Citizenship

Hi all, My wife is a Dominican Citizen living in the US with me. We recently had a daughter and I am interested in aquiring whatever documentation required to obtain a Dominican Citizenship. Could someone point me in the right direction?

thanks

I assume you want your daughter to be an American also. In that case, Article 11, Paragraph 3 of the Dominican Constitution gives your daughter, since her mother is a Dominican, the option when she reaches 18 to acquire Dominican citizenship. She would then be both an American and a Dominican. Double nationality is permitted both in the U.S. and in the D.R. with some minor restrictions: for example, a Dominican with another nationality cannot hold certain offices (President, Vicepresident); an American with double nationality, I believe, cannot serve in the armed forces of the other country without losing his American citizenship.

I also understand, the person should not vote in the presidential elections of either country in order not to lose one of the two nationalities. Dr. Guzmán, please correct me on this one, if I am wrong.

There is no restriction on the Dominican side of the equation. For example, a Dominican who is also an American may vote in the U.S. without fear of losing his/her Dominican citizenship. As a matter of fact, one of the reasons for the constitutional amendment of 1994 that allowed Dominicans to acquire another nationality without losing their Dominican citizenship was precisely to allow them to vote in U.S. elections. Before the amendment, many longtime Dominican residents in New York would not apply for naturalization for fear of losing their Dominican citizenship.

I believe there is a restriction on the American side. This affects children of Dominicans or one American parent that are born in the US and want to request dual citizenship (they already have the US citizenship and want to request the Dominican). They could stand to lose their US citizenship if they voted in the DR. This situation was recently brought up when there was a movement to get Dominicans in New York City to vote in Dominican elections. Could you comment on this?

Citizenship

To request the citizenship for a baby born abroad, a legal transcript of the birth certificate should be requested. This should be brought to Santo Domingo to be legalized at the Legalization Department of SEREX. This department then sends a letter to the Junta Central Electoral del Distrito Nacional that will issue a letter to the corresponding Oficialía authorizing the registration of the child as a Dominican citizen. The Dominican Republic admits dual citizenship.

http://206.105.233.238/english/serex/serex_services_services.htm