Most investors do not apply alone. The question that follows almost immediately after "what do I have to invest" is "who does it cover" — and the answer determines whether a family arrives in Türkiye with the same status or with three different ones. Turkish law is precise here, and its precision creates a small number of traps that are easy to avoid in advance and impossible to fix afterwards.
The rule
One qualifying investment covers the investor, the investor's spouse, and the investor's children under the age of eighteen. That is the whole scope. It comes from Article 20 of the Regulation implementing Law No. 5901, which extends exceptional citizenship to the applicant together with their spouse and dependent children under eighteen.
Nobody else is included — not adult children, not parents, not siblings, and not a partner to whom the investor is not married.
Your spouse
The marriage must be legally valid and documented. In practice that means a marriage certificate, apostilled in the country where it was issued and translated by a sworn translator in Türkiye.
Two situations need care. Where a marriage took place in a country whose civil registration is incomplete or contested, additional evidence may be required, and it takes time to assemble. And where a religious ceremony was never registered with a civil authority, there is — for these purposes — no marriage at all, however long the couple have lived together. Turkish citizenship law does not recognise unregistered unions or cohabitation for family inclusion.
Where a marriage is polygamous under the law of the country of celebration, only one spouse can be included; Turkish law does not accommodate the rest.
Your children
Children under eighteen at the date of application are included. Age is assessed at that date, and the assessment is unforgiving: a child who turns eighteen while the file is being prepared falls outside it.
This produces a genuine planning problem for families with a child aged seventeen. If a birthday is approaching, the sequence — investment, certificate of conformity, application — has to be compressed, and the investment decision itself may have to be brought forward. Where the timeline cannot be compressed, the honest advice is to plan for that child separately from the outset rather than hope the file moves quickly.
Children born after citizenship is granted acquire Turkish citizenship by descent under Article 7 of Law No. 5901 automatically, wherever they are born. That entitlement is not limited by age and does not depend on the investment.
Adopted children can be included where the adoption is legally established and recognised, but the documentary requirements are heavier and the file should anticipate questions.
Children over eighteen
An adult child is not covered, and there is no supplementary payment that changes this. The realistic options are:
- Their own qualifying investment. An adult child who makes a separate USD 400,000 or USD 500,000 investment applies in their own right.
- Ordinary naturalisation. Under Article 11 of Law No. 5901: five years' continuous residence with a valid residence permit, adequate Turkish language, no threat to public order, sufficient income. Slower, but it does not require capital.
- Student or work residence. Many families in this position place the adult child on a student or work residence permit, which builds toward the five-year requirement.
Families frequently assume that the child will "be added later". There is no later. The scope is fixed at the date of application.
What the family file requires
Beyond the investment documentation, each family member's civil status must be documented:
- Passports valid throughout the process, for every member.
- Marriage certificate — apostilled and translated.
- Birth certificates for each child, showing parentage — apostilled and translated.
- Where a parent is not accompanying the family, consent may be required for a minor.
- Photographs and biometric data, collected in person at the end of the process.
The Apostille Convention applies between member states. Where the issuing country is not a party, the document must be legalised through the Turkish consulate instead — a slower route that should be started early.
In our experience, family documentation delays more investment files than the investment itself. The property is straightforward; a birth certificate issued forty years ago in a country that has since reorganised its civil registry is not.
Divorce, separation and death
Where a couple divorce after citizenship has been granted, both remain Turkish citizens. Citizenship acquired under Article 12 is not conditional on the marriage continuing.
Where the divorce occurs during the process, the position is different: the spouse's inclusion depends on the marriage subsisting at the relevant time, and a file caught mid-process needs specific advice rather than a general rule.
If the investor dies after the grant, the family's citizenship is unaffected. If the investor dies before it, the position depends on how far the file had progressed — again, a matter for advice on the particular facts.
Does the family have to come to Türkiye?
There is no residence requirement for this route, for the investor or for family members. Nobody has to live in Türkiye, sit a language examination, or spend a minimum number of days in the country.
Physical presence is required once: biometric enrolment for identity cards and passports, which each family member attends. Children attend with a parent.
What the family actually gains
Full citizenship, identical to that of any Turkish citizen. In practical terms that includes visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to a substantial number of countries, the right to live, work and study in Türkiye without further permission, access to the public health and education systems, the right to own property without the restrictions applying to foreign nationals, and the right to pass citizenship to descendants.
It is worth stating clearly what it does not include: Turkish citizenship does not confer the right to live or work in the European Union.
Keeping your existing nationality
Türkiye permits multiple nationality and will not require anyone in the family to renounce an existing citizenship. Whether each family member's own country permits dual nationality is a separate question, governed by that country's law, and it should be checked before the application rather than after — particularly where family members hold different nationalities.
Frequently asked questions
Are my parents included? No. Parents of the investor fall outside the scope regardless of dependency.
My child turns eighteen in four months. What can we do? Compress the timeline if it is genuinely achievable, and plan a parallel route for that child if it is not. Do not rely on the file moving faster than it usually does.
Can my spouse and I each buy a property and both apply? Each application must satisfy the threshold in full, with full ownership. Two half-shares in one property qualify neither of you.
Is a religious marriage enough? No. The marriage must be civilly registered and documented.
What about a child from a previous marriage? Included if under eighteen and legally the investor's child, with parentage documented. Consent from the other parent may be required.
Do children need to speak Turkish? No. There is no language requirement on this route for anyone.
If we later have another child abroad, will they be Turkish? Yes — by descent, automatically, under Article 7.
Planning the family file
The family dimension is where investment files most often lose time, and it is almost entirely a documentation exercise: identifying every certificate that will be needed, checking whether the issuing country is party to the Apostille Convention, and starting the legalisation early enough that it does not become the critical path.
Dural Hukuk maps the family documentation at the outset of every investment file, alongside the investment itself, so that the two arrive at the ministry together. Call +90 535 260 74 54 or use the contact form on this site.
This article is general information on Turkish law as at August 2026 and is not legal advice. Family circumstances vary considerably; obtain advice on your own before applying.