Rentista Residency - a good choice if you have property income from abroad

JonathanBaldrey

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I haven't found a lot of information on here about Rentista visas, so I thought I'd share my experience.

This visa comes under the Investor Residency category - there are other sub-classes within Investor including an Investor who is setting up a business, and Pensioner with retirement income from abroad. To get the Rentista, you need to show that you get a monthly income from abroad for renting out property. In my case I have a few buy-to-let properties in the UK, so this visa made sense.

There is a team of really helpful (yes seriously) staff in immigration who look after you if you're interested in this visa. I would recommend that you go and see them for advice. You just go to immigration, hand in your ID to get an entry card, turn right and head for the glass doors. tell the security guard you are going to see Inversionistas and he waves you through, then its the second door on the right. Very comfortable office, never anyone waiting, nothing like the mayhem in the rest of the building.

To get the visa initially, I had to supply a copy of a rental agreement for a property, a statement showing that I had received the rent from the letting agent, and a bank statement. The first two had to be notarised and then apostilled in the UK before they could be used - this just involved going to a notary with the original of these documents, getting them notarised and then sending them to the apostille service to have them legalised. The first time you get this visa you need a medical - at least I did, but this may have changed.

Renewing this visa is extremely easy. All you need is a standard letter from your bank (here) saying you have an account, no information on balances or income required. You need a buena conducta from the Procuraderia which I got from their office on Gomez and Bolivar. This is literally all you need to renew. There is a very basic form you fill in, you stay in your seat and they go backwards and forwards to the Caja to handle the payments. Then they take your photos and you're renewed for 2 years. The whole renewal took one single visit and I was there for exactly one hour and walked out with my residency. I paid RD$7,500 for the renewal. Best of all there is no medical for renewals of these visas. I had been quoted US$1400 by a lawyer to handle the renewal, but I'm pleased I went myself, the process was very very easy and certainly nothing that you need to pay someone to help you with.

There are quite a lot of advantages of this type of residency over "standard" residency, especially if you have assets abroad. With normal residency, you can be taxed here in DR on foreign investment income, but with the Rentista visa you are only taxed on Dominican income. And there are additional tax breaks on properties you purchase here. So I'd thoroughly recommend this type of residency as something to think about if you think you qualify.
 

JonathanBaldrey

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The main immigration office is on the Malecon in Santo Domingo. It's just past the junction of Churchill, on the corner of Heroes de Luperon. All the taxis know where it is. If you go in there are hundreds and hundreds of people waiting, but once you get through to the investor department it's really quite civilised and I have never ever seen anyone else in there.
 

cobraboy

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That's what I got.

But I thought the renewal was good for 4 years, not two. Maybe I misunderstood...
 

MikeFisher

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the time period for which they renew the permanent residencies varies a lot during the last few years.
for example myself.
back in 2011, just 2 years ago, i read here on DR1 posts that the permanent residencies can be renewed for 10 years at a time, sounded like a real sweety to me. mine was almost due for renewal, so not long after i read about it i was for something else in the behated Capital, stepped in at immigrations, presented my old (still 1 or 2 months valid) card and been told i can renew for 10 years til 2021, they asked for 20.000.- pesos plus 1.000.- for the VIP/to get it the same day. i had the money at hands and max 40 minutes later i left there with the card in hand now valid til 2021.
my cedula expired several months prior to that day, i first tried around 6 months earlier to renew it at the new office at plaza tronco in bavaro, it was for free back at that time but they could not print the new plastic, so they took my fingerprints, too my photo with the webcam, took my signature on the digital tablet and gave me a receipt that i renewed at that date and told me to come back in around 3 MONTHS!!!!! to receive my card.
useless to say that i never ever received any card there, lol. i did not worry much about it as my residency was still valid and just in case i had the receipt of their office that i renewed.
so this time, with new residency for 10 years in hand(i wondered that nobody cared about the expiration date of my cedula when i renewed my residency, as all the prior years the cedula had be up to date to renew the residency, but this time it was the opposite way, residency first) i walked in st dgo into the office for the cedula, took max 20 minutes total including waiting at the cashier to pay etc etc, costs been something around 4000.- or 4500.- pesos for the cedula for the same full 10 years as my residency was valid. cedula now also expires in 2021, just not on the same day, as the cedula expires on my birthday 2021 and the residency expires on the day sheduled in the year 2021.
by the end of the same year 2011 i had to do some business at the german embassy, and when i presented my cedula the lady there smiled and said "oooh Mike, you are also one of the few lucky ones".
she explained me that they renewed for the long 10 years period only for a short time/some months, then stopped it again, sure they found out that they will loose a lot of extra tax moneys when renewing for such lengthy time periods, lol.
there been also times when they renewed for long time permanent residents for 4 years max and for everybody else for just 2 years. they change a lot on the time periods to renew.
don't know what is fact at this moment, as i still have "some years" left before i need to get up to date info about renewal.
at least i don't think that anybody will ever renew the same cheap for a whole decade.
todays you get a temprary residency, after a year you renew that for an other year of still just temporary residency etc etc, don't know after which time frame they change it today from the temporary one to a permanent one.

Mike
 

JonathanBaldrey

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I was told by a lawyer that once I had renewed my temporary residency yesterday, I could then apply for permanent residency if I produced evidence of rental income from abroad. I spent ages getting the rental income receipts and rental contract apostilled so I could use these, but when I went along yesterday I was told categorically that you don't need any proof of rental income to renew this residency - this is only needed to get the residency in the first place.

The lady in immigration said that they had recently changed things to make them simpler and encourage more investors and rentistas to live here. She said that after the first 1 year temporary visa, you now get permanent, but for investor visas it only lasts two years. As it is so simple to renew it really isn't a big problem, you could do the whole process end to end in an hour. I do remember that the rules were different when I first got the visa and there was talk of a 4 year one.
 
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MikeFisher

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sounds like a hek of changes lately, good to hear, some sound like they make it easier to get papers to be clear and legit in the country, for what ever need.
my biz partner, from austria, has the temporary residency, last year in november he renewd it and got again for one yar the temporary resdiency, so when he is up to renew again now in november this year i will take a closer look on retiree or home rental income or home fix income residencies to get a permanent one.
he has fix incomes of several grands $$$ per month, so it should not be a problem to get permanent by the sounds of above postings.
heck, you don't stay up to date for a few months and all things change completely, lol.

MIke
 

JonathanBaldrey

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Mountainannie I think you are right, the retiree residency also comes under the Investor people and I think the conditions are that you need to show that you have a pension coming in. Worth going to ask the ladies in immigration in you have a pension coming in from another country.
 

drstock

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This is very useful and interesting information - thanks OP. Like you I have a buy-to-let property in England. Only one, but it's in London so quite good income. Do you know if there is a minimum amount you have to be earning to qualify for this scheme?

The only drawback seems to be that you still have to go back to your home country to get the ball rolling.
 

JonathanBaldrey

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I'm not sure if you have to be in your own country to get the ball rolling. There is a minimum amount you need to be collecting in rent of US$2,000 per month, plus US$250 per dependent you add to your application (ie spouse, partner). I was on a regular tourist visa before I started, but bear in mind I started over a year ago and I think the rules changed just after I started.

If you read the requirements from the link by Matilda, the Rentista requirements are actually half way down Page 28.

The key things I had to provide when I originally applied, which I think are still the same, are:

A copy of a letting agreement, which shows that you have rental income of over US$2000. This must be the original, not a photocopy. You take this to a Notary Public, they they stamp it up to say that it is an original document. They charge about ?100 to do this. Once it's been notarised, you then send it to the Foreign Office Apostille service and they put the Apostille on it. Then it can be submitted to the Dominican authorities.

A copy of a rental income statement, if you use a letting agent it's just the statement that they give you each month. Again, this needs to be notarised and Apostilled.

A certificate of good conduct from the police. You have to apply to the police for them to give you a printout of what they are holding on their database, you can do this online. This then needs to be Apostilled, but you don't need to get it notarised first.
The above three were the main documents and, to be honest, it's probably easier to get these sorted out when you are in the UK even if you are able to apply for the residency here.
 

CFA123

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Jonathan, you refer several times to showing rental income.

The Spanish says 'rentistas'... which I believe (?) refers to those with a steady income like an annuity (not a pension which is another category requiring US$1500 monthly income.

Am I misunderstanding the term 'rentista'? Can you clarify what type of income you have or are trying to demonstrate for this path to permanent residency?
 

JonathanBaldrey

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I'm almost certain that the Rentista residency is for people who have property income from abroad, certainly this is how it's always been described to me. A lawyer recently emailed me and she stated the requirement for the Rentista residency as "Have monthly incomes of at least US$2,000 derived from the rental of properties owned outside the Dominican Republic."

Dominicans seem to use the term Rentista for someone who is a landlord (I just checked with a couple of Dominican friends and they both said the word means someone who rents something out, so that means landlord).

Certainly for the Rentista residency, you need to show property income, this can either be through renting out your main home abroad, or buy-to-let properties. I guess you may be able to qualify for an investor visa if you have some other type of regular income from abroad.
 

CFA123

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Jonathan/Mike, I will take your word for it as you seem certain. Doesn't it seem odd that there would be an entire category and criteria set up for foreigners with rental properties? So if I own a business abroad that nets me 10,000 dollars a month that's no good, but a 2000/month rental income and I'm on the fasttrack to permanent residency.
 

MikeFisher

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first, there are many variations of visas.
aside of the rental visa there is for example the pensioner's visa, people receive a certain monthly amount of pension and wuuups, welcome to Paradise to spend your money here.
i don't know all the different variations and what name they gave 'em or will give them, the system for the visas/residencies is in change and brings up something new every couple months.
you need to talk to Immigrations directly, explain your personal case and you will be surprised how helpful such can be.
basically it is exactly the same as in all other countries:
*we want foreigners with a steady good income to spend that income here in the country.
that Landlords and Retirees are some of the first on the list is understandable, they have seured incomes til life's end, a retiree will not loose his shaky job and be here on the street with nothing to eat as a P.I.T.A. for society and once they decided in which country to spend the rest of life then it is very unlikely that they decide different a couple years later to move to an other country. once arrived those folks are a sure bank. my direct neighbours, a Italian retiree couple, is a good example for such. during the last 12 years they left here only once for a serious medical issue, been away for 10 months at a italian hospital, and came back to the same appartment(it is a rental, they do not own it) again. and the first world has a very large number of retirees who's pensions are good for a decent life on the Island, while the same folks are struggling with a lot of things to come around with the ame pension in their homecountries.
i would guess an other target group will be the snowbirds, as they are coming since years in numbers to the DR to flee the cold northern winters for 3-6 months each year, that group also has a steady income to be comfortable on the Island, those groups are very low criminal risk groups/not problematic to handle, they usually alreday have their medical insurances set including treatments here in the country etc etc, easy to handle and a very nice addy to the country.
by the basic thoughts about target groups for easy residencies, someone who owns a buisiness at home making just 10K per month would not be ranked very high on the list, as such small biz owner needs to spend time back home to take care about the biz, so is more likely not a steady resident here who spends his money all all needed stuff here in the country, and such person is less likely to stay on the Island for the rest of his/her life spending permanently/monthly constant monies/rent/food etc etc.
there will sure more "easy Residency/prefered" groups come up, the DR went during the last decades from an almost unknown exoti rare place most couldn't find on a Map to one of the most popular to be/to visit/to life at places around the globe, and the worse it gets in the bancrupt 1st world countries with their failed social security systems not taking proper care of their elderly/retiree citizens, the more will move to countries where the few bucks of a pension are worth enough to have a decent life on high age.

there will be mor such groups coming up in the near future.

Mike
 

Tungsten

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Last I checked with Immigration you can file for a change of status from provisional resident to rentista even if your residency is not up for renewal. The only requirement is to have proof of rental income or pension payments and of course you have to fill out an app and pay the processing fees.