Who one Turkish citizenship investment covers: spouse, children under 18, dependent adult children, parents and older children, plus the consent and age checks.
One qualifying investment, such as a $400,000 property (the threshold in October 2026), covers the main applicant, the foreign spouse and the children under 18. A dependent adult child can sometimes be included. Parents, siblings and adult children who are not dependent are not covered. They need their own investment or their own residence permit.
The first question most families ask us is simple: who comes with me? The answer decides the budget, the documents and sometimes the timing of the whole file. This guide explains who is included, who is not, which papers each family member needs and where family files usually slow down. The rules come from the Turkish Citizenship Law and its implementing regulation, and they can change, so confirm your own case before you buy.
One investment covers the main applicant, the foreign spouse and the minor or dependent children. The legal basis is the Turkish Citizenship Law No. 5901 and the regulation that implements it, which name the investor together with the foreign spouse and the minor or dependent foreign children. These family members join the same file. You do not need a second property or a second deposit for each child.
In practice this means a family of five, with two parents and three children under 18, applies on one $400,000 property. The same is true for the lira deposit and the other qualifying routes. The investment amount is per file, not per person. The rules for the property itself are in our $400,000 real estate guide.
A spouse is included when the marriage is legal and documented. The marriage certificate is the key paper. It must be issued by the competent authority, legalised with an apostille or consular attestation, and translated into Turkish by a sworn translator with notary certification.
The names must match across every document. If the spouse's surname changed at marriage, the passport, the marriage certificate and the birth certificate may show different names. We prepare a short name map before translation starts so the translator uses one spelling throughout. Name mismatches are one of the causes we describe in our guide to why applications get delayed.
Children under 18 are included in the parents' file. Under Article 20 of the Turkish Citizenship Law, a child acquires Turkish citizenship together with a parent who has custody, if the other parent consents. When both parents apply together, consent is simple. When only one parent applies, the other parent's consent becomes one of the most important documents in the file.
Each child needs a birth certificate that shows both parents. Like the marriage certificate, it is legalised and then translated. A child's passport must be valid, and the child's name must be spelled the same way on the passport and on the translated birth certificate.
A divorced parent can include a child only with custody evidence and, in most cases, the other parent's consent. The implementing regulation lists the documents by family situation. When the parents are still married, the file uses the birth certificate, the marriage certificate and the other parent's consent. When they are divorced, the file uses the birth certificate, the custody decision and the consent of the parent who is not applying.
The consent is usually a notarised declaration. If the other parent lives abroad, it is signed before a notary there and then legalised. If the other parent refuses or cannot be reached, the law allows a court decision instead. The court is in the country where the parent usually lives. This takes time, so start this conversation early. It is the slowest document to obtain and nobody else can sign it.
A child who is 18 or older at filing is an adult and is not covered by the parents' investment. An adult child who wants Turkish citizenship needs a separate qualifying investment in their own name, with their own bank trail. The money can be a gift from the parents, but the transfer to the seller must come from the adult child's own account.
There is one narrow exception. The law also covers dependent children. The law does not define 'dependent'. In practice the authority asks for strong proof that the adult child cannot support themselves, most often because of a health condition or disability. It is not automatic. Expect to show medical reports and proof that the child depends on the parents, and expect the authority to assess it case by case.
A child who turns 18 between filing and the decision is the most uncertain case. Turkish lawyers report that the authority has refused such children and that families have had to go to court. In December 2024 the Turkish law firm Pehlivan Güner reported an Ankara regional administrative court decision in the child's favour. One court decision does not bind every file, and outcomes can differ. As of October 2026, do not rely on a court win.
The practical rule is to plan the file so every child is still under 18 on the decision date, not only on the filing date. Check every child's date of birth on the first day. If a child is close to 18, we plan the purchase and the filing order around that date. Our timeline guide shows where the weeks go, so you can see how much margin you have.
Parents are not included in the investor's citizenship file. The same applies to siblings, grandparents and in-laws. This surprises many families, especially from the Gulf and South Asia, where parents often live with their adult children.
There are two realistic options. The first is a separate qualifying investment in the parent's own name, which gives the parent their own citizenship file. The second is a residence permit. The Law on Foreigners and International Protection No. 6458 lists property ownership among the grounds for a short-term residence permit. The property must be in the parent's own name and meet the conditions the authorities set, and the permit is renewable if the conditions are still met. A residence permit is not citizenship and gives no passport, but it lets a parent live in Türkiye near the family. The official text of the law is published in English by the Presidency of Migration Management.
A child born after you become a Turkish citizen is, in almost all cases, Turkish by birth. The Turkish Citizenship Law gives citizenship to a child born in a marriage to a Turkish citizen mother or father, in Türkiye or abroad. If the parents are not married and only the father is Turkish, paternity must be legally established first. You do not apply or invest again. You register the birth with a Turkish consulate abroad or a civil registry office in Türkiye, and the child receives an identity number. What changes after the grant is covered in our guide to life after Turkish citizenship.
Each family member brings a small, fixed set of papers. The list below is the usual core. The authority can ask for more in a particular file.
Every foreign civil document is legalised in the issuing country and translated into Turkish by a sworn translator, with notary certification. The full legal text of the rules is in the Turkish Citizenship Law No. 5901 and its implementing regulation on the official legislation portal.
Family files usually slow down for paper reasons, not legal ones. In our experience the same four problems come back:
All four are visible on the first day if you look for them. That is why our first step with a family is a written list of every member, every date of birth and every document, before any money moves.
Advisory note: family scope is where an early check saves the most time. In a free assessment we confirm who your investment covers, which consents you need and whether any child is close to 18. For the program itself, see our full guide to Turkish citizenship by investment.
It covers the main applicant, the foreign spouse and the minor or dependent children. The law names these family members, so they apply in the same file on the same investment. Parents, siblings and adult children who are not dependent are not covered and need their own route.
No. Parents are not family members for this route. A parent can qualify with an investment in their own name, or live in Türkiye on their own residence permit. Short-term residence permits can be granted to foreigners who own property in Türkiye, subject to the conditions in Law No. 6458.
Generally not. A child who is 18 or older at filing is an adult and needs a separate qualifying investment. The narrow exception is a dependent adult child, usually one who cannot live independently because of a physical or mental condition. That is assessed case by case with medical and dependency evidence.
Usually yes. Under the Turkish Citizenship Law a child acquires citizenship with a parent who has custody, if the other parent consents. A divorced parent normally files the custody decision and the other parent's notarised consent. If the other parent refuses, the law allows a court decision from the country where the parent usually lives instead.
Yes, in almost all cases. Under the Turkish Citizenship Law, a child born in a marriage to a Turkish citizen mother or father is Turkish by birth, in Türkiye or abroad. If the parents are not married and only the father is Turkish, paternity must be legally established first. The birth should be registered with a Turkish consulate or a civil registry office so the child receives an identity number.
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