD 500,000 | 3 years | Held in a Türkiye-licensed bank, no withdrawal during the lock-up. | | Capital contribution to a Turkish company | USD 500,000 | 3 years | Fixed capital, evidenced in the trade registry. | | Government bond purchase | USD 500,000 | 3 years | Less common; the bond route has wider FX risk on the lira side. |
The job-creation and the foreign currency to Central Bank routes still exist on paper but are rarely used; either the documentation burden is heavier than the bond route or the price floor is the same and the file path is more complicated.
The real-estate route remains the most common single filing in our office. The dollar floor was raised from USD 250,000 to USD 400,000 in 2022 and has held flat since. There has been no signalled change for 2026.
The Turkish passport ranks in the low 40s on the 2026 Henley Index by the narrow visa-free definition (113 destinations), which understates it. By the broader Mobility Score we use across our programme catalogue (which counts eTA, eVisa, and visa-on-arrival access), it sits closer to 138 / 199.
Notable destinations:
The Schengen and UK gap is the single most important fact about this passport to internalise. If your file is being sold to you as “Türkiye gives you Europe,” ask for a written list of countries.
US-bound founders. Türkiye holds an E-2 treaty with the United States. A Turkish citizen who establishes a substantive US business can apply for an E-2 investor visa, which is renewable indefinitely and brings spouse and dependants in on derivative status. We file this route for a steady volume of founders out of South Asia and the Levant who plan a US operating presence.
Frequent Latin America and Asia travellers. The Turkish passport opens up most of South America and a working chunk of Asia without the consular cycle a holder of a weaker passport would otherwise sit through.
Holders of passports that do not allow dual citizenship at all. Türkiye recognises dual nationality unconditionally. For clients out of a small number of jurisdictions that do not, the operating reality is that Türkiye is the workaround.
We stopped filing Türkiye CBI for the “Schengen access” pitch some time ago. We will not write a Türkiye engagement letter if the client’s primary use case is European travel without consular processing. Schengen still requires a separate visa application from a Turkish passport, the same as before, and the queue at the Greek and German consulates in Istanbul has not gotten shorter.
We also turn down files where the real-estate valuation looks generous. The SPK appraisal process tightened in 2024 and 2025 after the Land Registry started auditing valuation reports retroactively. Files that purchased above market in 2022-2023 at $250K equivalent and are now applying for the 3-year resale exit have, in some cases, had their valuations re-reviewed. Buying in this market requires picking a property that will hold its USD-denominated value after the lock-up. We currently shortlist three or four neighbourhoods in Istanbul (largely on the European side) and one or two in Izmir; everything else, we do not file.
For a single applicant, family of three, no extended dependants, real-estate variant at the USD 400,000 floor:
| Line item | Amount | | --- | --- | | Real-estate purchase (held 3 years, recoverable) | USD 400,000 | | Title transfer tax (4%) | USD 16,000 | | SPK appraisal | USD 1,500 | | Property registration, deed | USD 1,200 | | Citizenship application and biometrics | USD 3,000 | | Notarisation, translation, apostille | USD 2,500 | | Our advisory fee | USD 27,000 | | Turkish counsel (SPK-registered) | USD 12,000 | | Total above the recoverable property capital | USD 63,200 |
The all-in cost above the property itself sits between $55,000 and $75,000 for a clean three-person file. Single-applicant files trim about $5,000.
The headline 3-to-4-month timeline is broadly accurate for the file path we now run. We are seeing 14 to 17 weeks from engagement letter to passport on a clean SOF, slightly under the headline. The bottleneck moved from the title-deed registration in 2023 to the biometrics-appointment scheduling at the citizenship directorate in 2025 and now back to the registry side as municipal e-government load eased into 2026.
We do not expect the $400K floor to move before late 2026 elections cycle. If it does, the most likely move is upward in the range of 10-25% rather than a fundamental restructure. The bank-deposit route is more politically exposed and could be tightened first.
We file the Türkiye route every week. If your situation fits the actual use case, it remains one of the better-value CBI programmes globally. If your situation does not, it remains a programme that will be sold to you anyway by someone less careful.