Citizenship through Dominican Husband for Wife and Kids

GM I advocate the more information the better. These Expat.coms are great. Also check the DR.1.com and Dominican Today.com's blogs. Please get over to the D.R. Consulate in Miami, Fl. asap, at the very least for information. Do yourself that favor. Put in the leg work and heavy lifting in your base/home country first, including the translations. Here in the D.R. they say "los barato salen caro,"  loose translation "the cheap winds up very expensive."  Do the research as best you can in your native language in your home country and learn, learn, learn Spanish. It will help you tremendously in the end. Be careful, be informed and be positive. You will be fine.

There is a whole series of documents you are going to need. You will need all the "residency" documents to start with. Go to the thread about Residencia and read it.  Those are the documents you need.  You can email Wilson Rood wilsonrood@gmail.com  and he can give you information as well.

There are specifics you need to follow - for example you MUST do the translation thru an approved translator in your home country!   You need a whole lot more information.

And are these his kids or from a previous marriage? Not sure they are entitled if not his kids.  Best to ask that question too.

Thanks, I just sent a second email to Mr. Rood. I emailed him 1/10/15, but I did not receive a response for some reason. The kids belong to my husband (weird, I know 😉!) I read that when you are family of the Dominican man, you can skip the residence step and it is a much simpler process, if you qualify. Thanks for your input!

I received a quick reply this time from Mr. Rood. For the good of all, here is his reply minus my personal info:

Yes, you can skip the residence process since you are married to a Dominican citizen. You'll need to bring the following documents:
Marriage certificate- apostilled.
Your birth certificate and those of your children- all apostilled.

You can have the marriage and birth certificates apostilled by the Secretary of State where you and the kids were born and you were married.

No need to bother with the Dominican Consulate if you want to become Dominican citizens.

Cost:  US$1,500.00 which you can pay over the course of about 8-12 months--Includes the kids. Government fees will add up to about 200.00-500.00-and this is paid over time.  The first step is to file the formal application-- The process will take between 8 months and a year.
You should learn some Spanish as you will have to pass an exam-- which is very informal, a one on one conversation with the examiner who will ask very basic questions on the D.R., such as who is the president, what is the date of our Independence Day, who are our founding fathers...etc.

This is good news! The residency process is more troublesome for sure.

Great info thanks for sharing!!!!

Congratulaciones so far so good carry on

Now to see if the reverse works - process for Citizenship/Residency through a Dominican Wife for Husband.   As I understand it the DR allowed a Dominican Husband to do this for a Wife, but not so for a Dominican Wife.

The rules changed and apply  equally.

Thanks for the input, This may be a recent change as it is different from advice received when we called the DR consulate.

Frankly you cannot trust the  DR consulate for much!  They are often wrong and misinformed.  Contact a good lawyer!

I agree contact a good lawyer

Bob K

Yea.. I have to go through the same process even though i have family in DR.. i cant tag on their citizenship to gain mine.. I have to tag on my Husbands citizenship to become a Dominican Citizen, which is crazy to me because my entire family was born in DR

If your parents or grandparents are Dominican you should be able to get your citizenship easily.

I wanted to let you and others know that you were RIGHT to advise contacting the consulate in Miami BEFORE coming to DR. I was advised by an attorney in DR that I did not need to, since my husband is a Dominican citizen. (Possibly his advice was no longer correct due to a change in laws.) After moving the whole family to DR, I had to return to the states, apply for and wait to receive a RS Visa (about 5 days) then re-enter into the DR using this visa. That is the visa for "family reunification" that allows you to apply for citizenship through your Dominican spouse. (I am assuming it works either way for a husband through a wife, but I do not know this for sure.)  It was much easier for the kids, and they did not need to enter using the RS visa.

Within a limited time after entering with this visa, you have to apply for residency. HINT: arrive at immigration in Santo Domingo early in the day. The medical exam that has to be done is off-site, and they close promptly at 3. If you have not been processed in the office by 2, it will take a second day to complete the process. Also, within the immigration office you can have documents legalized, pay the tax, and have copies made. After you submit the documents, you receive residency in 3-4 months. 6 months later you can apply for citizenship.

For the kids, we had to take my husband's birth certificate and theirs, which had been translated, apostilled, and legalized, a letter basically declaring them that was drawn up by an attorney, notarized, then legalized, and it had to be submitted to the Junto Central. When their investigation and documentation was completed, we were instructed to pick up the documentation and take all of the papers to an office to "declare" the kids officially. Now we are waiting for their births to be officially recorded, after which my 18 year old qualifies to get his cedula. I think this means they are "legal." There may be more steps, but this is how much I have learned so far.

We used an attorney from the list provided by immigration in Santiago to handle translations, and to write a couple of official documents. However, our best and only consistently accurate information came directly from the immigration office in Santiago. Through multiple visits, they guided us step by step through the process at NO COST. (The Dominican consulate in Miami and the three lawyers we contacted here gave us incorrect or incomplete information, and had to redo multiple documents due to their own mistakes.) If you can speak decent Spanish, have the patience of Job, a sense of humor, and can drive yourself around, you can do this yourself, with the exception of specific documents and translations that have to be done by a professional.

Hope this helps someone!

Excellent information, thanks!