Turkish Citizenship by Bank Deposit: the $500,000 Requirements in 2026

Av. Serkan KARA, Serka Law Firm (Istanbul Bar, no. 53770)

Last reviewed: 28 October 2026 · Reviewed by Av. Serkan KARA

In 2026, Turkish citizenship by investment through a bank deposit requires at least USD 500,000, or its equivalent in foreign currency, sold to a bank in Türkiye and by that bank to the Central Bank, with the Turkish lira from that sale held on deposit at the same bank for three years (Article 20(2)(ç) and 20(10) of the Regulation on the Implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law). The Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK, in English BRSA) determines the deposit for the Certificate of Conformity, and the spouse and the children who are minors or dependants come in on the same deposit. What decides the file is fixed before the transfer: which bank, which currency, in whose name, and on which day the currency is sold, because once the Central Bank has bought it the sale cannot be taken back.

Serka Law Firm runs deposit-route files from the bank’s first compliance question to the passport, as set out on our Turkish citizenship by investment lawyer page, and writes to the investor and the family in their own language.

The requirements in 2026: the conversion to Turkish lira before the deposit is blocked

Paragraph 10 of Article 20 of the Turkish Citizenship Regulation is the sentence this route turns on, and it is the part most published summaries leave out. The foreign currency is sold, before the transaction, to a bank operating in Turkey, and by that bank on to the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye. The Turkish lira produced by that sale is what is then held on deposit for three years. The last amendment to that paragraph was made on 13 May 2022 and nothing since has changed it.

The mechanics of that sale are not in the regulation itself. Paragraph 10 delegates them to the Central Bank, which set them out in its citizenship implementation instruction of 21 January 2022. Four rules in that instruction decide whether a transfer qualifies, and each of them has ended a real file:

• The eligible currencies are US dollars, euro, pounds sterling and Swiss francs. A transfer in any other foreign currency is converted by the Turkish bank itself and then sold on to the Central Bank, so the route stays open to it. That is the answer for an investor whose own bank can no longer send dollars or euro.
• The bank that sells the currency and the bank that holds the lira deposit must be the same bank. Splitting those two across institutions breaks the chain the certificate of conformity has to document.
• Once the Central Bank has completed its purchase, the sale cannot be abandoned or canceled. The decision point on this route is before the transfer, never after it.
• The documentation duty sits with the transacting bank, which is why the bank is chosen with the file in mind rather than picked for its counter rate.

Did the August 2026 annulments change the bank deposit route?

No. The thresholds, the seven routes and the timetable are the same as before the Ministry of Interior’s statement of August 4, 2026, which reported citizenship decisions annulled or withdrawn after an operation against forged real estate valuation reports. What changed is how closely a file is read, and the bank deposit route rests on the fewest documents anyone else can forge: it has no valuation report at all.

On this route the evidence is produced by the bank. Under Article 20(10) of the Regulation on the Implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law, the foreign currency is sold to a bank in Turkey, and by that bank to the Central Bank, before the lira deposit is opened. Under the Central Bank’s Implementation Instruction of May 16, 2022, the bank that sells the currency and the bank that holds the deposit must be the same institution, and the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) determines the deposit for the Certificate of Conformity the citizenship file is built on. A file in which the transfer, the currency sale and the three-year deposit sit in one bank, in the investor’s own name, reads correctly under exactly the scrutiny the Ministry described.

The stakes are why the sequence is fixed before any money moves. Under Article 31 of Turkish Citizenship Law no. 5901, a decision granting citizenship is annulled where it resulted from the applicant’s own false statement or the concealment of a material fact, and under Article 32 the annulment reaches the spouse and the children who acquired citizenship through the applicant. Serka Law Firm acts on written instruction under a signed engagement agreement, and on a deposit file the bank, the currency and the transfer sequence are set in writing before the first transfer is made.

What is Turkish citizenship by bank deposit?

Turkish citizenship by bank deposit is the route that grants naturalization to a foreigner who deposits a qualifying amount in a BDDK-licensed Turkish bank and undertakes not to withdraw it for three years. It is one of the seven investment routes of Article 20(2) of the Implementing Regulation, beside real estate, fixed capital, employment, government debt instruments, fund units and the private pension. The deposit route is chosen by investors who want the money itself back after three years rather than an asset they must later sell.

The defining features are simple: a minimum deposit set by regulation, a three-year no-withdrawal commitment, conversion of foreign currency into Turkish Lira through the Central Bank, and a Certificate of Conformity that the BDDK issues on the bank’s application. The interest or return earned on the blocked funds belongs to the investor, and the principal is released at the end of the holding period.

How does the bank deposit route differ from the property route?

The bank deposit route gives your capital back in lira after three years, while the property route ties it to a real asset you must buy, hold for three years, and later sell to recover value. Both routes lead to the same citizenship, but the legal and financial mechanics differ in ways that change which one suits you.

If you want the money back in hand after three years, the deposit route returns it in lira, and that lira carries the currency risk set out below. If you intend to hold a Turkish asset long term anyway, the property route converts once and holds an asset whose price moves with the currency. For a side-by-side view of every qualifying option, see our route-by-route guide with the qualifying amount for each option.

How does the application process work step by step?

The file moves from the currency sale to the certificate to the application, and most files fail on their documents, not at the decision.

1. Pre-deposit legal review. Confirm eligibility, check source-of-funds evidence, and fix the one bank that will both buy the currency and hold the deposit (Article 6(1) of the Central Bank’s Implementation Instruction) before any money moves.
2. Transfer and conversion. Bring the foreign currency into the investor’s own account at the bank that will hold the deposit. Under Article 20(10) of the Regulation, in its wording of 13 May 2022, the currency is sold to that bank and by it to the Central Bank, and converted into Turkish Lira.
3. Foreign Exchange Purchase Certificate (DAB). The bank issues this certificate documenting the currency conversion through the Turkish banking system. It is a mandatory supporting document.
4. Blocking and certificate of conformity. The Turkish lira proceeds of that sale are held for at least three years on deposit at the same bank that made the currency sale. Government debt instruments are a separate qualifying route with their own procedure, not an alternative way of holding this deposit. The bank sends the application with the investor’s documents to the BDDK, and the BDDK issues the Certificate of Conformity confirming that the minimum and the holding commitment are met.
5. Residence permit. Obtain the short-term residence permit available to investors. On this route it is a condition of the citizenship application, not an option: Article 12(1)(b) of Law No. 5901 names as eligible the foreigners who obtained a residence permit under Article 31(1)(j) of Law No. 6458, beside Turquoise Card holders.
6. Citizenship application. The investor files in person at the governorate (valilik) of residence, for every family member the application covers, and the Directorate General of Civil Registration and Citizenship Affairs (Nüfus ve Vatandaşlık İşleri Genel Müdürlüğü) examines the file.
7. Decision. Citizenship is granted by decision of the President under Article 12(1) of Law No. 5901, and the identity card and the passport follow.

Can a foreigner open a Turkish bank account for the citizenship deposit without residence?

Yes. A Turkish bank opens a non-resident individual account for the citizenship deposit without a residence permit. What one Turkish bank confirmed to this office in writing in September 2026: the account takes the passport, a Turkish tax number and a utility bill in the applicant’s own name dated within the last three months, issued in any country (electricity, water, gas, mobile or internet) and translated if it is not in English, followed by the bank’s know-your-customer and compliance checks and the account contracts. The same bank accepted the translated address page of a Russian internal passport in place of a bill, and refused a bank statement and a title deed as proof of address.

The bank that buys the foreign currency and the bank that holds the lira deposit must be the same bank (Article 6(1) of the Central Bank’s Implementation Instruction of 21 January 2022), and the same bank confirmed that it sends the application to the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) with the documents and, after three years, confirms to the agency that the deposit was kept without breach. An account opened at one bank and a deposit held at another breaks the chain the Certificate of Conformity rests on.

What the banks wrote about the deposit in 2026

Every bank that takes a citizenship deposit runs its own practice inside the regulation, and that practice is read in writing before the money moves. These are the written answers on our files of August and September 2026; no client is named.

• A participation bank that runs the whole chain. On 10 September 2026 one participation bank confirmed in writing that it issues the foreign exchange purchase certificate (DAB) at the Central Bank’s rates, so that it is the selling bank; that it sends the application to the BDDK itself; and that at the end of the three years it writes to the BDDK that the deposit was kept without breach. Its list for the file includes an undertaking, a blocking instruction and a statement of consent signed by the investor, the passport, and the receipt or SWIFT details of the incoming transfer. At a participation bank the lira sits in a participation account, which under Article 3 of Banking Law no. 5411 pays no return fixed in advance, shares in the profit or loss of the bank’s use of the funds and does not guarantee the principal back as paid in; the Central Bank’s Implementation Instruction for these sales names deposit and participation banks alike (Article 3(1)(a)).
• What a private bank’s branch quoted on 31 August 2026. No commission on the conversion; the Central Bank’s rate of the day, not fixed in advance; the three-year block requested by letter to its treasury unit and usually confirmed within a working day; an account opened on a power of attorney made abroad, usually within a working day once the approvals are complete; and a time-deposit rate of 35 per cent that day, neither fixed nor guaranteed for three years. Like another branch of the same bank and a participation bank asked the same week, it offered nothing but the deposit for citizenship.
• Where the transfer comes from matters. The same branch wrote that for Russian citizens the investment amount cannot arrive by SWIFT and has to be paid in cash under its current procedure. Another participation bank asked a Russian citizen for his taxpayer number (INN) on 1 September 2026.

Two things follow for planning. The deposit rate is the bank’s, set again on each renewal day, so a rate quoted today is a reading and never a three-year return. And the bank is chosen for the chain it will document, the DAB, the block and the letters to the BDDK, before its rate is compared.

How long does Turkish citizenship by bank deposit take?

No date can be promised for the citizenship decision: in 2026 the security and archive research has kept many files waiting well beyond four months, and decisions have come in batches. That comes on top of the time needed to deposit funds, obtain certificates, and secure the residence permit. The total elapsed time depends far more on file quality than on the route itself. A file with missing translations, an unclear source-of-funds explanation, or mismatched family records will sit longer than a clean one.

Realistic planning treats the three year holding undertaking, the certification steps, and the citizenship review as sequential stages. Building the document list correctly at the start is the single largest lever on speed.

What does the route cost beyond the deposit?

Beyond the deposit, the file carries the bank’s charges, the sworn translations, the legalization or apostille of the family records, the residence permit charges, the official filing and the legal fee. The USD 500,000 is not a fee paid to the State: it is the investor’s own money, free again once the three-year undertaking has run on a compliant file.

What documents are required?

The core documents prove identity, family ties, lawful source of funds, and the qualifying deposit; where the funds are held abroad, the asset amnesty open until 31 July 2027 is read before the transfer. A person with no Turkish tax liability may use it (provisional Article 19(5) of Corporate Tax Law no. 5520), and the declared amount is then shielded from a Turkish tax examination and assessment, while the same paragraph leaves the measures of other legislation untouched (19(8)), so the bank’s own source-of-funds checks still run; it says nothing about tax in the declarant’s own country. A strong file links every requested outcome to a document, so gaps are closed before filing rather than after a query from the authorities.

• Completed application form indicating the bank deposit investment route
• Passport and national identity document for the main applicant
• Spouse and children’s identity documents and passport photographs, where family members are included
• The applicant’s own birth certificate or civil registry record, and the records proving the family tie (Article 20(3)(ç) of the Regulation: marriage certificate; birth certificates for the children included; for a child who has come of age, the documents that prove dependency)
• A civil-status certificate, with the marriage, divorce or death certificate behind it (Article 20(3)(c) of the Regulation)
• The investor residence permit under Article 31(1)(j) of Law no. 6458, on which the citizenship application rests
• Foreign Exchange Purchase Certificate (DAB) issued by the bank after the currency sale
• Certificate of conformity confirming the minimum investment requirement is met
• Source-of-funds evidence supporting the lawful origin of the deposited amount
• A criminal-record certificate from the authorities of the applicant’s own country, issued within the last six months, which the Directorate General of Civil Registration and Citizenship Affairs asks for in its own list of the file’s documents
• Payment receipts and supporting records for fees paid before the application

Foreign documents typically need certified translation and, depending on the issuing country, apostille or consular legalization. We translate the bank’s and the file’s foreign documents into Turkish ourselves and put each translation to a sworn translator for checking and approval; the investor sends the originals or their scans. A power of attorney lets an investor complete most steps without staying in Turkey throughout, and the consular or notary appointment for it, the bank’s forms and the calls to the branch are ours first; a step passes to the investor only where we cannot take it, with the reason.

Who is eligible and can family be included?

Any foreign national who lawfully deposits the qualifying amount, commits to the three-year hold, and passes the standard security and integrity checks is eligible, and the spouse and the children who are under 18 or dependent are included in the same application without an additional deposit (Article 12(b) of Law No. 5901; a child who has come of age joins as a dependant, on papers assembled before filing). This makes the deposit route efficient for families, because one qualifying investment covers the immediate household.

Eligibility turns on clean documentation as much as on the money. Applicants with prior immigration issues in Turkey, including past entry bans or deportation records, should resolve those matters first, because they can block or delay naturalization. The firm’s work on immigration and residence permits and on deportation orders and exclusion orders clears these first where they arise.

What are the legal risks and how are they controlled?

The main risks are moving funds before legal review, an unclear source-of-funds explanation, bank documents that do not match application requirements, and family records prepared after the banking step rather than alongside it. Each of these is avoidable with the right sequence, and each can otherwise cause a query, a delay, or a refusal.

• Premature transfers. Capital that moves before the file is structured can fail to qualify or trigger source-of-funds questions. Review first, transfer second.
• Source-of-funds gaps. The lawful origin of the deposit must be documented coherently. Banks and authorities scrutinize this, and weak evidence is a leading cause of delay.
• Document mismatch. The DAB certificate, certificate of conformity, and application data must be internally consistent. Discrepancies invite queries.
• Currency and conversion rules. The mandatory sale to the Central Bank and conversion into Turkish Lira must be respected exactly; holding the amount in foreign cash does not satisfy the rule.
• The rule in force. The USD 500,000 deposit minimum has stood since Presidential Decision No. 5072 of 6 January 2022, which also required the sale of the currency to the Central Bank; a figure from before that date describes a rule that no longer applies.

Cross-border investors often run this route alongside other matters, from establishing companies in Turkey to real estate acquisition if they later decide to hold property as well. Coordinating these steps under one legal plan avoids conflicting timelines.

Is there currency protection on the three year lira deposit?

No. The qualifying amount sits in Turkish lira for three years and nothing in the citizenship regulation protects it against depreciation. YUVAM is a separate banking product and no part of the citizenship requirement, which stays the USD 500,000 deposit held for three years, the BDDK’s determination and a clean file.

Under the Central Bank’s YUVAM implementation instruction of 23 June 2025, YUVAM accounts run for 3, 6 or 12 months. A separate TCMB announcement on 23 August 2025 ended ordinary KKM account opening and renewal, and expressly left YUVAM accounts outside that closure. Whether a bank will hold a citizenship deposit in one, and on what terms, is that bank’s answer, had in writing.

Two other claims about this route still appear in guides published in 2026, and the text answers both. One says the deposit may now be kept in dollars or euros without an exchange-rate guarantee, or that an investor keeps his dollar value by converting into a dollar time deposit at a Turkish bank. Article 20(10) of the Regulation, in its wording of 13 May 2022, holds the lira produced by the sale to the Central Bank “Türk Lirası mevduatta”, in a Turkish lira deposit, for three years, so a dollar or euro deposit is not this route and does not meet it. The other says the government bond route does not work in practice. A state bank’s foreign investments desk confirmed to us in writing on 21 September 2026 that it handles that route under Article 20(2)(d), on the Ministry of Treasury and Finance’s revised procedure. It runs at fewer banks than the deposit, and it runs: the government bond route is set out on its own page.

My bank can only send roubles. Does that end the route?

No. A rouble transfer is a foreign currency transfer, and the Central Bank instruction of 21 January 2022 directs the Turkish bank to convert any currency outside the eligible four and sell it on to the Central Bank itself. What ends the route is a Turkish lira transfer, not an unfamiliar currency. If lira arrive there is no foreign currency left to sell, so the operation the regulation requires never happens, and converting those lira into dollars at a Turkish branch runs the chain backwards and creates nothing. Investors remitting from Russia and the CIS should fix the sending currency with their own bank before the instruction is given, not after the money has landed. The currency is rarely the obstacle; the channel can be. Whether the receiving Turkish bank accepts a transfer from a Russian citizen at all, and by which channel, is that bank’s answer, and as the answers above show, one branch would not take the investment amount by SWIFT. That question goes to the bank in writing before the flight or the transfer is planned.

Sending the deposit from the UAE, Qatar or Saudi Arabia

Dirhams and riyals qualify the way roubles do. The Central Bank buys only US dollars, euros, pounds sterling and Swiss francs (Article 5(2) of its Implementation Instruction of 21 January 2022), so the Turkish bank converts a Gulf currency itself and sells it on, and the lira from that sale is what is held for three years. An investor who keeps his money out of interest takes the same route through the participation account described above, at a participation bank that buys the currency, issues the DAB and writes to the BDDK itself.

How many dirhams or riyals make USD 500,000?

The yardstick is the Central Bank’s own rate, not the one the sending bank quotes. Article 20(6) of the Regulation measures the amount at the Central Bank’s banknote selling rate (efektif satış kuru) and/or its cross rate on the determination date, and the Central Bank’s daily list carries the dirham and the Saudi and Qatari riyals with their own cross rates to the dollar: on its list of 20 October 2026 the dirham stood at 3.6728, the Saudi riyal at 3.7510 and the Qatari riyal at 3.6450, so on those rates USD 500,000 came to AED 1,836,400, SAR 1,875,500 or QAR 1,822,500 that day. The same list gave the dirham and the Qatari riyal no effective (banknote) rate at all, only the forex rate and the cross rate.

A transfer in dirhams or riyals is converted twice before any lira exist. The Turkish bank first turns it into dollars, euros, pounds or Swiss francs (Article 5(2) of the Instruction) and then sells those to the Central Bank at the foreign exchange buying rate the Central Bank announces at 11:00 on the day the currency is turned into lira (Article 3(1)(b), as amended on 1 October 2026; until then it was the last of the hourly rates announced before the sale); the dollar equivalent on the DAB is computed on the dollar rate announced at the same time as the rate of the currency in the transaction (Article 8(4)). The Instruction sets no rate for the bank’s own first conversion. So two figures are had from the receiving bank in writing before the instruction: its rate for the dirham or riyal, and the dollar figure its DAB will carry. A transfer sent in dollars leaves the Turkish bank nothing to convert, since it sells the dollars on as they arrive. And the amount is set above the threshold with the charges in view: the bank sells what is credited to the account, so any charge deducted on the way comes out of the amount that counts.

Two papers are settled before the money moves. The account takes proof of address in the investor’s own name, so a utility bill issued to an employer or a landlord is not one, and it is replaced before the account is opened, not after. And the family’s civil-status certificates follow the law of the state that issued them: the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are not parties to the Apostille Convention (the Hague Conference’s status table, read 5 October 2026), so a certificate either of them issues is legalized by its own authority and then by the Turkish mission (Article 195 of Notary Law no. 1512), while Saudi Arabia has applied the Convention since 7 December 2022 and its certificates take an apostille. A certificate from the investor’s home state, a Jordanian or Egyptian birth or marriage record for a resident of Dubai, follows that home state’s own status. For an Emirati, Qatari or Saudi national the first question is his own nationality law, which each of the three answers differently. The articles are on our citizenship by investment lawyer page, and the answer is settled before the application.

Sending the deposit from mainland China or Hong Kong

The yuan qualifies the way the dirham does. It is not among the four currencies the Central Bank buys (Article 5(2) of the Instruction), so the Turkish bank converts it and sells the result on. On the Central Bank’s list of 23 October 2026 the renminbi stood at a cross rate of 6.6708 to the dollar, so USD 500,000 came to CNY 3,335,400 that day, and the list gave the renminbi no banknote rate. The Hong Kong dollar is not on the Central Bank’s daily list at all, so there is no Central Bank rate from which the threshold can be read in Hong Kong dollars. Money held in Hong Kong is therefore sent in dollars, which leave the Turkish bank nothing to convert; sent in any other currency, what counts is the dollar figure of the currency the bank sells, as its Foreign Exchange Purchase Certificate states it (Article 8(4)).

Where the money sits decides more than the currency. A mainland resident buys foreign currency on his identity card within a facilitation quota of USD 50,000 equivalent a year (Article 2 of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange’s Implementing Rules of 5 January 2007), on a purchase application that rules out buying property abroad, securities and the other capital items not yet opened, and a buyer who borrows relatives’ quotas to split a purchase goes on the Administration’s watch list for that year and the two after it, when every purchase needs the documents of its transaction (its Xiamen branch’s guide to individual foreign exchange business, 2021). A deposit of this size is therefore built from money already held outside the mainland, never from a family’s pooled quotas, and the payer’s name travels with the transfer to the Turkish bank. The Hong Kong rule and the Chinese nationality question are in the mainland China and Hong Kong section of our Turkish citizenship by investment lawyer page, and the file the bank reads is on our page on the source of funds.

Am I locked into the deposit for the full three years?

No. Paragraph 8 of Article 20 permits movement between the qualifying investment types while the three year period runs. An investor who begins in the deposit route and later prefers to hold property, fixed capital or fund units can transition rather than start again, provided the value and the continuity of the holding are documented at each step. This is the real answer to the lock-in question, and it is why the currency exposure on this route is a managed risk rather than a trap.

What interest will the deposit earn over three years?

Nobody can quote you a three year lira yield honestly, because no Turkish bank prices a three year lira deposit. Published deposit boards thin out sharply past the one year mark and are not quoted at all beyond two years, so in practice the qualifying amount is placed on a short term and rolled repeatedly at whatever rate applies on each renewal day. Treat any three year return figure you are shown by an agency as a projection, not a contract, and price the route on the citizenship rather than on the yield. Whatever the deposit earns, the bank withholds the tax on the interest at source, 25 per cent on a foreign-currency account and 17.5, 15 or 10 per cent on a lira account by maturity, and for a non-resident that withholding is the final Turkish tax; the rates and the decisions behind them are on the page on withholding tax in Turkey. Whether the investor is a non-resident at all, and what the passport changes there, is on the page on Turkish citizenship by investment and tax residence.

If the lira falls, will I be asked to top the deposit up?

No. Paragraph 6 of Article 20 fixes the monetary value at the Central Bank rate on the determination date. The amount is tested once, at that moment, and the regulation contains no continuing dollar equivalence test afterwards, so the citizenship right is fixed on that date and survives later depreciation. What depreciation does affect is the purchasing power of the money returned to you at the end of three years. That is a commercial question rather than an eligibility one, and it is the single point on which the deposit route differs most sharply from the property route, where the three years are held in the unit rather than in a lira balance.

Frequently asked questions

Can the deposit be withdrawn before three years?

No. The qualifying deposit stays blocked for at least three years under the investor’s own blocking instruction, and the bank confirms to the BDDK at the end of the period that it was kept without breach. A withdrawal breaks the condition the Certificate of Conformity rests on, so any move is made only between investment types under Article 20(8), documented at each step. After three years the funds are released and the citizenship stays.

In which currency must the deposit be made?

Foreign currency is brought in, then sold to the Central Bank through a bank operating in Turkey and converted into Turkish Lira, which is the amount that is blocked for three years. The bank issues a Foreign Exchange Purchase Certificate documenting the conversion. The lira is what is blocked, and it stays lira. Holding the qualifying amount in foreign cash, or converting it back after the sale, does not satisfy the rule.

Does the threshold change over time?

Yes. The minimum amount and conditions are fixed by regulation and have been amended in the past, including the 2022 changes requiring conversion to Turkish Lira. The minimum is measured at the Central Bank rate on the date the BDDK determines the deposit (Article 20(6)), and a later fall of the lira does not undo it.

Can I complete the process without living in Turkey?

Without living in Türkiye, yes; without coming, no. A properly issued power of attorney and a clear document plan let a lawyer carry the banking steps and the correspondence for you, while the Directorate General of Civil Registration and Citizenship Affairs names four steps the investor takes in person: obtaining the Certificate of Conformity, applying for the short-term residence permit, collecting the residence card and applying for citizenship. The trips are planned around those four.

How much must I deposit for Turkish citizenship by bank deposit in 2026?

The bank deposit route currently requires at least USD 500,000, or its equivalent in eligible foreign currency, converted into Turkish lira and held for three years at a bank licensed by the BDDK. The figure has stood since 6 January 2022 (Presidential Decision No. 5072).

Are my spouse and children included in the bank deposit route?

Yes. One qualifying deposit covers the immediate family: the spouse and the children who are under 18 or dependent are included in the same application without a second deposit, which makes the deposit route efficient for families.

Do I keep the interest earned on the blocked deposit?

Yes. The interest or return on the blocked funds belongs to you; only the principal must remain blocked for the three-year period, and at a deposit bank it is released in full at the end of the holding term. At a participation bank the return is a share in the profit or loss of the bank’s use of the funds, and the principal is not guaranteed back as paid in (Article 3 of Banking Law no. 5411).

Is the 500,000 USD a fee paid to the Turkish government?

No. It is a returnable held position, not a state fee. The principal becomes free after the three-year commitment provided the file stays compliant; the real costs are bank, translation, filing, and legal-service charges.

Does bank deposit citizenship require giving up my current nationality?

Not on the Turkish side. Turkish law asks no investor to give up the nationality he holds, and the deposit route carries no renunciation. Whether he keeps it is a question of his own state’s law, and for a Gulf investor it is the first question of the file. The United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia each answer it in their own nationality law, and each differently; China and India do not recognize dual nationality, which reaches every investor who lives in the Emirates on an Indian passport. The articles of each state are set out on our Turkish citizenship by investment lawyer page, and the answer is settled before the application, not after the decision.

Before the transfer is instructed

The decision point on this route is before the money moves. Once the Central Bank has completed its purchase the sale cannot be canceled, so the bank, the sending currency, the source of funds file and the family records are settled first or they are not settled at all.

The deposit is one of seven statutory routes, and if you are still working out which one you qualify under, start with how Turkish citizenship is actually granted.

This article provides general information on Turkish law and is not legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is formed by reading it; such a relationship arises only through a signed engagement with Serka Law Firm.