New Permanent Residencia renewal Fees.

Assuming legal status will become an absolute must to reside here, those people who chose to pay for overstaying rather thanget permanent residency could be facing some big bills.

It was a one year temporary before permanent residency with application here and lower fees up to end 2012, but now with 5 years of temporary permits before the permanent card and higher and no doubt increasing fees over coming years with all the administration and travel costs, the numbers look like adding up to a very big sum indeed after a six year process................without lawyer

botemon said:

Greetings,
With reference to Permanent Residencia renewal only. Today (12-17-14) we finished out Permanent Residencia renewal, and received our cards. This is our third PERM renewal and we were 4 months late.

Renewal LATE fees have increased from $400.00 RD for each month to $600.00 each month.
Processing fee or "cost of service” went from $8000.00RD to $12,000RD EACH person!!!!

Lots of folks had "sticker shock" today! On a side note, an Immigration officer told us that if you own a home here in the DR and do not have legal Residencia, you will be deported. I Honesty laughed in his face! Sorry bout that but I just could not help it. That's what the guy said......I don't believe a word of it and we'll save that one for another thread!!!
There you have it!
Respectfully

Click to expand...

At what time were you there, I was there too, paying my medical exam. Hope to be able to have the renewed residency before the 10th of January so I can get the new cedula without paying a fine.

I was counting on 25000 pesos, paid 4500 pesos for the medical, 12000 still to pay for residence + 6 months late = 3600 pesos = 20,100.

These are all signs of the times. Change happens everywhere. I'm not going to preach as I am oft known to do, this is the new better me (I'm adapting and changing too).

The signs are all around us. Increasing exit fees, increasing renewal fees, fees for allowing your documents to expire increasing and lower level functionaries mentioning that it will not be possible to live here without residency. You can laugh at the first couple of people who tell you the same thing, but hear it enough from different sources and it should start to sink in. The DR of yesterday is now fully committed to immigration change.

It is incumbent upon each of us to make the decisions that best suit our own needs and wants. Time is not our friend. As the DR continues to crawl towards increased immigration compliance we all have two choices. Embrace the change or leave. I am extremely glad that I have not bought property here. It takes a long time to sell and I suspect that will only increase as as the requirements and costs to live here continue to expand in complexity and scope.

With these changes the DR may no longer meet the needs of those expats who seek an unencumbered foreign lifestyle. As I look around my neighborhood, there are numerous properties for sale and these have been on the market for along time. No Dominican wants to live in an expat gated community, so those expats owning property on the economy in Santiago, SD and elsewhere may have an easier time selling, but I suspect the resale process will be a lengthy one for most.

If you have no intentions of getting residency, now is the time to plan your exit strategy. Liquidate your holdings for as much as you can get and get ready to move on. I don't think we will see a seller's real estate boom here in the DR anytime soon.

There will always be some who wake up one morning and get smacked in the face with a new reality they failed to notice occurring around them. I think we should now be able to agree that since the beginning of the year, when we consider published news reports, expat postings on forums and what we are now being told when dealing with the Govt to renew cedulas, get drivers licenses, open bank accounts etc. that the daily reality of living here in the DR is not the same as it has been in the past. The trend seems to indicate a serious desire to reform the immigration practices here and we disregard these indications at our own peril.

Stay, go, do whatever works for you. The number of days left where someone can continue claim surprise with the new reality here are very few indeed.