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The difficulty of foreign investors purchasing a property for investment purpose from a foreign country is obvious enough to the eye. However, Turkey is a good alternative for foreign investors due to its economic, geographical and demographic structure. In this sense, innovations have been made in the legislation on foreign investments that put Turkey at the forefront and make it attractive for foreign investors.
Thanks to the economic and legal revisions introduced, foreign investors will be able to easily manage their transactions remotely by appointing a proxy in Turkey without having to come to Turkey in person. In this way, it will be able to acquire property from Turkey quickly and less cost-effectively without having to deal with bureaucratic transactions. The necessary information about the process is as follows;
An Investor/client does not have to visit Turkey to bring required investment amount and complete all legal procedure in Turkey in regard to acquiring Turkish citizenship for himself and his family. We choose this method in case of client is not able to visit Turkey or his/her wife will not be able to visit Turkey.
Simply, clients will issue a Power of Attorney abroad to Turkish lawyer whose information stated in POA draft in the country where clients currently live in and with all required documents post it to the address of Lawyer in Turkey as a first step. With this option, Lawyer will be the sole authorized person of investors to do all necessary transactions and applications in regard to acquire Turkish citizenship. As an important note, lawyers should be assigned for the whole procedure due to some transactions are not allowed to made by people does not have Turkish lawyer license. The route to complete whole procedure and responsibilities of lawyers and clients will be presented as following:
- THERE ARE TWO WAYS TO ISSUE POWER OF ATTORNEY ABROAD
A.1. TO ISSUE POWER OF ATTORNEY AT EMBASSY
Investor and if married his/her wife will take appointment from Turkish Embassy in their country to issue POA. Lawyer will send them the draft in word version and lawyer id card. Clients will bring their passports and pictures while visiting the Embassy. Turkish Embassy’s authorized translator will translate the draft verbally and notary officials at Turkish Embassy will issue POA for the clients. During this time passport translation and notary attestment in the Turkish Embassy will be necessary. POA should be issued minimum two original copies depending on how many property will be bought in different districts. Please be in touch with lawyer during this procedure. POA will be issued in Turkish by officials in the Turkish Embassy. After issued POA draft, clients are obliged to post those original copies to lawyer’s address.
A.2. TO ISSUE POWER OF ATTORNEY AT LOCAL NOTARY OF THEIR COUNTRY
Investor and if married his/her wife will issue POA with pictured in the country where they live. As a next step, they have to have their documents apostilled. The clients live in those countries are party of Lahey Convention can get Lahey apostil from the authorized offices of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of that country. If a country is not a party of Lahey convention, the clients has to get two attestation: one is from Ministry of Foreign Affairs of that country and second from Turkish Embassy in that country. After these attestment document will be ready to post to Lawyer in Turkey. Lawyer will have this POA translated into Turkish and notarized in Turkey. After these steps POA will be valid in Turkey.
As a side note, these procedure will be also followed in preparation of the required family documents abroad.
- POWERS THAT ARE ENTITLED TO LAWYER
We will use the issued draft copy prepared by Turkish notaries and compiled by the lawyer. This draft generally includes the following powers:
1-) apply for tax number and other related application regarding tax authorities
2-) bank account opening
2-) property purchase
3-) put a specification not to sell your property for three years
4-) certificate of conformity application
4-) residence permit application
5-) document preparation, collection and if necessary attestations
6-) citizenship application and related powers
- RESPONSIBILITIES OF CLIENTS AND LAWYER
C.1. RESPONSIBILITIES OF CLIENT
a.) to issue power of attorney with one of the methods stated above.
b.) to prepare their documents in due form and post all to lawyer’s given address. All documents should be apostilled or have required attestation stated above in foreing country. Clients should be contact with lawyer for necessary document list for each case.
In general document list as following:
1.) Marital status certificate/divorce certificate
2.) Birth certificates
3.) Family registration certificates
4.) 50x60mm biometric pictures
5.) Passport copies
c.) Invest required investment amount to acquire Turkish citizenship and to open bank account deposit minimum cash amount bank is required.
d.) After clients are accepted to Turkish citizenship, lawyer will register their file at the registration office in Istanbul. Afterwards clients eill apply for Turkish Id and Passport at the Turkish Embassy in the country where they live. It is clients responsibility to apply for Turkish Id cards and Passports at the Turkish Embassy due to fingerprints registration is obligatory for each applicants.
C.2. RESPONSIBILITIES OF LAWYER
a.) Open a bank account for client.
1.) Investment amount can be directly transferred to developers’ account from the investor’s personal foreign account.
2.) Investment amount can be first transferred to investor’s Turkish bank account.
3.) Investment amount can be first transferred to lawyer’s bank account.
In the case opening a bank account is not permitted by bank or precluded in some way or investor cannot transfer investment amount from his personal account abroad, legally investment money can be deposited to lawyer’s account and lawyer can transfer this amount to developer’s account with required explanation.
b.) Translation and notarized attestment of all documents
c.) Title deed transfer at the title deed office
d.) put a specification not to sell property for three years
e.) apply for certificate of conformity
f.) pay all necessary fees
g.) apply for residence permit and collect residence permit card
h.) apply for Turkish citizenship
ı) register presidential decree regarding Turkish citizenship for all family members at the Registration Office.
In line with all this information, it is indisputable that foreign capital, which provides employment to Turkey and creates added value and brings new technologies, will play an important role in the development of the country. For this reason, the necessary facilities for foreign investors to acquire and invest in real estate in Turkey have been provided by legislation. In this case, what lawyers and clients should do and the functioning of the processes related to power of attorney are detailed in our article.
