Globevisa Turkey In-house Lawyer Gamze Türker’s analysis on Deposit option of Turkish CBI Program

As the earliest batch of immigration firms in the world to launch the Turkish Investment naturalization program in 2019, Glovevisa has already had a large number of clients whose 500,000 US dollar fixed deposits have been deposited for 3 years and can be withdrawn. Among the many options of Turkish investment naturalization, the deposit naturalization option has always been popular with clients for its zero cost, simple handling process, fast cycle, and fixed deposit period of only 3 years, after which all the deposits can be withdrawn. Therefore, Globevisa has accumulated a large number of successful cases of assisting clients with fixed deposits to withdraw their money without landing in Turkey. 

As the world’s largest immigration firm that gives priority to service, we are as concerned as our clients are about how the withdrawal process works, and we aim to optimize the withdrawal process so that our clients can withdraw their money without having to land in Turkey. In this regard, we interviewed Gamze Türker, the in-house lawyer of Globevisa Turkey, and asked one of the most professional people in the industry to answer the questions of the Turkish citizenship program applicants.

 

 

Question 1: Is there any foreign exchange control in Turkey? 

Gamze Türker: There is no foreign exchange control in Turkey, you can freely access foreign exchange in banks. Even if the Turkish Deposit Naturalization Act will change the deposit from USD to Lira in January 2022, applicants will still be able to withdraw USD after the expiration of the deposit period. I have assisted many groups of applicants to withdraw funds from Ziraat Bank, ICBC, HSBC, Kuveyt Türk and other local or international banks in Turkey and transfer the US dollars to the applicants’ personal accounts in Singapore, the United States, Hong Kong SAR and so on. 

Question 2: More and more Türkiye naturalization applicants 3 years deposit period expires. However, is it feasible for the applicant to withdraw the funds if he/she is not in Türkiye? 

Gamze Türker: Yes, in 2019 Globevisa successfully assisted clients to get the first successful case in the Chinese market. Now it has been almost 4 years, so many clients are facing the problem of retrieval of the 3-year fixed deposit. Due to strict regulation of funds in Turkish banks, if the applicants do not land in Turkey is unlikely to get the money back smoothly. However, because our Globevisa cooperation with the bank for a long time, the quality of clients are also very good, the bank is satisfied with this cooperation with Globevisa, so after a number of meetings with the bank negotiation, at present, our clients can retrieve the 3-year deposit smoothly without landing in Turkey. I believe that this is also a good opportunity for applicants. 

Question 3: Which banks has Globevisa successfully assisted clients in withdrawing their 3-year fixed deposits at maturity? 

Gamze Türker: At present, I have successfully assisted many groups of Globevisa clients to withdraw money from many banks. The basic procedure is similar, the applicant needs to remotely sign the attorney’s authorization form and authentication. After I receive the authenticated authorization form, I will go to the bank for the client to communicate and assist the client in transferring the fixed deposit back to his other accounts. Because of the differences in the banks, the details of the document requirements and the length of time to withdraw the money are also different. Currently our fastest client transfers are successfully accounted for in just 1 business day. In addition, apart from assisting clients with withdrawals after the normal three-year maturity period, I have also successfully assisted a client who was in urgent need of liquidity during the three-year period to successfully withdraw his $500,000 fixed deposit. Therefore, for Turkey’s deposit program, clients do not need to worry about subsequent withdrawals. 

Question 4: Since last year’s change in Turkey’s deposit policy, which required the conversion of US dollars to Lira fixed deposits, is it true that there are fewer people to choose this program? 

Gamze Türker: At the end of the day, all governments will raise the investment threshold facing the surge in the number of applicants. Last year, Turkey’s deposit on the change in policy for the U.S. dollar must be converted to lira fixed deposits before you can apply for citizenship because of the fluctuation of the lira exchange rate. As a result, many clients have a wait-and-see state. We also understand the mentality. Therefore I often talk to the bank and the CBRC to see whether there will be a better policy for investors. Finally, in August 2022, the Central Bank of Turkey issued a favorable policy for non-Turkish residents, applicants can open a capital preservation account (YUVAM) and guaranteed by the Central Bank not to be affected by exchange rate fluctuations.

The deposit period to protect the applicant not to lose the principal, while meeting the requirements of the Turkish Deposit Citizenship Act. During the period of fixed deposit, in addition to the interest rate provided by banks for ordinary deposits in lira, the Central Bank provides additional interest rate in US dollars, which is currently up to 6% per annum, which means that the applicant who opens a capital preservation account and deposits the equivalent of 500,000 US dollars in lira can obtain the equivalent of 30,000 US dollars of interest income in lira every year, and the specific interest rate in US dollars is calculated based on the interest rate stipulated on the day of the completion of the client’s fixed deposit. After the expiration of the deposit will be withdrawn, the funds back and it will not subject to exchange rate fluctuations. So for the client is still also zero cost to get the citizenship. Because of this model of capital preservation account, every month we have more and more clients apply for capital preservation deposit naturalization, and even because of the current high interest rate of 6% of the U.S. dollar, the number of applicants is even higher than the previous clients before the change in policy. 

Question 5: Have there been any successful applicants for this capital preservation naturalization through the capital preservation deposit model? 

Gamze Türker: In September 2022, we assisted the first group of clients to apply for the Turkish naturalization program through the capital preservation deposit option. In April 2023, this group of clients was successfully approved, which is the first successful case of capital preservation account for a Chinese applicant, and there are still more capital preservation deposit clients waiting for approval. As it can be seen, Turkey’s central bank guaranteed deposit capital preservation mode is recognized by the government naturalization mode, so more and more applicants have also begun to choose, the follow-up of the Central Bank of Turkey whether to reduce the deposit annual interest rate or shut down the capital preservation of the account opening are unknown, if you miss the previous policy of the deposit of U.S. dollars for citizenship, it is now the last U.S. dollars to protect the capital fixed deposits, the zero cost of the country’s identity of the best time.