Hey there,
I'm an American thinking about moving to DR for a few months. My Ecuadorian cousin is living in Santo Domingo until March. Since I'm kind of in between things in my life right now with no apartment lease or real job I figure it's a good opportunity to move down there, learn Spanish (I've got Puerto Rican cousins, too, and I'm from California, so I think it's necessary), explore a new culture and get some healthy perspective.
My cousin has a two bedroom apartment and I wouldn't have to pay any costs of rent, maid, utilities, tv/internet because her work pays for all of that, so all of the numbers I've seen on here and other websites about cost of living don't really apply because they include rent, etc.
Basically I would just have to pay for food, alcohol, cigarettes, and any other entertainment costs. I definitely wouldn't be living as frugally as I could because money goes a lot farther down there than where I'm from. My cousin likes to spend money and go out so we would probably go out to eat 3-4 times a week, and go out drinking on the weekends (Except one weekend each month she goes to Haiti for work). Maybe go to the beach and stay at a decent-to-nice place every one or two months.
Edit: Also, I would probably take some sort of Spanish classes to speed up the process.
What I'm asking is, about how long would RD$80,000 (~$2200 USD) last me, living like this?
Another question: I think I would want to stay for more than the 60 day tourist visa. I'm thinking about not even looking for a job down there because most places would want me to stay more than 3-5 months. I do some work for my friend's website which I can do from anywhere so I would have a small income, and it would be nice to not have to work down there. If I applied for an extension on my tourist visa, what are the chances of it being approved if I'm just hanging out? It may look like I'm just bumming around not doing anything and I don't know how strict they are.
Thanks, I appreciate your response. My cousin has been in the DR since March and she absolutely loves it, and I love Latin America. I'm really excited about this possibly happening, DR seems amazing! (Even found a flight from SFO>SDQ for $200!)
I'm an American thinking about moving to DR for a few months. My Ecuadorian cousin is living in Santo Domingo until March. Since I'm kind of in between things in my life right now with no apartment lease or real job I figure it's a good opportunity to move down there, learn Spanish (I've got Puerto Rican cousins, too, and I'm from California, so I think it's necessary), explore a new culture and get some healthy perspective.
My cousin has a two bedroom apartment and I wouldn't have to pay any costs of rent, maid, utilities, tv/internet because her work pays for all of that, so all of the numbers I've seen on here and other websites about cost of living don't really apply because they include rent, etc.
Basically I would just have to pay for food, alcohol, cigarettes, and any other entertainment costs. I definitely wouldn't be living as frugally as I could because money goes a lot farther down there than where I'm from. My cousin likes to spend money and go out so we would probably go out to eat 3-4 times a week, and go out drinking on the weekends (Except one weekend each month she goes to Haiti for work). Maybe go to the beach and stay at a decent-to-nice place every one or two months.
Edit: Also, I would probably take some sort of Spanish classes to speed up the process.
What I'm asking is, about how long would RD$80,000 (~$2200 USD) last me, living like this?
Another question: I think I would want to stay for more than the 60 day tourist visa. I'm thinking about not even looking for a job down there because most places would want me to stay more than 3-5 months. I do some work for my friend's website which I can do from anywhere so I would have a small income, and it would be nice to not have to work down there. If I applied for an extension on my tourist visa, what are the chances of it being approved if I'm just hanging out? It may look like I'm just bumming around not doing anything and I don't know how strict they are.
Thanks, I appreciate your response. My cousin has been in the DR since March and she absolutely loves it, and I love Latin America. I'm really excited about this possibly happening, DR seems amazing! (Even found a flight from SFO>SDQ for $200!)
Last edited: