It’s been a minute, eh?
Last time we chatted, we were on step #14 of the 15-step Turkish citizenship process. Annnnnd we’re still at Step 14, nine months later.
Why the delay, you ask? As always, red tape. Bureaucracy.
Last October, we were told that only Bruce needed to complete residency paperwork, and that I would be carried along with his application. Which was true then. But an early call from our Turkish attorney on March 1 made things a little more complicated.
She told us that there had been a change to the program. We both would need official US background checks, and both of us needed fingerprints verified. In person.
I thought, so much for my goal of having a Turkish passport by my 50th birthday (just over a month ago). But — at least it would eventually happen. Hopefully. I was only half-joking with our attorney when I asked if I should leave a DNA sample.
While we toyed with the idea of spending a quick week in Istanbul in May, we knew that it made the most sense to wait until the July/August trip we’d already planned. (Besides, it gave the government a few months to add even more requirements — which they luckily did not, but it was a good buffer, anyway.)
During our time in Istanbul, we had two appointments: first to get my fingerprints, and then to verify both of our fingerprints around 3 1/2 weeks later. We were among the lucky, who had already planned a longer trip; many other expats we spoke with had to make two separate trips for the two appointments.
We haven’t heard anything else yet, so we assume all is well. But since not many passports have been issued since this change, we’re planning an October ’25 trip to update our residency (which needs to be done in person every year).
In case you’re wondering about the rationale behind these changes, put simply: corruption. It ends up that many of the now-former government officials rubber-stamped “spouses” without thorough research, letting folks in (criminal background, etc) who should not have been. The new government, noting that this had gotten out of hand, started requiring background checks for all applicants, not just one from each couple.
Whew! That was a lot to unpack. But hopefully… someday… we’ll be the owners of that red passport to go alongside our current blue ones.