Citizenship in Turkey

From 2016, the duration of a permit for the residency of Turkey was increased from a mere three months to a year. This means that if you are looking to settle down in Turkey, then you have the option of staying in the country for a year to sort out your affairs. Moreover, the government of turkey now realises that more and more foreign nationals are looking to buy a home in Turkey, either for retirement purposes, for a vacation home, or to move in to the country permanently. Moreover, the government has also applied a number of new rules and regulations in order to ensure your convenience when applying for a residency permit in the country. These include;

• The duration of staying away from the country has increased: Previously, a person looking for a citizenship in Turkey could not stay away from the new country for more than 120 days in the entire year, ensuring that the applicants of the residency permit were in the country for the majority of the year. However, according to the new rules which were set down in 2016, this rule was abolished. Now, the there is no limit on the time that a person can stay outside the country. This step was taken as a measure to attract in more buyers from other countries, as it would ensure that you would be able to become a citizen of the country without having to stay there for long periods of time.
• The process of application is now online: Seeing the number of people who were applying to be citizens of Turkey, the government of the country removed the age- old process of manually applying for a visa and the renewal of the same. Moreover, the entire process now shifted online, which makes it easier for anyone to apply for a permit. The government has taken a lot of steps in simplifying this process for everyone involved. For this purpose, they have taken a number of steps especially for the convenience of all the foreign nationals involved.
• There is now a separate Residency book: Turkey now has two official documents for foreign nationals- a tourist visa with a span of 90 days, and a residency permit, for expats or people looking to become citizens of the country, for anywhere from 6 months to 5 years. Once you log on to the website of the government of Turkey, the Blue Book is what you should apply for. The government of Turkey is now looking for a way to curb the influx of seasonal labour workers and illegal residents, who are effectively dodging the tax system and are causing more harm than good to the economy of the country. Thus, with the blue book of residency, you will be able to stay for a longer time in the country in a legal manner, and not have to deal with the hassle of taking of an entire day every three months to manually get your tourist visa renewed.

Applying For a Residency Permit in Turkey

Since the entire process is now online, it is much easier to apply for a residency permit in turkey than it had ever been before. If you are planning to stay in the country for a longer period of time, it makes much more sense to apply for a residency permit which has a span of 5 years, as compared to a shorter duration of time. However, if you are a first time home buyer in the country, then you shall be provided with an automatic residency permit of a year, which you will then be renewing at a later date.

The entire process of residency is listed on the official website of the government of Turkey, but written below are the few major things that you will have to remember when applying for or renewing an existing Residency Permit for Turkey.

• Visit the website of the Directorate General of Migration Management to kick off the process. You will be required to fill in your details, and owing to the information that you provide, you shall be directed to the nearest office of the Directorate General of Migration Management. Furthermore, you will be set up with a list of all the dates and times of appointments which are currently free, are you can choose a slot according to your own convenience.

Disclaimer: If you are a foreign national, you are not permitted to travel out of the country at all for the entire duration of the process. However, once you have applied for your residency, you have the option of travelling out of the country if you so desire. However, you have to return to Turkey within 15 days, otherwise you application becomes null and void, and you will have to restart the process of applying for a Turkish residency all over again.

• Once you have set up a date for your appointment and the duration of the stay for your residency permit, then you shall be directed towards a payment method. The payment for your residency permit is tailor- made according to your preferences. You can complete the payment either by credit card, or by paying the sum in cash to the nearest tax office near you in Turkey.
• The following are the things which are more or less required to take with you on a trip to the Directorate General of Migration Management. The actual products may vary depending on your specific needs, but more or less, here are the products that you will require for applying for a residency permit in Turkey.
• An ample number of passport size photos. You can never have too many in this case, because you will never know when you will have to utilise your photos.
• The original and the copy of your TAPU (title deed of ownership for your house). If you are living on rent, then official documents of that would be required. Furthermore, proof of your payment, whether it be a house you bought or a place you are renting, is also a must to carry.
• Copies of your passport as well as the original. In addition, you also require a coloured Xerox of your visa entry stamp and the details which pertain to your citizenship. Moreover, it is important to remember that your passport should be valid for the entire duration that you are applying for the Residency Permit. Since you are not yet a citizen of Turkey, your passport will remain the most important document that you possess. Thus, if you are planning to apply for a residency permit for 5 years, then you should make sure that your passport is valid for that time frame as well.
• Your tax number which you can collect from a tax office nearest to you, and your residency book which you will require if you are reapplying for a residency permit.
• An official residency folder to keep all your documents in. You can find this at any stationary shop in the country. However, be sure to ask for the residency folder, as anything else is usually a cause for rejection by the.
• You would require a bank statement to prove to Directorate General of Migration Management that you have all the sufficient funds to not only take care of yourself but also your family if they are all moving to the country with you. The best way you can tackle this situation is by opening a bank account in a Turkish bank, and ask them for a breakdown of your finances. The banks will know how to showcase your finances in a manner which the Directorate General of Migration Management will approve of.
• If you are moving in to the country with your family, then make sure that you have all the pertinent documents which relate to them. This includes birth certificates, passports and visas. For the least amount of hassle, make sure that you keep their original and the copy of their documents with you as well.

TAPU

The TAPU is single handedly the most important document in the entire process of applying for a residency permit in Turkey, especially if you have bought your own house. If you do not have the TAPU, you have no other means of proving that you have actually bought the house you are planning to live in. The TAPU is a title deed- nothing other than that. However, its importance in Turkey is so much that without it, you are as good as having not bought anything at all. There is only one place in Turkey where you can legitimately acquire the TAPU- the Office of TAPU and Cadastre. Hence, this is where the importance of the TAPU comes in. The acquiring of the TAPU means that the state of Turkey itself is recognising your right to become the owner of property in the country. Which is why, without this document, your purchase of your property has no actual credence.

ISKAN

Another equally important, but not as urgent, document pertaining to your property in Turkey is the ISKAN, or an official authorisation for you to live in the property that you have bought. For foreign nationals, this concept seems undoubtedly alien. However, the ISKAN merely states that the holder of the document is now authorised to use the building, as there are no damages within or outside the property. In Turkey, the construction of every house is succeeded by an official coming to check the entire premises, including facets like the plumbing system, electricity, the wiring in your house, and any damages such as mould and fungi are looked into as well. Furthermore, you will also not receive your ISKAN if your house is still under construction. As Jasmine Homex, we can always be with you in this process. You could use below form for contact us about the service.

Important Factoids

The main difference between the TAPU and ISKAN lie in the fact that the TAPU is primarily a guarantee that you provide to the state that your house is legally yours to inhabit and do with it is you please, which includes using it for rent or reselling purposes. On the other hand, an ISKAN is a document that the state provides to you, ensuring that the house that you have bought is completely fit to inhabit, and that there are no problems with it with regards to t=its structure and integrity. Till the date you do not receive your ISKAN, it would mean that your house is undergoing some sort of renovation or the other. The ISKAN is primarily a facet which makes Turkish homes so easy to live in and keeps them high in demand. No one wants to move into a home where they would have to renovate everything again. Thus, the ISKAN becomes a necessary document for every home owner in the state of Turkey.

If you have bought a house in Turkey with a property value of more than $250,000, you automatically become applicable for a residency permit in the country. Moreover, the number of properties that you buy does not matter. When you are applying for a residency permit, the overall value of your purchases are seen and calculated. Once you have applied for a residency permit, a resident permit (no: 6458/ 31- J) is applied to you and your family. The entire process of granting you a residency permit takes about six months. During this time, you are not permitted to leave the country for more than 15 days. This is a strict rule that is enforced by the Directorate General of Migration Management. If you are to breach this rule for any reason, then your residency rights are automatically revoked, and you are to go through the same process of reapplying for residency and waiting six months all over again.

Rules for residency have becomes extremely relaxed in Turkey. The government now realises that there are a number of foreign nationals who are interested in properties in the country. To know more about this and have your questions resolved, be sure to contact us at Jasmine Homex today!

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