U.S. Military Retiree

Im not Guzman but there is no connection between social security and DR residency. Call the social security office for free and they will tell you. To get the shipping tax break you need to have permanent DR residency not temporary and I would not count on having it by your timeline. Good luck with the move.

I've been in the DR for about 26 years. Applied for Social Security while living here--there is a Social Security office in the US Consulate in Santo Domingo--and depend on the monthly social security payments as part of my income. There are many recipients living in the DR, some have the payments sent here,others, like myself, prefer to have them deposited in my US bank account, then write checks on the account and cash them for pesos at a local banco de cambio.

It was not a stupid question. Medicare services you can't get from doctors and hospitals here, but you can get them if you go back for treatment. For me it is sort of a hole card that I can play if I have something major.

But Social Security payments are received by a lot of people like you and me.

If you have more questions on this, feel free to send me a PM.

zoomzx11 said:

Im not Guzman but there is no connection between social security and DR residency. Call the social security office for free and they will tell you. To get the shipping tax break you need to have permanent DR residency not temporary and I would not count on having it by your timeline. Good luck with the move.

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The tax break is also for temporary residency.'m not sure where you are getting the inaccurate information from.

bob saunders said:

The tax break is also for temporary residency.'m not sure where you are getting the inaccurate information from.

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I think both of you are confusing the terminology. It is not Temporary Residency, it is Provisional Permanent Residency.

belmont said:

I think both of you are confusing the terminology. It is not Temporary Residency, it is Provisional Permanent Residency.

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You may be correct but all my correspondence from my lawyer refers to it a provisional residency or temporary residency. I have been told to expect a wait between 6 and 8 months.

Thanks Bob, I believe you are correct. From past experience when I checked I was told that permanent residency was required for the tax break. Interested to see if some one know more. And, it takes a while.

Have you,and/or your husband ever been to the DR?
It is not the kind of place where you should be planning to put any "EGGS",Before you spend a lot of time here,6 months at least.
CC
USN,ret.

Being retired military is a big plus.I am as well,but nothing can prepare you for the DR.Lots of things are "Up-side-down" here.I would come down first.Stay in various places for a few weeks at a time,BEFORE moving,or shipping anything down.Above all,don't buy a house,or condo before living here for 6 months or a year first.You may find a place you love here,I hope so,but maybe the DR is not for you.There are pleanty of "Rats Racing" here to.
CC

Social Security Retirement or Social Security Disability has no U.S. residency requirements once you're eligible. SSI is a different matter and if your checks are withdrawn from a foreign location for more than 4 months consecutive , they discontinue them. Your husbands pension or Social Security Retirement will not be affected with D.R. residency.

Criss Colon said:

Being retired military is a big plus.I am as well,but nothing can prepare you for the DR.Lots of things are "Up-side-down" here.I would come down first.Stay in various places for a few weeks at a time,BEFORE moving,or shipping anything down.Above all,don't buy a house,or condo before living here for 6 months or a year first.You may find a place you love here,I hope so,but maybe the DR is not for you.There are pleanty of "Rats Racing" here to.
CC

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DR is a very easy place to move to. If you buy a small villa or apartment $3k should see appliances and furniture OK till the beautiful stuff arrives from the US. Unlike many places capital/income requirements are minimal for residence. The DR is proving very attractive and prices are moving up for good property. Much of life is spent in the great outdoors so a small apartment or villa by US standards is more than adequate. If you follow advice not much is Upsidedown - only the price of fresh food, meals in restaurants, price of a beer on the beach, huge natural beauty ; and of course humming birds in the garden; they can fly anyway up.

The dawn chorus of the birds that frequent my apartment is just starting!

pi2

Hi:
If you still want to pursue temporary residency than it starts in the US by getting the necessary paper work together. You will need an original copy of your birth certificates, marriage certificate. passport(all pages) and a criminal background check. These documents also need to be translated into Spanish and need an apostile stamp on them. This is an international stamp, recognized by the DR, which shows these documents are real. You will need to bring these to the DR and higher a lawyer to walk these forms through immigration. While there you will also be required to take a medical exam, which consists of a blood and urine sample and chest x ray. This is done right on the premises. After all the necessary paper work is submitted and approved than you will probably wait 4-8 months to get your temporary residency. You will renew this for 4 years until you apply for permanent residency in the 5 year. It is a long and involved process. You are probably better off to do this once you have settled in the DR and have a permanent address. Good luck.

LTS

LTSteve said:

Hi:
If you still want to pursue temporary residency than it starts in the US by getting the necessary paper work together. You will need an original copy of your birth certificates, marriage certificate. passport(all pages) and a criminal background check. These documents also need to be translated into Spanish and need an apostile stamp on them. This is an international stamp, recognized by the DR, which shows these documents are real. You will need to bring these to the DR and higher a lawyer to walk these forms through immigration. While there you will also be required to take a medical exam, which consists of a blood and urine sample and chest x ray. This is done right on the premises. After all the necessary paper work is submitted and approved than you will probably wait 4-8 months to get your temporary residency. You will renew this for 4 years until you apply for permanent residency in the 5 year. It is a long and involved process. You are probably better off to do this once you have settled in the DR and have a permanent address. Good luck.

LTS

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It is a long and involved process - no.
It is a very simple process compared with other countries. If you buy a property it seems to go quicker.
I do not think luck is necessary! Just set aside a day a year to deal with the process.
pi2

Here are some facts from my recent experience with moving to the DR, obtaining provisional residency and shipping my household goods...

Residency process started December 2010 - Cedula (id card) and residency (card) finally obtained in December 2011. Used a lawyer from local city (Puerto Plata), paid $US1,000. Wish I had used a larger firm with an office in Santo Domingo as well as nearby. Delay was caused by changes to immigration laws. Expect it to take a year and you won't be disappointed.

You need only provisional (temporary) residency to receive the tax/duty exemption for your (used) household goods. You can possibly ship them before you have the actual documents in hand but it would be a big risk.

The cost for me to pack up my 3bdrm townhouse and move everything to storage (Virginia) was about US$4,500. I paid US$300 per month in storage fees for a full year for a total of $3,600. The cost for shipping from Virginia to Puerto Plata DR, including pickup in VA and delivery to my condo in Puerto Plata, was US$11,157 (including $1,000 in insurance for high value items like my piano and china, etc). I had to pay an additional US$1,200 for port storage and misc fees. The total amount of duty/tax I would have had to pay if my shipment had not been exempt (i.e. I was not yet a resident) would have been about RD$90,000 (US$2,500). In hindsight, it would have been less expensive to pay the duty and taxes and not worry about residency. But originally, I was told residency would take only about 3 months! Also, I didn't want to ship my stuff until I had a permanent living place so I wouldn't have to move it twice. Also in hindsight, labor here is cheap so it wouldn't have been such an expense to move it twice, but it would have been a huge amount of work. But more important, I moved here permanently and do not have a residence in the U.S. so I would have needed to give away/sell everything I owned and all my memories of 60-plus years if I hadn't shipped everything. And the cost of obtaining similar, high-quality items in the DR would have been prohibitive. There is no way I could have, for example, purchased a piano here. Plus my TV, china, bedroom furniture, living room furniture, etc., would have cost way more than what I spent to get it here.

There are ways to ship things cheaper if you have the time and patience. You can contract locally at each end for packing and shipping and arrange your own ocean container shipment directly with a company rather than going through an international shipping company (Bekins) like I did. But you also need to speak Spanish at this end or have a friend who will hold your hand though the container opening/inspection process with customs at the port and then the customs appointment in Santo Domingo.

Overall, it's complicated and expensive, but in my situation, at least, I think it was worth it.

And now I have all my memories and a 180-degree ocean view (and no snow) all year round.

Judy

P.S. -- DR1 regulars, please try to be kind in your comments!