The Citizenship By Marriage

The gaining citizenship can be possible with birth or acquiring. The foreigner cannot acquire citizenship through by marriage. There should be some conditions for that. If these are ensured, the foreigner might acquire the Turkish citizenship.

The Code of Turkish Citizenship article 16 and also The Regulation on The Code of Turkish Citizenship article 25 regulate this way and application procedure. According to regulations, the foreigner should be married at least 3 years with a Turkish citizen at first. This can be seen as a first step for the application. After that the competent authority will search these conditions is done or not:

• being in a unity of family (For example: living at the same home with his/her spouse)
• the person should not had behave against the marriage (For example: cheating his/her spouse)
• the person should not be in a situation against to national security or public order (For example: being convicted, being in hearing because of a crime)

 If the foreigner’s spouse is died after the application for the citizenship, the condition of being in a unity of family would not be stipulated. Also, it should not be forgotten that the acquired citizenship will be protected after the decision on annulment of marriage if the foreigner has a good faith. If the foreigner’s spouse has an acquired Turkish citizenship, the date of acquiring would be taken as a basis while the time of the marriage calculating.

 There should some documents which are required for the application:

• Petition of request
• The Turkish spouse’s identity register copy
• The document like as passport which specify the foreigner’s citizenship to another country. If the foreigner has no citizenship, this should be also documented.
• The document which shows the foreigner’s identity like as birth certificate or identity register copy.
• The last dated residence permit if the foreigner’s settlement is in Turkey.
• Final court order about a crime if the foreigner had done this crime.
• If there is no birth date, the documents should be completed or article 39 of the 5490 Civil Registry Services will be applied.
• The receipt which shows the payment for remuneration to the finance pay-office.

 The article 30 of also The Regulation on The Code of Turkish Citizenship would be applied for the application which are made abroad.

 As a result, the competent authority will make research about the conditions which the foreigner has. However, providing the conditions will not give the foreigner an absolute interest to acquire the Turkish citizenship. Final decision depends on the discretion of authority.