Near the USA, on the small island of Haiti, namely in its eastern part, a small state is located. The Dominican Republic is almost invisible on the world map, since it occupies an area of about 50 thousand square kilometers, which, by the standards of Russia, is unimaginably small. In fact, the citizenship of the Dominican Republic does not provide any special advantages, apart from living in an amazing climate, however, it is relatively simple and easy to obtain. The article will talk about how to obtain the citizenship of the Dominican Republic to a citizen of Russia in a fairly quick time and at minimal cost.
Citizenship
The Dominican Republic on the map borders the Republic of Haiti, which is also a rather poor country. Due to the huge number of migrants who are trying to invade the Dominican Republic, the procedure for obtaining citizenship has become more complicated. Tighter rules for paperwork helped to avoid an increase in the criminal situation in the country, since Haitians are illegally in the state and practically do not work. At the moment, to obtain citizenship of the Dominican Republic, a Russian needs to go through several stages, which will be described below.
Entry into the country
To date, a visa-free regime has been established between the Russian Federation and the Dominican Republic. In order to be on the island, you only need a valid passport. Upon arrival, you will need to issue a migration card, and then a tourist card, which will cost about $ 10. It makes it possible to stay in the country at first for one month, and after extension - up to three months. During this time, it is quite possible to plan a move to Dominican Republic for permanent residence.
In order to fully apply for citizenship, it is best to start preparing for this back in Russia, although the procedure is carried out exclusively on the territory of the Dominican Republic. The main problem with paperwork is not so much the complexity of the procedure as the language barrier and lack of documents.
Resident visa
The first step to applying for Dominican Republic citizenship is to obtain a migration visa. It is mandatory for everyone who subsequently really wants to become a citizen of the country. At its core, the document resembles a tourist map, but only with its help in the country can one legally live for a year. However, it should be taken into account that it is impossible to work or do business during this time period, so that it remains only to relax and engage in the collection and execution of papers. Such a visa has become mandatory only since 2012 and represents a kind of intermediate stage in the process of obtaining citizenship.
Required documents
To obtain a resident visa, you will need to come to the police department of the country and provide the employee with a package of documents and certificates. It must include:
1. An application to the migration service with a request for a migration visa, and subsequently a residence permit. It must necessarily indicate the type of activity that you intend to engage in in the country.
2. A visa application form that is completely written in Spanish or English, which is written on a computer or by hand.
3. A certificate of the medical examination passed, which says that the migrant does not have any socially dangerous diseases like HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis.
4. A valid passport that will be usable for a minimum of one and a half years, as well as a copy of it.
5. A certificate of criminal record in Russia and the Dominican Republic.
6. Certificate of birth, marriage or divorce. All must be translated into Spanish and certified.
7. A letter of guarantee from a person who has the citizenship of the Dominican Republic, in which he confirms that he incurs all costs in cases of violation of the laws of the country by you.
Issue price
One of the positive aspects in the situation of obtaining citizenship of the country is the fact that the cost of the procedure will be very small. It costs about 15 thousand rubles to get a resident visa, and it will take about two months to consider all the required documents of the Dominican authorities, which is a fairly short time.
Residence permit
The second step in this matter will be obtaining a residence permit and a local identity card. The preparation of these documents is a rather lengthy procedure, but this stage is mandatory, as it makes it possible to stay in the Dominican Republic for a year and work calmly.
A fairly large number of people simply prefer to contact a local lawyer. All this will cost about one and a half thousand dollars, but you will not have to deal with a huge number of nuances on your own.
Documents and references
To complete all the papers, you will need to directly visit the central office of the country's migration service in order to get a referral for analysis.
In addition, you will need to provide the following package of documents:
- Foreign passport and two copies of it, as well as a duplicate of the page with a stamp on entry into the country.
- Six standard photographs of the international standard, which are best done directly in the Dominican Republic.
- Application form requesting a temporary residence.
- Original and copy of the migration visa and tourist card.
- Certificate confirming the place of work or study.
- Certificate of no criminal record.
- Two letters of guarantee from citizens of the Dominican Republic.
Terms of consideration
The issue of granting residence permit status is resolved within about six months, and sometimes is delayed for a longer time. As soon as all the papers are ready, representatives of special bodies will notify the applicant personally about this. Within a week, in the department of the migration service it is necessary to get all the documents and put on them the signature of the head of the department.
In addition, the applicant must be handed a special package, which is intended to receive an internal document - a saddle. With these papers, you need to go to a body called sedulaon, after which you pay a fee of approximately 7,000 rubles and, finally, become the owner of the Dominican ID. Only with a saddle can you directly obtain the status of residence permit.
Such a residence permit is valid for one year, and it is not allowed to renew it. However, papers for permission to assign permanent residence status can be submitted the very next day, so there will be enough time for registration.
Permanent residence
A fairly large number of Russian citizens who decided to acquire additional citizenship of the Dominican Republic are completing paperwork at this stage. There is a good reason for this. Citizens of the Dominican Republic, unlike those living on permanent residence, have only one privilege - suffrage, which in general is not needed by anyone especially. In all other respects, there will be no restrictions and inconveniences.
To obtain permanent residence status, it is necessary to provide the migration authority with the same package of documents as when obtaining permanent residence status. The only differences will be:
- a questionnaire in which you will need to record the application for a residence permit;
- documents that give grounds for your stay in the country;
- a certificate of temporary residence in the Dominican Republic as a resident for a whole year.
Permanent residence status is issued only once and it is valid throughout a person’s life, although the document itself will need to be updated every two years. Perhaps the need to replace is the only inconvenient moment in the program, although going to the migration service once every 2 years is not a big problem.
If there is no desire to constantly change the card, then a couple of years after receiving permanent residence with a package of documents, you can contact the migration authorities with a request for citizenship. To do this, you will need to provide a petition and go through a medical commission.
Features of preferential citizenship
The Dominican Republic is a poor country, and therefore there are a number of privileged features that can help Russians obtain citizenship much faster:
1. The first thing to do here is to obtain the citizenship of the Dominican Republic through the purchase of real estate, not only a residential building, but also an ordinary office. The presence of property in the territory of the Dominican Republic automatically gives the right to receive all civil rights in an expedited time.
2. The country's authorities are unusually strongly interested in developing business, and therefore obtaining citizenship of the Dominican Republic through investment is also quite simple. To do this, you need to fulfill only one small condition - to provide at least one citizen of the country with a workplace in your company. The country does not set any restrictions on the amount of investments, so even novice businessmen can turn around here.
The benefits of living in the Dominican Republic
If, after traveling to this country, a tourist has a desire to settle in it for a long time, then he will have to overcome a number of obstacles, which, however, are much simpler than in some countries. Recently, many have been asking questions: “What gives the citizenship of the Dominican Republic besides beautiful views and life in a tropical paradise on earth?”, “Why every year an increasing number of Russians migrate to the Dominican Republic.” Now in this country, the creation of the Russian diaspora is actively going on, which is becoming more numerous.
The benefits of Dominican Republic citizenship include:
1. A sufficiently high level of medicine. To use medical services, citizens must get insurance and renew it on time, otherwise the cost for foreign citizens will simply be astronomical.
2. A good education system, in many ways similar to the Russian one. After graduating from Dominican University, you can get an international diploma, which makes it possible to work around the world or enter an American prestigious higher educational institution.
3. Among other things, a significant advantage for citizens of the Dominican Republic is the possibility of obtaining a US visa for 10 years and the accelerated registration of Spanish citizenship, which means automatic acquisition of European Union citizenship.
4. Real estate in the Dominican Republic is available for purchase by foreign citizens, since the authorities require an influx of investment in the state treasury.
disadvantages
As can be understood from the above, special advantages, in addition to a wonderful climate, do not give citizenship of a given country. The Dominican passport will not open to its owner any unique opportunities other than a beach holiday. The Dominican Republic is a rather poor country, and therefore there are few jobs. Especially popular specialties can be found in the field of medicine, since the profession of a doctor on the island is considered prestigious, and therefore highly paid. However, the bulk of the vacancies are based on hard, unskilled, low-paying work. Therefore, those who have some kind of passive income or even work remotely live best here. In this case, you can establish yourself a really perfect life.
But in general, if a foreigner who has received the citizenship of the Dominican Republic knows Spanish well enough and is purposeful, then it’s quite possible to find a job here, or, in extreme cases, it’s enough to just start your own business.
Conclusion
The Dominican Republic has long been one of the Spanish colonies, so Spanish is the national language here. To obtain citizenship of the country, it is best to first study it well, and only after that make a decision to move to this sunny island. Now the Dominican Republic almost completely rests on tourism, there are quite few jobs here, so it is advisable to provide yourself with passive income or remote work in order to be able to start collecting the required documents. But in fact, the procedure for obtaining citizenship in this country is unusually simple, especially if there is real estate in the Dominican Republic.