Turkish Dual Citizenship

[NY_IZMIR 1]

I had to visit the Turkish New York Consulate yesterday to get an extension for my army service. (I'm a Turkish born, naturalized USC). I am posting this in case a USC has a husband that might fall into a similar situation.

There are different ways you can ask for an extension, mine is for the fact that I work here. This is probably the 5th extension I've filed for (you can extend 2 years at a time until you're 38 years of age)

Though I had all the proper paperwork filled out, and all the necessary documents with me, they wouldn't let me extend since I was a dual citizen, but I hadn't informed the Turkish government about my US citizenship properly. They said that while Turkish citizens acquiring US citizenship had always been required to properly inform the Turkish government, that they never really enforced it. But now they're changing that and for certain things you file at the Consulate, they won't do it without it.

The paperwork for this is very simple, two identical pages of a document filled out with your basic info, if you're filing in person, you can bring your original US certificate of naturalization, plus two copies, your turkish national id card, plus two copies, and $40. I think you can file via mail too, but check the e-konsolosluk.net site for details. They said the process takes 4-6 months, and I have to wait till I get confirmation in the mail, before I can ask for an extension for my army service. Which is kinda bad, since I was already slightly late in filing for extension this time around (last extension expired in November) and so I will be without proper extension paperwork for 10-12 months.

Anyway, just letting people know. I don't know what other consulate work would require your dual citizenship to be registered properly, but seems like they're much more strict about it.

Edited March 14, 2010 by NY_IZMIR