A couple of years ago on one of my vacations to a place called the U.S., I went through immigration at Las Americas (SDQ) and was charged a chunk of money (my food money) because I had overstayed my 60 day tourist card. What the Hell? However, after paying, I thought and I thought: "Wait a second! You just returned to the D.R. from Haiti a few weeks ago! They looked at your first entry date -- the wrong date! So, lucas61 being lucas 61, I went back to investigate. Sure enough, I was right. I spoke with a supervisor and they gave back all my money in efectivo!
Now this time around, I'm in the same boat--leaving for the U.S. after overstaying my 60 days--but I'll be damned if I can't find any Dominican governmental information on what the current fees are. It should be a scale of fees contingent on time. I have googled and even found threads on this topic from this forum, but I can't find the information, even at migration.gob.do (BTW, U.S. travel.state.gov advises going to what they call the "Migration Department" on Avenida 30 de Mayo, Esq. Heroes de Luperon, SD. They say that you can extend your tourist card stay and they imply that if you do this, that you do not have to pay the exit tax surcharge. However, they do not state if you have to pay for an extension. If the extension you pay for equals the surcharge, why bother? Poorly written and unclear.
I arrived to D.R. 02/15/14. I left from Haiti to D.R. on May 26. I've leaving D.R. on October 16 -- that's 174 days, almost six months, assuming they accept that date.
There's a lot of ins and outs re: this question. I just want to know how much I have to pay and I want that information from a trustworthy source (not hearsay).
I might not be so lucky surprise #2 . . .
Can anybody give me a reliable source? (I could ask at the airport but they wouldn't let me through because I don't have my ticket yet). Frustratingly, sometimes the most obvious questions don't have answers whereas the unobvious questions have millions of opinions.
