¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ

The list from Colegio de abogados isn't worth a peso.  Just means you graduated and paid a fee.

As mentioned above, CONFOTUR is here to stay—for now. The goal is to attract more people to move to the Dominican Republic, and once that objective is met, they may reconsider eliminating it, according to my attorney.

I recently purchased a property in Cap Cana that qualifies for CONFOTUR through the developer. I applied for residency and am currently in the process, which takes up to six months on the fast-track route, as it requires a $250,000 investment in property.

Once approved, I can legally live here for five years before upgrading to permanent residency, which will then be valid for ten years.

Lastly, I fully support CONFOTUR because it gives new buyers greater flexibility to invest in the Dominican Republic.

Curious why you didn't get residency by marriage and then citizenship honey?

@planner

Reason: That path is not what I want. I rather the hard and long way, worth my investment

Ok.  Your money and time!

As mentioned above, CONFOTUR is here to stay—for now. The goal is to attract more people to move to the Dominican Republic, and once that objective is met, they may reconsider eliminating it, according to my attorney.I recently purchased a property in Cap Cana that qualifies for CONFOTUR through the developer. I applied for residency and am currently in the process, which takes up to six months on the fast-track route, as it requires a $250,000 investment in property.Once approved, I can legally live here for five years before upgrading to permanent residency, which will then be valid for ten years.Lastly, I fully support CONFOTUR because it gives new buyers greater flexibility to invest in the Dominican Republic. - @IrishDRGuy

My 2 cents. If you can just become naturalized, I would go that route as soon as possible.  For years I dealt with the incompetence at the Migracion department dealing with residency renewals.  I had to go from the Cabarete to Santo Domingo and I hate Santo Domingo.  The fastest way out of that legal resident to citizenship path is best, if you intend to live here in the DR as I did.  Of course you might have circumstances that make continuously renewing residency something that is better for you. Some countries don't allow dual citizenship, for example.

Last I knew, only five years of legal residency did not qualify for a 10 year residency renewal.  So it that is true now, something changed regarding the 10 year so-called permanent resident situation.  I say so-called because no legal residency is actually "permanent".  Does going the Confotur approved purchase of property expedite the path to a 10 year legal residency?

@windeguy

It allows for residency via investor and expedited citizenship should you choose.

@windeguy

As mentioned earlier, my attorney stated that investing in a property valued at $250,000 or more guarantees an expedited path to residency or citizenship in 6 months. This is because they consider the investment I made as valuable to them.

So  while it makes a guarantee the timeline is wrong. It cant happen in  6 months and to my knowledge it has never happened.  But,  it is the fastest path to citizenship

@planner

Honey, it's the fact, 6 months is the timeline Don't believe me? That is fine but that what I have on my papers. 6 months.  Have a good day

Uh-oh, an attorney promising very optimistic outcomes, that hasn't always turned out rosy for the client in stories told elsewhere in this forum ...

@IrishDRGuy

I don't care what your papers say!  I am commenting from 21 years here and having first hand knowledge plus hundreds of reports from others!  But go ahead and make comments like that!  Let us all know how this works out for you!

@IrishDRGuy

Hey there.  Welcome to the DR Forums!

Brother, if you can get your citizenship -- via ANY program -- in just 6 months, please come back here and show us your passport -- we'll celebrate with you!  Your lawyer is probably being (mostly) honest -- maybe it does say that somewhere in a law or regulation or directive.  BUT NO ONE IN MY MEMORY SINCE 2018 HAS DONE ANYTHING LESS THAN 2-3 YEARS for a citizenship...and those are considered miracles. 

1. I suspect your abogado is not telling you "The rest of the story."

For example, I have a very good friend + wife that JUST picked up their passports last week, which occurred approximately TWO YEARS after their naturalization was approved!!  JUST ON GOVERNMENT-CAUSED ERRORS IN DOCUMENTS AND PAPERWORK, and I believe loss of one crucial document that the government required but lost.   It didn't matter, stuff had to be re-acquired, re-apostille'd and re-submitted. 

And that's not even counting the process of getting their residences and then the naturalization application in and approved.  Took years!

Did you know that about six months before an election, the immigration ministry essentially goes on vacation? (not really, but it feels like it.)  It seems part of the local election culture here that everyone kind of freezes all the immigration stuff that isn't of immediate direct benefit to the country (e.g., needed for work permits in high priority job areas, official government needs, diplomatic needs, etc.).  They also want to defer any "major decisions" (and citizenship approvals are major decisions, apparently) to respect the wishes of a possible new government and minister/director. 

1. Your previously submitted package is held in suspension.  Not surprisingly, your documents expire...but the ministry won't tell you until AFTER processing restarts.  If your lawyer is smart and keeps track, you can anticipate that...but you still must go to the trouble, expense and time of getting those documents again. 
2. And any packages that might have been within days of suspension?  All the lawyers are told to HOLD packages, no submissions. 
3. Then, after the election is decided, you might have to wait for a new government to be installed.
4. Whether a new or old government, it is likely the old Immigration Director decided to move on (rather than stay in an office doing pretty much nothing), and then the staff will need time to get the new Director on board and spun up. 
5. So, IF you're lucky, 2-4 months AT BEST after the election, packages will start to flow in again.  Except, because of the freeze, a deluge of new applications is soon placed on immigration's doorstep...along with all of the older packages that had expired during the hiatus and were just resubmitted.

The picture you should have in your head should be: LOG JAM!! 

1. You could ask me how I know all of this.  But I wouldn't want to explain any further, lest my blood pressure go too high.  Suffice to say, our own naturalization package lost about 8 months to this process last year...and we got off better than many others.
2. My advice would be to learn a LOT about the timing of Dominican election cycles.  Discuss with your lawyer. Plan ahead and try to beat that cycle.  We could have done better in this regard.

In a different vein, you'll soon learn about the game of "application roulette."  It's so much fun to play!!

1. You submit a package.  It sits in the inbox (hopefully -- some have been known to simply disappear, to be found years later behind radiators or misfiled) for a few months till it rises to the top.  The clerk starts to review your package and finds ONE thing wrong. 
2. A document that's now too old, or a misspelled or mistranslated word. 
3. A typo in the Apostille you got from the State Department, maybe.
4. The wrong color of ink.  Sometimes they don't like your signature...it isn't legible enough. 
5. Perhaps there's just some stray ink marks somewhere on the documents...how it got there is a mystery, but it's there now, and is unacceptable to the Ministry.
6. The clerk returns your application with instructions to fix the error.  You're kind of happy, as they only found ONE error, right?
7. Wrong.  They review until they find the first error...and stop.  NO, they don't review the entire file...or at least, I've never heard of one doing so.
8. So you fix/correct the error, problem or document...and resubmit.
9. The file now goes to a DIFFERENT clerk for review -- and they find a different error.
10. Wash, Rinse, Repeat.  Their job is to find errors and have them corrected.  They do.
11. I've heard rumors -- no one will ever name names -- that if your lawyer isn't liked very well, this cycle can go on for months, even years.
12. And the documents continue to expire, so you're continuing to acquire and resubmit them fairly frequently over several years (potentially). 
13. Now, I've heard rumors (from the bad old days, of course... nothing current) that this Wash Rinse Repeat cycle can be interrupted... or even avoided completely! 
14. The rumor is that a few scraps of the right type of paper accidentally included in the application envelope, or perhaps accidentally dropped onto a desk, can magically make all of these documentation errors just go away.  Sometimes it might be small gifts at Christmas or other holidays.  I hear the locals call such things "la propina." 
15. Now, I'm SURE none of that actually happened or is happening in the previous or current ministries era.  I would NEVER impeach their ethics in any way, shape or form.  This is mostly just the stuff of legend, I'm sure.
16. And in point of fact, I don't know of ANYONE who has actually participated in such barbaric practices.
17. So, feel free to dismiss this part of the discussion.

Now, I could go on for pages and pages and pages about the things I've learned since 2018.  Of course, we did have that whole pandemic thing that screwed up just about every process in the Ministry for a few years (at no fault of their own, of course). 

All planner, myself or anyone else that chimes in are trying to do...is warn you that DR LAWYERS QUITE OFTEN TELL YOU WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR, not necessarily what is the ground truth.  They don't want to upset you, they want to help you be "Tranquillo," so sometimes Dominicans (and especially their lawyers) choose to protect you from harsh feelings.  It seems to be a cultural thing here in many areas.

1. We learned this the hard way from our FIRST DR lawyer...who we were forced to terminate 15 months into the process (IIRC) for non-performance and failure to communicate, at a loss of several thousand dollars.
2. That first lawyer had promised me, personally, that we would be submitted under the "DR Fast Track program," and things would only take a year or so.  Let me tell you, it just plain didn't work out.  She/he/whomever simply told me what I wanted to hear -- there really wasn't any "Fast Track" program. It seemed to be something, well, invented.
3. The experience was so horrible, we were ready to walk away from the DR entirely.  I posted about it here on ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ (you won't find that original post, I lost my first expat.com account due to server malfunctions, had to start over). 
4. FORTUNATELY FOR US...Planner, bless her heart, told us about a sharp young lawyer that could help us recover this broken process. 
5. That sharp young lawyer met us, impressed us...and we decided to give her a chance.  Heck, we were giving the entire DR another chance!!
6. We have never spent any better money than hiring that young lawyer. 

Now, I'm NOT trying to get you to switch lawyers.  You're already committed to the one you have, probably already paid in a good chunk of money.  There are legal implications in the DR if you're interfering between a lawyer and client.  That's not my game and never was.   

I WILL advise that you should carefully monitor the promises made...and see how well they are kept. 

1. If things just aren't going the way you expect them to -- that you were promised would happen -- I suggest that you be ready to switch horses.   Yes, even in mid-stream.  It is possible, though it has to be handled delicately and diplomatically. 
2. We should have terminated our first lawyer 6-7 months in -- by then, the pattern of non-communication and zero progress was already set.  We lost another 8 months trying to make work something that was NEVER going to work.
3. Should you find yourself in a similar jam, I recommend you don't make that same mistake.  Be ready to change lawyers, IF and only IF warranted.  Delaying it just creates more pain and costs (we had to redo many documents and apostilles, at no small expense (for us). 

Brother, I hope you understand that I wrote this long missive with only a desire to educate you a bit...and perhaps warn other future readers and prospective expats.  I strongly recommend using a lawyer for DR immigration matters -- and you've hired one that you have confidence in.  I write because, well, I enjoy writing.  And this seemed like a worthy cause. 

However, hiring the RIGHT immigration lawyer...and not one with a horrible reputation among previous new DR residents or citizens -- is crucial to your success and happiness as a DR expat, IMO. As is understanding the process you're about to enter into.

Best to you,

Jim

¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵRusher

Folks, sometimes you cannot argue a person’s reality so save your breath and sanity, plus it is hard for others to remember that they are emigrating to another country which has a different culture.

Oft times people forget that they should accept and adapt to the culture of the country to which they are emigrating.

Have adopted the Dominican way with my visa application as it has been almost 45 days since submitting and I’ve had to resubmit paperwork Ns send additional paperwork that was not required initially.  Así es mi vida nueva.

Just because one is older does not mean they are wiser, nor an old soul.  This gentlemen will learn or he won’t.  If he doesn’t he will have a rough go of it, it is his choice not ours.

I appreciate the guidance and assistance folks on this forum have provided.

Que tengan un gran día!

IrishDRGuy, good luck with that.  I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale after your 6 months to get citizenship happens, or does  not which is about 100% more likely.

Some people believe what they are told by lawyers.  Oh well, and so it goes.

@IrishDRGuy

Exactly. Now it is 250 000 USD to qualify.

I have the same information.

It is not 200 it is 250.

My husband and I will be planning on coming to the DR for a 3 month trial stay (this is our plan anyway) to see if we really want this to be our retirement destination.  We want to make certain we can deal with living with the pace and lifestyle before we buy. 

I have a small question:  Do we need a visa for this length of stay?

While you legally do need a visa, one doesn't exist for this duration.  A tourist visa is 30 days and can be extended up to a total of 120 days. It's an administrative work around.  It is exactly the same as coming on a tourist visa, overstay and pay the overstay penalty at the airport!  It's that simple. After 30 days you should not take the risk of driving. 

@Lesjob4d

Technically , yes.  You are in overstay after 30 days.  But, virtually no one complies with that.  The only penalty is a charge when you leave the country which is variable according to the amount of time you have spent here.  Usually around $75 for a 3-4 month overstay.  Contact me directly if you have more questions.  We wrote a book about moving to the DR.

@¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵRusher

So who is this "sharp young lawyer"?  Please share. Thank you.

@cync1313312

He is referring to Lishali Baez.  Many of us have used her services with good success!   libaezm@gmail.com

@planner

Thank you very much!

I know people that drive here on US licenses for years without residency.  No issues, yet.

Key word is yet honey.  The issue MAY come after an accident.  Driving with no license is an offense and COULD invalidate insurance.  I asked the question of an insurance company Sr. VP.  Yes it is grounds to invalidate the insurance.

I know of one person who failed to get a DR license and was in an accident. Their insurance did not pay out anything because they were technically driving here illegally. The insurance company said it was no different than handing the keys to a blind man and allowing him to drive it! No legal license means the driver is not covered!

I know of one person who failed to get a DR license and was in an accident. Their insurance did not pay out anything because they were technically driving here illegally. The insurance company said it was no different than handing the keys to a blind man and allowing him to drive it! No legal license means the driver is not covered! - @ddmcghee

This is first instance of this I have heard of in 22 years.

I know at least 2 who have been denied coverage due to driving without a valid license.

That brings the count to 3 so far.  Anyone else?

The point is it's a risk.  Everyone can manage their risk as they choose. 

I have a super-specific question. I wonder if there is anyone here who has recently gone through the initial application process (the one you have to do from your home country), and had your documents translated into Spanish and then had that translation "legalized" by the Dominican government, and can tell me how long, after the translation was done, the legalization part took for you.

I realize that the past, even the recent past, may not predict what happens today or tomorrow, especially now. But I would still be curious as to other people's experiences with this -- just to have some random data points to chew on while I wait 🙂. Gracias!

I am currently going through the process and am in SantonDomingo as I type this response.

Like most answers, it depends.

I am working with Lishali Baez and had all my documents translated and legalized through her office.  That process took about four weeks total from the time I emailed her office the documents to the time I reveled them back; however, that was also during the Christmas season.

Thanks @ondami

Can you split that out at all between translation time and legalization time?

If not, that's fine of course.

I am only asking about individual experiences (and promise not to read too much into them🙂), not a general rule.

We had our documents translated by the consulate when we submitted our applications. After receiving our visas, all the original docs were sent to Lishali for legalization. I don't recall that taking more than a couple of days.

@wondering9 I am not able to split it out as I had Lishali handle the translation and legalization process.

The process took 4 weeks as I sent her my documents over the Christmas break .

Translation service at the consulate tends to be more expensive than going through Lishali.

I hope this helps.