The Turkish Citizenship by Investment program, has in a matter of a few years, become the most popular Citizenship by Investment program in the world, and that too by a wide margin. To gauge this fact, one need only look at the following statistics :

• In the 2 years since Turkey lowered its minimum investment requirement from USD 1 million to USD 250,000, it has issued 35,000 passports to individuals under the program.
• During March, April & May of 2020, when the world was under lockdown and other CIPs were struggling to attract applicants, Turkey approved an average of more than 1300 main applicants per month.

Different hypotheses have been offered for this amazing growth in Turkey’s Citizenship by Investment program.

• Some have attributed this performance to Turkey being a very attractive investment destination (Turkey’s economy has grown by 7% in each of the last 5 years)
• Others have attributed this to the lax due diligence in the program
• Another factor that has largely accounted for this growth is the fact that Turkey allows citizens of some countries, such as Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan and Syria, to apply for its Citizenship program (citizens of these countries are not eligible to apply for many  investment migration programs)
• Turkey also has geographical, cultural & religious proximity to the Middle Eastern market, one of the largest investment migration markets in the world.
• Another notable factor in favour of the Turkish Citizenship by Investment program is that unlike the Caribbean programs, Turkey allows acquisition of any type of real estate.

A very interesting fact is observed in Turkey. It has as much of an out-bound investment migration market i.e. Turkish citizens are equally, in large numbers, looking to upgrade their residency/citizenship to a UK, US or EU one. Turkey’s out-bound investment migration market has doubled every year for the last 5 years. The UK Turkish Businessperson visa, the US E2 visa and the Greek golden visa are the most popular amongst Turks.

Since the restart of economic activity on 1 June 2020, Turkey’s economy has been breaking all trade and manufacturing records. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has increased by 13% YoY, with 73% of the investment being in the manufacturing sector alone. In Sept 2020, 1000 new projects were approved with committed investments of over USD 2.5 billion and expected to create over 30,000 new jobs. According to figures released by the European Automobile Manufacturer’s association, Turkey was the only European country that had positive automotive sales in H1 2020. USD 15 billion worth of exports was recorded in the month of July alone, which was an 11.5% month-on-month increase.

Owing to the pandemic, cooling of relations between US & China and a resulting shift in global supply chains, Turkey’s economy already seems to be benefiting from all of this. This has resulted in a lot our clients wanting to relocate to Turkey through the Citizenship program or move their business operations or at least set up a subsidiary there.

For more about Turkey, read here –