Montenegrin citizenship is the very first question almost every Turkish client who walks into my office in Budva asks the moment they sit down. For years, together with my Montenegrin partner attorney, I have handled the legal cases of hundreds of Turkish investors and expatriates. Most of them come to me saying, "Let me just buy a property in Montenegro and become a citizen straight away, my budget is ready." But that program is gone, and the real path is far different from what people imagine. Thanks to outdated content still floating around online, marketing campaigns that were never updated, and unfortunately, sometimes ill-intentioned advisers, everyone is still dreaming of "citizenship by investment."
As a lawyer, my single greatest responsibility is to break these false expectations. Montenegro's citizenship by investment (CBI) program closed officially and permanently on 31 December 2022. Today, even if you put millions of euros on the table, you cannot obtain a Montenegrin passport directly by simply buying real estate or setting up a company. Purchasing property or a company does not grant you citizenship directly; it only provides an indirect basis for obtaining a residence permit, starting a years-long legal residence period, and ultimately entering the naturalization chain. In this article I will not sell you the dreams others are pushing; I will lay out, in full and unvarnished terms, exactly what the law requires as of 2026, how the process actually works, and the dual-citizenship crisis that is the single biggest fork in the road for my Turkish clients.
| Comparison Criterion | Former CBI Program (Closed in December 2022) | Current Legal Situation (As of 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Path to citizenship | In exchange for direct investment and donation | Through naturalization, marriage, or origin |
| Physical residence requirement | Not required | At least 10 years of continuous legal residence (for naturalization) |
| Dual citizenship | Permitted (treated as an exception) | Prohibited (renunciation of current citizenship required) |
| Language requirement | Not required | Basic Montenegrin language proficiency certificate mandatory |
The End of the Passport-for-Cash Era and Ordinary Naturalization
Under Montenegrin law today, the legal routes to acquiring citizenship (državljanstvo — nationality) essentially consist of ordinary admission to citizenship (naturalizacija / redovni prijem), marriage, origin-based rights, and the exceptional admission that is now applied only in very rare cases. Every route on the market focused on real estate or company formation is, in reality, merely a means of obtaining a temporary residence permit (I have explained the application details and the current minimum thresholds for these routes on the Montenegro residence permit main guide page).
The most fundamental requirement for ordinary admission to citizenship (redovni prijem u crnogorsko državljanstvo — ordinary admission to Montenegrin citizenship) is to have resided in Montenegro legally and continuously for 10 years, counted backwards from the moment of application. This ten-year period cannot be fulfilled with tourist visas or by coming and going now and then. In practice, this journey means renewing your temporary residence permit without interruption for five years, and then living in the country for another five years with the permanent residence (stalni boravak) status you have earned (you can review the rules for maintaining permanent residence and the limits on absences in the Montenegro permanent residence guide).
Completing the ten-year period is only the beginning of the process. The Ministry of the Interior (MUP — Ministarstvo unutrašnjih poslova) requires the applicant, who must be 18 or older, to have secure accommodation in Montenegro and a regular, lawful source of income that ensures their social security. Throughout this process, the state strictly verifies whether you genuinely live in this country and whether the centre of your life is truly Montenegro. As part of integration, you must have a basic command of the Montenegrin language and prove it with a certificate obtained from an authorized educational institution (such as the Ispitni Centar — the official examination centre). Your background is also placed under the microscope; the requirement that you have not received a prison sentence of more than one year either in Montenegro or in your country of citizenship, and that you have no tax debt, is confirmed through a detailed security investigation.
The Most Critical Crossroads for Turkish Clients: The Dual Citizenship (Otpust) Issue
What surprises my Turkish clients the most is this: when I explain that the process will take ten years, they generally say they can accept it and be patient, that they have built a life in Montenegro anyway. But when the conversation turns to the dual citizenship (dvojno državljanstvo) restriction, a deep silence falls over the table.
As a rule, Montenegro does not permit dual citizenship. Article 8 of the law is closed to interpretation on this point: if you want to obtain a Montenegrin passport by ordinary means, renouncing your current citizenship — that is, formally giving it up (otpust — release from citizenship) — is a legal obligation. There is no bilateral agreement between Turkey and Montenegro that softens this rule. Therefore, in the standard naturalization process, the expectation of "let me keep my Turkish passport and become a Montenegrin citizen at the same time" is legally impossible.
In practice, the process works like this: when you submit your citizenship application to the relevant MUP units, if it is established that you meet all the other requirements (10 years of residence, language, clean record), you are issued a guarantee letter (garancija or garantni akt — a guarantee/guarantee instrument) valid for two years. This document is legally a commitment that "if you renounce your current citizenship, we will admit you to Montenegrin citizenship." You then take this document, go to the Turkish authorities (for example, the Turkish Embassy in Podgorica), and begin the procedures to renounce Turkish citizenship. When you complete the renunciation and submit to MUP the document confirming that you have left Turkish citizenship, your final admission to Montenegrin citizenship takes place.
For most people, giving up the Turkish passport is not an acceptable route — whether because of inheritance rights, property situations, military service matters in Turkey, or simply emotional ties. When I honestly explain this reality to my clients from the very beginning, many of them change their strategy. They set the citizenship goal aside and choose to remain on the permanent residence permit (stalni boravak) obtained at the end of the fifth year. Permanent residence grants, indefinitely, almost all the rights afforded to a citizen apart from the right to vote and a passport, and it never requires you to renounce your Turkish citizenship. If you are planning for the long term in Montenegro, you should take your steps knowing that this renunciation requirement will be your fork in the road.
Acquiring Citizenship Through Marriage
The clearest way to legally shorten the long ten-year waiting period is to marry a Montenegrin citizen. Under Article 11 of the Montenegrin Citizenship Act, if you have been married to a Montenegrin citizen for at least three years and have resided legally and continuously in Montenegro for at least five years during that marriage, you may apply for citizenship.
Here, the shortening of the period does not mean the checks are loose. Simply holding a marriage certificate does not open the door to a passport; in addition to the marital bond being established, you are required to have physically lived in Montenegro. The Montenegrin authorities scrutinize very strictly whether the marriage is a sham (arranged) marriage entered into solely to obtain a residence permit or a passport. MUP officers verify whether the spouses actually live together through home visits, statements from neighbours, and the factual existence of a shared life. In marriage-based applications, too, criteria such as knowledge of Montenegrin and regular income are examined. However, in acquisitions through marriage, the dual citizenship restriction (the requirement to renounce one's previous citizenship) does not apply; that is, those who obtain citizenship through a Montenegrin spouse can keep their Turkish citizenship.
Exceptional Admission and Citizenship by Origin
Exceptional citizenship (naturalizacija od posebnog značaja — naturalization of special significance), granted in line with the state's scientific, cultural, sporting, or economic interests, has, with the closure of the CBI (citizenship by investment) program, effectively been shelved for ordinary business people and investors. Today, paying very substantial taxes through your company or buying luxury properties worth hundreds of thousands of euros does not automatically bring you within this scope. This provision is now applied within a narrow framework, predominantly for internationally successful national athletes, scientists shaping strategic state projects, or very exceptional profiles who make extraordinary, demonstrable contributions to the country.
Citizenship by origin (porijeklom — by descent), on the other hand, covers children at least one of whose parents is a Montenegrin citizen. Depending on where the child was born, registration in the register of Montenegrin citizens is required up to certain age limits (generally up to age 18 or 23). There are also special provisions in the law for emigrants of Montenegrin descent (iseljenik — emigrant). These individuals may apply for citizenship after residing legally and continuously in Montenegro for two years, but they must prove their Montenegrin origin ties beyond doubt with official documents obtained from state archives.
The Process, Documents, and Realistic Expectations
When you reach the application stage, the entire process is conducted in person at the relevant units of the Ministry of the Interior (MUP). Ensuring that the documents to be gathered from your country of birth and from Montenegro are complete and without omissions prevents the process from dragging out. The basic documents for a naturalization application are as follows:
- A photocopy of your passport and a valid permanent residence (stalni boravak) card
- An apostilled birth certificate (Formula A) obtained from your own country
- A criminal record certificate (a clean-record statement) obtained from your own country and from Montenegro
- An MUP printout proving continuous legal residence in Montenegro
- A language proficiency certificate obtained from a Montenegrin educational institution
- A payslip or company income documents proving regular income in Montenegro
- A "no tax debt" certificate obtained from the Montenegrin tax authority (Poreska uprava — Tax Administration)
All documents brought from abroad must be apostilled and translated by sworn translators in Montenegro. After you submit the application, inter-agency correspondence, Interpol checks, and intelligence assessments begin. For this reason, the approval or refusal decision can take more than a year to come through. During this long review period, it is vital that you continue to maintain your existing legal residence status; if your status lapses, your application will be rejected on procedural grounds.
As your lawyer, my clearest advice is to approach the process not with the "European passport in a short time" illusion sold online, but with the realism of "I will build a legal life in Montenegro and, years later, evaluate the citizenship option." The requirement to renounce Turkish citizenship in particular is a decision you will make at the very end of this journey — one that is as personal as it is legal. Setting out from the very beginning aware of this restriction will definitively prevent the disappointments that would otherwise follow years of effort and investment. To draw up a realistic roadmap tailored to your situation, you can get in touch with us as part of our Montenegro residence permit services.
This content is intended for legal information purposes, and since the legislation may change by the time of application, it is advisable to obtain professional legal advice on the current situation before making any decision.
