New members of the Dominican Republic forum, introduce yourselves here - 2019

Hi Peeps,
I am about to move from  London to Cabarete with my best friend (my super cute Chihuahua) miss Chichi ,and my fiancé lives in Miami and will be joining me when i get there !
I was expecting to be there already but due to the slow process of paper work (yep be aware of that) my moving is delayed by 1 month.
I am so excited to move away from Europe ,i am Belgian living in the uk since 1998 so also totally Brit.
I am a passionate of fitness this is my main job ,i also teach yoga ,after a short trip to Cabarete i realised how people love their fitness there too ,I was blown away by the Kite surfing wowwww so beautiful to watch .
Anyhow i would love to connect with the community ,i have already made some solid friendship and met some amazing expats.
Looking forward to join yoga classes and fitness classes or maybe also teach as i am getting a work visa .
Any recommendation on gyms ,yoga studio or classes ,vegan place to eat (i am one of them yeah:)
It will be so nice to connect ....
I shall be in Cabarete by  end of April
OMG I AM SO EXCITED XXXXXX

Welcome to the forums.  Love your enthusiasm for your new life! 

Please read the various threads, ask questions and update us on your progress!   We love feedback and updates from everyone!

Hello
I too have a similar story. Would like to talk.
Tammie

Hello  I can relate to everything you are saying would love to talk.Tjoyful1

Feel free to send a private message to anyone you want to talk to.  You can then exchange contact info and stay in contact. 

Good aftrernoon, just singed up, and interest of meeting other expats in the D.R.
Am retired from the Dept. of Defense. Have traveled much, lived in other countries as well. Would be interest in learning more, and process of living there.

Welcome to the forums!  Start reading honey and asking questions. We are here to help.

Hello!  My husband will be retiring at the end of this year after working for one of the "Big Three" US Automotive companies for 30 years.  We are planning to relocate from freezing cold Michigan to Sosua, DR.  We have 3 sons who will be moving with us, ages 12, 12 (twins) and 14.  I must say, my oldest son is not looking forward to moving, whereas my husband can not stand the idea of working for 5 more years, nor, can we afford our current home if/when he does retire. I welcome any advice!  ~ Cate

My advice would be to shop around with nothing excluded at first - look at every country, not just one, starting by ticking off places you feel are bad. I'd skip the whole of Africa and South America but your choices might well be different.
There are many places that are ideal for retirement where you can get a nice home at low rent, the cost of living makes a weak pension look like a lot more, but you can still find good schools for the kids.
You'll gather by my location I prefer Asia, but that isn't an ad for this area, just adding ideas.

Welcome to the forums!  I grew up across the boarder from Detroit!  I also worked for one of the big 3, my first real job! 

You will find the forums full of great info, read and ask questions honey!

Hello !
I am Olga M. Viñas, 67, single. I am a Certified Translator and Consecutive Interpreter, firstly and a Document Management Consultant, sporadically. Volunteer English Teacher at The English Church. Work at home. Serve Courts as Interpreter (English). I am very friendly and would like to meet as many friendly Expats as possible. I am a regular at Expats in the Dominican Republic page and like to help with my point of view as resident citizen of the Dominican Republic that have lived in many cities and town of my country, as I learn from other countries from my friends Expats.

Welcome to the forums honey!  Your input is very much appreciated!

Defense related Consultancy ? I think this would be great in the D.R. !
Feel free, if you like, to send a complete profile to me at:***
I may be able to direct you to a company that hires Consultants. I work for them as referred Translator and Interpreter. We will work around your Spanish needs.

Please.do not post contact info on open forums, it's not allowed. 

Use the private message function honey.

how may I use private mode ?
My apologies for non-allowed  content.

No worries honey..click on the other members name and you will have an option to message them

Hello Everyone,

I am a 43 year old female currently living/working in the U.S.  I have transitioned with my current employer for the past 18+ years in various roles, and have worked in the IT field for the last 5+ years.  I have learned the Spanish language at an intermediate level and am looking forward to learning more about the Dominican culture.  I've taken two trips to the Dominican Republic and have enjoyed myself both times...from playing dominos with locals to salsa dance lessons.
I am in a 3+ year relationship with my senior high school prom date/boyfriend and moving to the Caribbean was one of the first desires of life we have in common.  We are fun-loving parents of two adorable dogs who will be joining us, of course, when we make our move.
We are hoping to spend 6-10 days on the north coast this year visiting potential homes for ourselves and our fur babies.  Our locations of choice include Puerto Plata, Cabarete, or Sosua.
I look forward to communicating with other expats who have bravely made the move to the Dominican Republic, and other expat members living in other Caribbean locations.

Teezfaith

Welcome to the forums.  Great introduction!

Good Morning,

Super excited that I found this forum.

My husband and I who are both in our early 30's plan to re-locate to Puerto Plata next year. My situation is a little different because I am of Dominican nationality. However, my hubby doesn't speak a lick of spanish and my spanish is pretty broken as I've lived in Canada for most of my life but I can't wait re-learn my culture and language.

Will definitely be looking for some expat friends to hang with so hopefully I can connect with some people here!

Welcome to the forums! What a great time forgot of you!   Glad you found us and we will help when we can.  Read lots  honey and ask questions as needed.

Please share your experiences as you go along!

Hello,

I'm Nadine, a new member to the forum.....
Looking for lots of info regarding an upcoming move to the DR and unsure of where to start .

Hoping the forum can help guide me.
Thx

Welcome to the forums.  There is a ton of info in the various threads. Start reading and ask your questions in the threads. If you don't find what you need feel free to start your own thread! 

We are here to help!

Good evening,

I am a new member to the forum ( my names Craig) and will be moving to the Sosua/Cabarete early next year after 20+ years of serving in the Military and living all over the world. 
I’ve visited in Jan to do some house hunting and will come back down In August to finalize the plans for a new villa.  Then I will be traveling back and forth during the building process and other things I need to do to get all ready to move to the area. I have some friends currently living in the area and met some really nice people while visiting Casa Linda in January.   I’m looking at forward to meet many more people on trips and when I finally get all moved in.

Just wanted to say hello and look forward to moving to the DR.

Thank you,
Craig

Welcome to the forums!  Sounds like you have a plan, we are here to help when you need it!

Hey all! Been following and reading these forums for some time now. Finally registred tonight. My name is Rajko. Been living in the US for past 20 years. Originally from former Yugoslavia but civil war forced me to US. I am 34 years old and married to a Domincan woman. She's been in states for a while as well. Her family is still in Santiago and not too keen on moving to states (can't blame them). I been to DR once and I liked it. Life is deffinetly different then in the states. I been thinking about moving there but she is pretty much against it so I just been reading these forums and sucking up the information. I have 14 more years to go if I want to retire here (law enforcment) but I don't know if I can survive 14 more years doing this.  Her family is well off there and has a decent amount of land in Santiago. I personally think there are oppertunities to make money and retire early with commitment and hard work.  Now I just have to figure out a way to convince her to move with me lol. Also my Spanish sucks and that is one thing I have to work on. Pleasure to meet ya all.

Welcome to the forums honey.  Keep reading and if we can help, just ask!!!

Greetings everyone,
I just joined the group today. I have "lurked" here for some time for purposes of extracting information ;0)  My wife is ddmcghee here on the forum. We are both retiring late next year and moving to LT. We have property in Coson and will be going through the arduous building process shortly!  Hopefully I can contribute some useful information to the board. Maybe Denise and I will meet some of you in LT in the near future  :0)

Oh, Rocky is our late dog, shown in my profile picture.

Welcome to the forums!  We look forward to your comments and input!!!

Hi
I am hoping to visit LT either this year or early next year. Have never been to DR at all. I live in Alaska and it takes almost 2 days to get to the DR. I may decide to retire in LT in about 6 years - it sounds like a lovely town to retire.

Welcome to the forums.  Lots of great info on the forums , ask questions as needed and start a thread if you can't find what you are looking for.

Hi all!

Thank you for creating such a welcoming thread for newbies like me!

I have recently accepted a job in La Romana, and am making the jump to DR in August! I have never visited, but am excited for the adventure!

I will be dedicating my day browsing through the many threads for tips and advice, but if anyone has any initial guidance or words of wisdom for a 27 year old teacher, who will shortly be living and working in La Romana (with no friends in the area - yet!) then I would be hugely appreciative!

However, most importantly, I just wanted to introduce myself and say hello. I'm looking forward to getting to know you all.

I hope everyone has a lovely day

x

Welcome to the forums!!! Yes, spend some time reading honey and ask questions in the various threads.

You may want to create a thread for yourself and people will respond.  I spent 2 years in la Romana, you will make friends!

Welcome to the community.

Congratulations to you guys. I'm retired myself as of today 6/7/19 from one of the "Big 4" telecom companies.  I'll be heading down to DR in August.....good luck to us both.

Congratulations to us both indeed!

What a wonderful adventure we are both embarking on!

And that is the perfect attitude!!!!

I am expecting to move in the next 2-3 months.  So right now, I am wondering if I should sell the the venerable, legendary old 1200cc Yamaha Vmax for very little, or trade it in on a 250cc motorcycle and bring that instead.  Also wondering if I should bring any furniture at all except for the glass and steel TV/Entertainment stand (capable of holding 150lbs of my favorite electronics).  I was thinking:  rent a 1/2 container, truck it to a boat.  In Santo Domingo truck it to my future rented house, then unpack slowly.

I realize that after a 1 year residency is approved (stamped), I have 30 days to present myself in the DR.  That gives me a small window to sell everything that isn't coming with me.  Then I arrive on time, and hopefully accept the 1/2 container with my one-time-tax-free-personal-imports.  Then there is my collection of fire arms (I also have a collection of cameras and lighting gear but it will go by other means).  I have heard that this will take years to import, not to mention the paper work.  I have a few hand guns, rifles, a shotgun and a real WWII Soviet semi-auto rifle in very good condition.  All of them are special in one way or another, but I will probably down size the group.  Then concentrate on other hobbies like RC airplanes.  Also, I plan to get back into my very serious interest in photography.  New country and so much to photograph.  Hopefully Latin dancing, which was at once time, my premier interest as a photographic subject, when I was known as "Flash Test Dummy" (But seriously...who uses 5 speedlights and a telephoto lens from the back row of the risers to photograph dance competitions?)

At the moment, that is my perception of the reality of moving myself to the DR.  Anyone see craziness or delusion in my plans so far?

Welcome to the forums.  Honey I am going to ask you to open a new thread,  cut and past this and use that thread for all the comments that will follow. We try to keep this for welcomes only. AND I ask everyone to refrain from answering all these questions here please......

Hello,
My name is James.
I am living in Peru 🇵🇪 and I am planning on moving to Cabarete soon! I have been to Santiago, Puerta Plata, Sousa and Cabarete!
Beach sun and surf 🏄!

Mucho gusto!