My name is Ken and I am semi retired from the military. I moved here in 2007 of July.
My wife says the same thing about lilving in tourist places and I agree with her because the tour cities are most costly and not as quiet as a place like Santiago. I like it her in Santiago. The capital is much much busier to live. Sosua is a tourist area with the same problem. Puerta Plata is a tourist area with the beaches near by and perhaps many people want to live there for that reason but Santiago is only about 2 hours from there and to take a bus there is not that bad also.
My wife is a Dominican and I have 3 kids. Two were born in the US 5 and 6 a step-son who is Dominican.
The first thing that we did was to buy the car that I wanted to have sent with me- a 2001 Suburban and have it in my wife's name because she is a Dominican and it is as if she is moving back to her country and the taxes to receieve the car would be about 40% that we would pay as opposed to paying the 100%. We had the car for 1 year. That is the lay The law 168 (La ley 168 which applies to Dominicans who lived in the US for so many years and want to move back they don't have to pay the 100% of taxes) This may not apply to you but this is the info because the government will try to rip u off and futhermore cars are a little more expensive here, but if you are coming by yourself then this wont apply for you.
The second thing that we did is took our marriage license, birth certificates of children and mine and had them translated by the Dominican Embassy in Miami ( We lived in Louisiana) for a little price. We sent them there after speaking to someone who would do it for us and she gave us the address and how much to send and how to send it I think about $150 each. We did this so that I could obtain my residence here because they would need the marriage license. Maybe this is not your case, marriage that is. But if you plan to stay here for a length of time and plan to work here some jobs that you don't have to speak spanish here some of them require the Dominican id -- the Cedula. When you arrive here to stay in 2009 make sure that at the airport the give you your that tourist card because they will want to keep it but you need it for your residency.
The third thing that we did is to send some of our furiture to the DR and the company that we used ( Aeromundo Express in Mahattan, New York
AEROMUNDO EXPRESS - Bienvenidos ) They sent our furniture and our car for us. The furniture came right to our door here in Santiago. We were not even living here in Santiago yet and they sent our things directly to the address that we would be living. My mother-in-law was here and she recieved our things with no problem, it took about 6 weeks.
I hope this gets you started.
