Client story
Client's Story
Where they started
Marat decided to save money on intermediaries and obtain citizenship independently: he found a good apartment in Bodrum, negotiated with the developer, paid 420,000 USD of his own funds, and applied for investor citizenship. Everything appeared correct—the amount exceeded the threshold, the property was real, and documents were in hand.
Why the standard route did not work
Then came the block. The migration service, upon verifying the property, identified an encumbrance (a legal restriction attached to the real estate): the land under the building had been mortgaged by the developer to the bank as security for his own loan. For the program, this is a deal-breaker: an apartment with mortgaged land beneath it is not considered a clean qualifying investment.
What BRIDGES had to solve
Marat found himself in a difficult situation through no fault of his own: money paid, apartment purchased, yet citizenship was suspended due to someone else's debt. He had not noticed this mortgage upon purchase himself—developers are not keen to highlight such details, and an inexperienced buyer focuses on the apartment itself rather than on the land beneath the entire building being mortgaged.
Why a standard answer would not do
Marat contacted BRIDGES, understanding that the solution was not to dispute the purchase, but to clear the property: to achieve removal of the encumbrance from his share so the apartment would become clean and the citizenship application would be revived. This required work at the intersection of real estate and legal pressure on the developer.
I purchased the apartment myself, paid 420 thousand, applied for citizenship—and they blocked it. It turned out the land under the building was mortgaged by the developer to the bank, and I didn't even notice it. I paid the money, but got no passport because of someone else's debt. Igor didn't throw up his hands—he pressured the developer, achieved removal of the encumbrance from my share through a pre-litigation claim, and the apartment became clean. They unblocked my application. I wouldn't have managed this myself.
