Renewing permanent residence

Aguayo · #1 04-22-2008, 07:03 PM

My permanent residence card is about to expire.

I frankly don’t remember where in Santo Domingo I went to get it (my lawyer was herding me then).

I think I have to bring my residence card, my cedula and my passport right?

1. Where in Santo Domingo I have to go to renew the residence card.

I plan to go next Wednesday from Puerto Plata, in the first bus in the morning.

2. Which bus will bring me closer Metro or Caribe Tours?

Thanks in advance,
Ben

AnnaC · #2 04-22-2008, 07:07 PM

have a look at this thread Assistance with Permanent Residency

Chris · #3 04-22-2008, 07:38 PM

You need photos, money and you have to fill in some forms. And you need your passport, residence and cedula. I don't know how many photos of what size or how much money, but this information is available in the immigration offices. We'll be going in August and will post up to date information then. All of this information is on the forum if you search for it.

KateP · #4 04-23-2008, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

You need photos, money and you have to fill in some forms. And you need your passport, residence and cedula. I don't know how many photos of what size or how much money, but this information is available in the immigration offices. We'll be going in August and will post up to date information then. All of this information is on the forum if you search for it.

Has the procedure changed? When I renewed mine last year, all I had to do was fill a form, present my residency and my cedula (I think), pay for the renewal and that was it... They even used my old picture they had in their database.

Aguayo,

The place is known as Migracion and it's located on the Malecon. It's the same place where they issue the passports to Dominicans, only when you enter, you go through the right-hand door.

As for the bus, Metro's stop is closer than Caribe Tours.

windeguy · #5 05-27-2008, 05:10 PM

Part 1: The plan was to catch the first bus to Santo Domingo with the goal to renew my DR residency card and return back home as soon as possible.
When I found out that first bus was at 5:20 AM, that plan changed to catching the second bus an hour later and pack an overnight bag in case we needed to stay over.

We actually caught the third bus at 7:20 and arrived in Santo Domingo about12:30 PM. We took a taxi to immigration (Migracion on the Malecon) where there were a moderate number of people waiting for various stages of their residency. First we had to purchase a form for 40 pesos at the forms window, turn that in at the gringo window and wait. The first wait was bout 10 minutes where they gave me another form to turn in pay for at the same window where I purchased the first form so I could then get my plastic residency card.

I had to decide if I wanted to pay the normal price for to renew the residency card of 2,040 pesos or pay for an expedited card which costs an additional 1,000 pesos. When asked how long it would be for the normal price, I was hoping that would be for overnight service, we were told it would take 2 weeks. Isn't that special..

So, they have you by the short hairs and you pay the additional fee for same day service. We paid the additional rip-off fee and twenty minutes later I left with my new card. The entire process took about half an hour and we were gone by about 1:15 PM. We could have made it back on the next bus and been home by about 7PM. By the way, no photos were needed, they just used my last pictures which were taken previously by their digital camera system.

Part 2: BUT, then our real adventure started. We went to visit relatives that live quite close to the immigration office. While chatting with our relatives, they asked about our dog, which had recently been killed when he was accidentally let out and ventured for his first and last time into the main highway. He was a very nice German Shepherd. We mentioned we were looking for another dog and were told there was a veterinarian with a number of pure bred dogs close to the bust station. So we went to see what he had available. The choices were another German Shepherd with very dark coloring, a female Rottweiler, two Chow Chows, a Sharpei, what looked like Jack Russell terrier and several Chihuahuas. We were strongly considering a male Rottweiler this time and the Vet knew someone that had two other Rottweiler puppies for sale. He went to get them and returned quickly. One of was a male and we decided to purchase that animal and closed the deal. All of the dogs we saw were in
good condition and would have been good choices depending upon your desires for a pet.

We got a ride to the Caribe Tours bus station with our new puppy to find out that Caribe Tours does not allow the transport of animals (including birds, by the way I guess they don't want any cockfights on their buses!). There were no exceptions to this rule, so now we were potentially stuck in Santo Domingo and had to find an alternate way back to Cabarete. Here is what we ended up having to do after consulting a worker of Caribe Tours:

From Caribe Tours, we took a taxi to the station for Transporte Espinal where we bought a bus ticket to Santiago. Transporte Espinal has similar style buses to Caribe Express and had no problems with us taking the dog. They were even playing a recent DVD in English and when that was done they had local TV. Espinal is more of a short-trip service than Caribe Tours. We were told Espinal also has service from Santiago to Puerto Plata, BUT by the time we arrived in Santiago we missed the last bus. So we had to take a Guagua from Santiago to Puerto Plata with the standard 12 people in vehicle with an 8 seat maximum. We had to wait for about 40 minutes while enough people showed up to make fill the vehicle.
When we arrived in Puerto Plata about an hour later, we took a public car to Sosua with 4 of our new close friends. In Sosua and approached 11:30 PM, we took a regular taxi home and arrived about 15 minutes before midnight. The dog we purchased was amazing good during the trip. He had no "accidents" and hardly a sound came from him. He slept about half the time and when awake he just generally seemed to enjoy the trip more than we did. The overall experience for us was similar to taking a round trip by air from NY to California within one day.

A long day it was, and a rare one in the DR that we could actually accomplish
two such major things in just one day. Those of you who have lived here for any time at all know what I mean.

KateP · #6 05-28-2008, 01:58 PM

Lol! Thanks for posting your experience! I couldn't help but laugh at your whole experience and could just imagine the look the guys at Caribe Tours probably gave you... Gotta love the DR!

windeguy · #7 06-09-2008, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KateP

Lol! Thanks for posting your experience! I couldn't help but laugh at your whole experience and could just imagine the look the guys at Caribe Tours probably gave you... Gotta love the DR!

Oh, it was more than a look. Fortunately for them, they were behind glass or it could have gotten ugly. They didn't want to refund the fares..

Looking back on it, it really was humorous how it turned out.

SantiagoDR · #8 07-18-2008, 03:09 PM

You can do your renewal at Immigration, Santiago.

No line, instance service.

Form: 40 pesos
Renewal: 2,380 pesos

Time in office: 10-15 minutes

Pick up new Residence Card in a week.
-or-
Pay 1,000 pesos and get it the next day.

Eliminate all the things Windeguy had to go through (Except the dog part).

windeguy · #9 07-18-2008, 04:02 PM

The ability to get residency renewed in Santiago is certainly great for those in Santiago.

Unfortunately it would mean two trips for me to Santiago unless they can figure out a way to print the cards right there and then or send them to a local BanReserva office. (Nah, that would make too much sense, what am I thinking!).

MikeFisher · #10 07-18-2008, 11:12 PM

looks like a hassle.
i have again to renew mine this upcoming end november.
the last times and i will follow the same procedure this time will be the following(i live in punta cana and i am not in the mood of travelling to the capital, hate the cities and the driving throu them):
i sent(last time been november 2006, it's always for 2 years) my old residency together with a copy of my cedula via Metro pak to my lawyer in st dgo on a tuesday, got my newly for an other 2 years renewed card back by metro pak the same week friday, i paid on my lawyers account 4.000.- pesos for all, around 2.500.- been for the tax for the renewal, around 1.500.- for the lawyer so she did all the work and i did not need to travel to the capital. aside the waste of time in long lines and the hassle to find out what to do and where and when to do it, just the gas for the ride would have cost much more than i paid her.
that lady takes care of my stuff since over a decade, if interested just drop her a call on 1-809-860-2741 for her cell or 1-809-535-0471 for her office. want to add that she is not speaking a perfect english which can be a problem on the phone for the ones who still do not speak spanish.
hassle free and cheap.
have fun
Mike