Starting own business in DR

I will be coming to your beautiful country, in hopes of starting my own business (excursion company) in the Sosua area. I am from Calgary, Canada. Do I need citizenship? VISA? Where do I start, regarding legalities? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

For general information on Dominican legalities, see the FAQ section of another DR1 legal firm advertiser, Russin, Vecchi & Heredia Bonetti at www.rvhb.com This firm has a Puerto Plata branch.

We also recommend you contact Dr. Fabio Guzman, who advertises on this site, especially since he is located in Sosua. I believe he studied in Canada. He has been highly recommended by other message board contributors. You can reach him through his website at www.drlawyer.com

To answer your questions... No, you do not need citizenship. To start a business you do not need a visa. Many foreigners start a business without legal residence status, and then when they commit to living in the DR, they apply for residency. For the legalities on starting a business, see the rvhb.com web site business FAQ.

[Robert]

You should apply for your residency in the RD. You need to prove that you have 300,000 RD pesos in a dominican bank and being in good health. Once the visa is issued, you are legally entitle to working in the RD. My lawyer, Fabio Guzman, who graduated from McGill University, is working on my residency visa and it is quite easy to obtain. You should contacting him at guzman.ariza@codetel.net.do. He is very professional.

Goodluck !

Thank you for the testimonial. Unfortunately, residencies are going to become more difficult. Today most law firms dealing with residencies were invited to a meeting with an officer from the Cancillería (Foreign Office). At the meeting it was announced that from now on any applicant for a residency must make a RD$500,000 pesos deposit (approx. $31,250 US) in a Dominican bank. It was further announced that the new regulation will be applied to all those applicants who have not yet received their residency visas. The annnouncement caused an uproar among the lawyers present and petitions will be submitted for reconsideration. Stay tuned.

On a more personal note, I did not graduate from McGill University. I went to high school in Canada at St. Andrew's College near Toronto in the 1960's. For college, I went south to Boston (Cambridge) to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) where I obtained my Bachelor of Science degree in 1973.

Start by committing to spend a year just living here, and spending as much time as you want investigating what you want to do. Nobody can write the definitive book about what it takes: you have to want to. This place is too special to put into a "how-to" manual.

Did the Dominican official explain the rational behind this new law? Is the money to remain in the bank or may it be withdrawn immediately upon reciept of the residency status?

Mr. Guzman, Just out of curiousity... are you a lawyer or not? Respectfully, Louise

Yes, Louise, I am a lawyer. After I graduated at M.I.T. I returned home and studied law at the Catholic University in Santiago. Close to 50% of my entering class at M.I.T. ended up as doctors, lawyers and teachers instead of engineers. Remember it was the late 60's and there was widespread disillusionment with technology (how times change!) and the things it was doing (Vietnam). You may read the rest of my curriculum vitae on our web site www.drlawyer.com

Thanks for clarifying that. Nice to know should I need legal advice in DR :-)

Since I'm very curious colega, DR1 wrote they believe you studied in Canada and Robert wrote you graduated from McGill University (Montreal, Canada). Did you??