Turkish Citizenship

Lately I have been investigating the option of becoming a Turkish citizen, with double citizenship Turkish and Portuguese. This brings advantages if you plan on working in Turkey, because of the current difficulties in getting a working permit in Turkey, bringing efforts and expenses both for you and the company you work for.

If you are married with a Turkish citizen for more than 3 years than you can apply for the citizenship, the process can be started in Turkey or outside Turkey in a Turkish consulate and it takes between 6 and 18 months.

During this period a visit will be made to your house to ensure that you are living together with your spouse.

One of the questions that comes up, for male foreigners is the obligatory army attendance for Turkish citizens. About this I was never able to get a definitive answer from anyone I talked to. What I figure is that it is possible that you will be called by the army, but in most cases this won't happen, and even if you are called you may be able to opt for a minimum time (1 month) with extra payment involved. I also understand that if you served the military service in another country you won't be called.

Here is the place to go in Istanbul: İstanbul İl Nüfüs ve Vatandaşlık Müdürlüğü

And on the map