Yes, a foreigner living in Turkey can join the Bireysel Emeklilik Sistemi (BES), the voluntary private pension system, and can choose a katılım plan whose funds hold only interest-free assets. Law 4632 sets no nationality condition on signing a pension contract; the conditions it does set fall on two other things. The 20% state contribution (devlet katkısı) is paid only to Turkish citizens and to Mavi Kart holders, so an ordinary foreign resident saves without the match. And contributions in foreign currency are allowed only for non-resident citizens and Mavi Kart holders, so a foreigner pays in lira. A separate route, written into the citizenship regulation in May 2022, lets a foreigner who places at least USD 500,000 into BES and keeps it there for three years apply for Turkish citizenship or long-term residence.
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Who can join, and who gets the state contribution
The governing text is the Bireysel Emeklilik Tasarruf ve Yatırım Sistemi Kanunu, Law 4632. Article 4 defines joining as concluding a pension contract with a pension company; it does not mention citizenship or residence. Supplementary Article 1, as amended in January 2022 by Law 7351, is where nationality enters: the state contribution is calculated on contributions paid by participants who are Turkish citizens or who fall under Article 28 of the Turkish Citizenship Law, which is the Mavi Kart (Blue Card) held by former citizens who gave up citizenship by permission. Article 5, as amended in 2020, allows contributions in foreign currency only from Turkish citizens without legal residence in Turkey and from the same Article 28 group. The Pension Monitoring Centre's participant guide puts the state-contribution rule in one line: Turkish citizens and Mavi Kart holders can all benefit, and no taxpayer status is required.
| Feature | Turkish citizen resident in Turkey | Mavi Kart holder | Other foreign national resident in Turkey |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open a BES contract, including a katılım plan | Yes | Yes | Yes (Law 4632 sets no nationality condition) |
| 20% state contribution on lira contributions | Yes, up to the annual cap | Yes, up to the annual cap | No |
| Contribute in foreign currency | Only if not legally resident in Turkey | Yes | No; lira only |
| Retirement entitlement | 10 years in system and age 56 | 10 years in system and age 56 | 10 years in system and age 56 |
| Withholding on exit | On returns only: 15%, 10% or 5% | On returns only: 15%, 10% or 5% | On returns only: 15%, 10% or 5% |
| Citizenship or long-term residence via BES | Not applicable | Not applicable | Yes: USD 500,000 held three years in a Vatandaşlık plan |
On documents, the law and the EGM guide are silent about what a non-citizen must present, and we found no official page listing them. Pension companies must verify identity, so expect to be asked for a valid residence or work permit (a work permit counts as a residence permit under Article 27 of the Foreigners and International Protection Law, as the Labour Ministry's work permit FAQ notes), your passport, the foreigner identity number on your permit, and a Turkish bank account for the direct debit. Whether a given company will onboard a non-citizen smoothly, and in which languages, is not published; call before you choose, and read our guide to opening a participation account as a foreigner, because the bank account comes first.
The 2026 numbers every participant faces, citizen or not
The headline change this year is the match itself. Presidential Decree 10811, published in the Official Gazette on 7 January 2026, cut the state contribution on lira contributions from 30% to 20% from 1 January 2026, and halved the one-off auto-enrolment bonus from 1,000 TL to 500 TL, as EY's social security circular No. 3 summarises; see the BES state match cut explained. The EGM state contribution page gives the 2026 cap: contributions up to the year's gross minimum wage, 396,360 TL, earn the match, so the maximum state contribution is 79,272 TL for the year. Employer-paid contributions never attract it.
| Rule (2026) | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| State contribution rate on lira contributions | 20% (was 30% until 31 December 2025) | Decree 10811, EGM |
| Contributions eligible for the match per year | 396,360 TL (annual gross minimum wage) | EGM |
| Maximum state contribution per year | 79,272 TL | EGM |
| Vesting of the state contribution account | 15% after 3 years, 35% after 6, 60% after 10, 100% at retirement, death or disability | Law 4632 Supplementary Art. 1, EGM |
| Retirement entitlement | 10 years in the system and age 56 | EGM |
| Withholding tax on exit (on investment returns only) | 15% if under 10 years; 10% after 10 years without retirement right; 5% at retirement, death, disability or liquidation | EGM participant guide |
| Cap on entry fee plus management deductions, years 1 to 5 | 8.5% of the monthly gross minimum wage per contract year; none from year 6 | EGM participant guide |
| Fund total expense ratio caps | 1.09% (money market, precious metals), 1.91% (standard, index, debt), 2.28% (equity, katılım, mixed, variable) | EGM participant guide |
Two rows deserve emphasis for a foreigner. Withholding is charged only on the investment return, never on your own contributions, and EGM's fund page confirms that the pension funds pay no withholding on their gains while you hold them; that deferral is the main financial reason a foreigner might still prefer BES to buying the same katılım funds directly on TEFAS, where our taxes on halal money guide sets out the withholding you would pay along the way. The fee row cuts the other way: for five years a company may take up to 8.5% of a month's gross minimum wage each year (2,807.55 TL on the 2026 wage of 33,030 TL), and fund expenses of up to 2.28% a year sit on top. A citizen's 20% match absorbs those costs. A foreigner's contract has to earn them back from fund returns alone.
What a katılım BES is worth without the state match
Put a number on the difference. A participant paying 10,000 TL a month for ten years contributes 1,200,000 TL. A citizen receives 24,000 TL a year of state contribution, 240,000 TL over the decade, vesting in stages and fully at retirement after age 56. The foreigner receives nothing from the Treasury; their 1,200,000 TL grows only by what the funds earn, less fees, and on exit they pay 15% withholding on the gain if they leave before ten years. In other words the BES wrapper gives a foreigner three things, none of them a subsidy: a tax deferral inside the funds, a disciplined monthly debit, and access to the katılım pension funds and the BEFAS platform, which lets you hold other companies' katılım funds inside one contract.
Against that stand the costs and the lock-in. Five years of deductions capped at 8.5% of a month's minimum wage a year are small on a 10,000 TL monthly contract but heavy on a 1,640 TL minimum plan, where the cap could absorb more than a month's payment each year. Fund expenses of up to 2.28% a year are a real drag over a decade, and the figure a given fund actually charges takes work to find, as our katılım fund fees explainer shows. Leaving early costs the 15% withholding on gains plus any deferred entry fee. For a foreigner, then, BES is a reasonable long-horizon vehicle if you expect to keep lira savings in Turkey for ten years or more, and a poor one for a two-year posting. For the decision between BES and a direct portfolio, see building a halal portfolio from one TEFAS account.
The citizenship and residence route through BES
The one BES rule written specifically for foreigners is about status, not saving. An amendment to Article 20(2)(f) of the Regulation on the Implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law, published on 13 May 2022, allows a foreigner to acquire citizenship exceptionally by paying at least USD 500,000 or the equivalent in foreign currency into BES, holding it in funds whose scope SEDDK determines, and remaining in the system for three years. The insurance regulator's procedure note adds that the same investment is accepted for short-term residence permits under Article 31(1)(j) of Law 6458 and for long-term residence permits, and that the foreign currency must first be sold to the Central Bank through a Turkish bank before the lira proceeds reach the pension company. The Insurance Association's Circular 2022/21 sets the plan rules.
- The participant is placed in a plan with Vatandaşlık (citizenship) in its name; only these plans may use the word.
- No entry fee and no management deduction may be charged on a Vatandaşlık plan.
- Funds with yabancı (foreign) or dış borçlanma araçları (external debt instruments) in their names, including on BEFAS, are excluded and cannot be selected.
- For the first three years there can be no plan change, no account merger for retirement and no transfer to another company; EGM reports breaches to SEDDK and the migration authorities.
- The USD 500,000 cannot be split across more than one contract, and once the currency has been sold to the CBRT the sale cannot be reversed.
Nothing in those rules excludes katılım funds; the prohibited words are yabancı and dış borçlanma araçları, not katılım. So a Muslim investor using this route can in principle hold the Vatandaşlık plan in interest-free funds, but which companies offer a Vatandaşlık plan with a katılım fund menu is not published centrally and must be confirmed company by company. Note also that the state contribution is irrelevant here: the participant is not a citizen when the contributions are paid, so none accrues on the USD 500,000. Judge it on the legal outcome, with immigration counsel, not on investment return.
Which katılım BES contracts exist, and what our registry shows
A katılım plan may hold only katılım pension funds: lease certificates (sukuk), participation accounts, equities screened to the participation index, gold and other precious metals, and interest-free securities funds, as EGM's fund page lists. Five company families offer them. We rank them in the best katılım BES plans and explain the system in Katılım BES in 2026; the table pulls the facts a foreigner needs from our registry, verified against company pages in August 2026.
| Company | Katılım offer | Shariah governance | Published cost points | Notes for a foreign saver |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Katılım Emeklilik | Whole company participation-based; 20 interest-free funds including sukuk (KEB), katılım equity (KEH), gold (KEF) and precious metals (KJM) | Named three-scholar committee, published icazet certificates, signed annual compliance report | Fund expenses at regulatory caps; plan fees in contract documents | Sold through Albaraka Türk and Kuveyt Türk branches; deepest fund menu |
| Anadolu Hayat Emeklilik | Katılım plan family (Geleceğe Yatırım, child, youth plans) in seven katılım funds | Named committee with per-plan and per-fund icazet certificates | Standard BES economics; per-plan fee schedules | İş Bankası group distribution; conventional core book, katılım pension window |
| Garanti BBVA Emeklilik | Interest-free fund menu inside BES plans, including silver and FX participation funds | Named committee, annual icazet certificates for 2021 to 2025 | Fund expenses at regulatory caps; plan fee schedules | Defaults are conventional; you must actively elect the katılım funds |
| Bereket Emeklilik | All-katılım contract, 10 funds managed by Ziraat Portföy | Statutory committee; scholars not publicly named | Fund expense caps 1.09% to 2.28%; plan fees in contract | Enrolment at Tarım Kredi cooperatives and at Türkiye Finans, Emlak Katılım, Hayat Finans and Ziraat Katılım branches |
| Türkiye Hayat ve Emeklilik | Katılım Esaslı Temel Plan (1,640 TL monthly minimum) and Sağlam Temel Plan (25,000 TL lump sum plus about 1,441 TL monthly) | Committee supervision stated; scholars not publicly named | Temel: one-twelfth of 4.25% of gross minimum wage monthly for 5 years plus deferred entry fee; Sağlam Temel: no management deduction | Widest branch access through Ziraat Katılım, Vakıf Katılım, Emlak Katılım and the state banks |
For a foreigner who will not receive the state match, the cost column is the one to read first. The Sağlam Temel Plan's zero management deduction removes the largest fixed cost in Turkish BES for anyone who can bring 25,000 TL at the start; the Temel Plan's five years of minimum-wage-indexed deductions are the opposite case. Katılım Emeklilik's documentation is the strongest, as our Katılım Emeklilik review sets out, though the KJM 139% lesson warns against choosing its KJM fund on one year's return. Provider pages for Anadolu Hayat Emeklilik, Garanti BBVA Emeklilik and Bereket Emeklilik list the fund shelves.
How large the system is, and how many foreigners it could serve
BES is not a niche product. Pension Monitoring Centre data for 30 September 2026, as reported by Best Yayıncılık, put the voluntary system at 10,374,000 participants and 2.121 trillion TL of fund assets, with Türkiye Hayat ve Emeklilik leading by participants (2,466,000) and fund size (420.5 billion TL). The potential foreign clientele is also large. The Migration Research Foundation's September 2026 trends note, compiled from Presidency of Migration Management data of 1 October 2026, counts 1,268,369 foreigners holding residence permits, led by citizens of Turkmenistan (210,300), Azerbaijan (94,939) and Syria (88,401), with 607,611 in Istanbul. Many of the largest groups come from Muslim-majority countries, which is why the katılım question matters more than the aggregate statistics suggest. People under temporary or international protection are not in that count and face different documentation; this guide does not cover their position.
Opening a katılım BES as a foreigner: the steps
- Hold a valid residence permit or work permit, and note the foreigner identity number printed on it; you will need it on every form.
- Open a lira account at a participation bank; contributions are debited in lira and foreign-currency contributions are not available to non-citizens.
- Choose a company and insist on a plan with katılım in its name; EGM's guide says that is the way to ensure only interest-free funds can be selected.
- Read the plan's fee schedule for the entry fee, management deduction, pause deduction and any deferred entry fee, and compare it with the 8.5% of monthly gross minimum wage cap.
- Ask the company whether its app and EGM's BES Mobil (which logs in through e-Devlet) will work with your permit number; confirm before relying on either.
- Diarise the ten-year mark and your 56th birthday: the 5% withholding rate and, if you later become a citizen, full vesting of any state contribution, both depend on reaching retirement entitlement.
- If you leave Turkey, exit payments are made within 20 business days of the signed exit form reaching the company, net of withholding on the return; partial withdrawals of up to 50% of the balance are possible under EGM's conditions.
Is BES permissible? The Diyanet's position, and what it means for a foreigner
The Religious Affairs High Board answered the general question on 26 October 2022 in its fatwa on the individual pension system: what matters religiously is where the savings are invested, and the system is permissible if the accumulated savings are invested in religiously permissible areas and not otherwise. The same fatwa states that the contribution the state makes to those in the system, whether participation is voluntary or not, may be accepted. For a foreign saver the second point is moot, and the first is the whole decision: choose a plan restricted to katılım funds, and check that the state contribution fund, if you ever become eligible, is itself a katılım fund; Katılım Emeklilik, Anadolu Hayat Emeklilik and Bereket Emeklilik state that theirs is.
Şu hâlde bireysel emeklilik tasarruf ve yatırım sistemi, birikimlerin dinen helal olan alanlarda değerlendirilmesi durumunda caiz aksi hâlde caiz değildir. (Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı, Din İşleri Yüksek Kurulu, 26 October 2022)
Zakat does not pause because the money sits in a pension; our guide to zakat on stocks, funds and BES sets out the method, which applies to a foreigner's contract exactly as to a citizen's.
Our view
For a foreign resident the honest answer has three parts. Legally, BES is open to you, and a katılım plan is the right way in: the law excludes you from the subsidy, not from the system. Financially, without the 20% match BES is a tax-deferred katılım fund wrapper with five years of capped fixed costs and a ten-year horizon; it suits someone settled in Turkey who wants a disciplined lira savings habit, and it does not suit a short posting, because the 15% withholding on gains and any deferred entry fee punish early exit. If you are here for the long haul, the Türkiye Hayat ve Emeklilik Sağlam Temel Plan's zero management deduction or Katılım Emeklilik's governance and fund depth are the two places to start. And if your interest is the USD 500,000 citizenship route, treat it as an immigration decision with a three-year lock and no state contribution, and take legal advice before selling a single dollar to the Central Bank. Facts checked against mevzuat.gov.tr, egm.org.tr, seddk.gov.tr, tsb.org.tr and kurul.diyanet.gov.tr on 20 October 2026; company facts from our registry as verified in August 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Can a foreigner open a BES account in Turkey?
Yes. Law 4632 defines joining BES as signing a pension contract with a licensed company and sets no nationality or citizenship condition. In practice companies ask for a valid residence or work permit, a passport, the foreigner identity number on the permit and a Turkish lira bank account for contributions. Any plan, including an interest-free katılım plan, can be chosen.
Do foreigners get the BES state contribution?
No, unless they hold a Mavi Kart. Supplementary Article 1 of Law 4632 pays the state contribution, 20% of lira contributions in 2026 up to 79,272 TL a year, only to Turkish citizens and to persons under Article 28 of the Turkish Citizenship Law, which is the Mavi Kart for former citizens. Other foreign nationals save in BES without the match.
Can I pay BES contributions in dollars or euros as a foreigner?
No. Article 5 of Law 4632 allows foreign-currency contributions only from Turkish citizens who are not legally resident in Turkey and from Mavi Kart holders. A foreign national resident in Turkey contributes in lira. The exception is the citizenship route, where USD 500,000 is converted to lira through the Central Bank before it enters the pension company's accounts.
How does the BES citizenship investment work?
Under the citizenship regulation as amended on 13 May 2022, a foreigner who pays at least USD 500,000 or equivalent into BES, holds it in SEDDK-approved funds and stays in the system for three years can apply for exceptional citizenship; the same investment supports long-term residence applications. The money goes into a Vatandaşlık plan with no entry fee or management deduction, no plan changes or transfers for three years, and no funds with yabancı or dış borçlanma araçları in their names.
Is BES halal?
According to the Diyanet's Religious Affairs High Board fatwa of 26 October 2022, BES is permissible if the savings are invested in religiously permissible areas and not otherwise, and the state contribution may be accepted. In practice that means choosing a plan with katılım in its name, which may hold only interest-free funds: sukuk, participation accounts, screened equities and precious metals.
What tax do I pay when I leave BES before retirement?
Withholding is charged only on the investment return, not on your contributions: 15% if you leave within ten years, 10% after ten years without the retirement right, and 5% at retirement (ten years and age 56), death, disability or liquidation. The rates are the same for foreigners and citizens. Pension funds pay no withholding on their own gains while you hold them, which is the system's main tax advantage for a non-citizen.
Sources
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- Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi, Bireysel Emeklilik Tasarruf ve Yatırım Sistemi Kanunu (Law 4632, consolidated text with 2026 amendments)
- Emeklilik Gözetim Merkezi, Katılımcı Bilgilendirme Rehberi (read 20 October 2026)
- Emeklilik Gözetim Merkezi, Devlet Katkısı (2026 limits)
- Emeklilik Gözetim Merkezi, Gönüllü BES Fonları (interest-free fund scope)
- EY Türkiye, Sosyal Güvenlik ve İş Mevzuatı Sirküler No: 03, BES'te devlet katkı payı ve miktarı düşürüldü (January 2026)
- SEDDK, Procedures for foreigners applying for citizenship or long-term residence by paying BES contributions
- Türkiye Sigorta Birliği, Genelge 2022/21 amending the BES Circular 2016/39 (2022)
- Çalışma ve Sosyal Güvenlik Bakanlığı, Yabancıların çalışma hayatı: sıkça sorulan sorular
- Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı, Din İşleri Yüksek Kurulu, Bireysel emeklilik sistemi caiz midir? (26 October 2022)
- Best Yayıncılık, 3. çeyrekte BES'te fon tutarı 2 trilyon 120 milyar TL (EGM data of 30 September 2026, published 16 October 2026)
- Göç Araştırmaları Vakfı, Türkiye'nin Aylık Göç Trendleri, Eylül 2026 (30 September 2026)
