Renewing Residency and Cedula October 2014

j&t's future

Bronze
Mar 6, 2007
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We obtained our Residency and Cedula in Oct 2012, renewed both last Oct and it's that time of year to do it all again.
I believe all we're doing is renewing again, no blood test or x-rays.. yet our trusted lawyer still wants us to pay $900 US! Our lawyer just wanted us to get 5 photocopies of our residency and cudula forwarded to her.

A friend said we were being ripped off and suggested we could 'do it ourselves' for under $200.....
Another friend said they thought the law had changed again and now I will have to take the blood test and x-rays!
I also read the someone had renewed in Santiago, this would also be great.....

So, if anyone can suggest our best option for what I believe to be just a straight renewal of residency and cedula, I'd be really thankful!

J&T
 

windeguy

Platinum
Jul 10, 2004
42,211
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Lawyer is a ripoff and you can do it yourself. You need blood test and X-Rays along with at least 2 trips to Santo Domingo. There is an existing thread that describes what you need to do in great detail here on DR1.
 

Kipling333

Bronze
Jan 12, 2010
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I disagree on this ,,I do not think that you are being ripped off ..You still need your Dominican sponsor and his bank account details and also the name of another Dominican and the documents have to be notarised by the Public notary and then you still have to deal with all the queues and time wasting in the office of Immigration and a good immigration knows all the right people in the office and it just sails through ..Of course ,once you have your residency card you can go the cedula office near Las Banderas and get your cedula renewed .. Just my opinion as my lawyer charges almost the same . If you live some distance from the capital it is great to have the residency card done in the morning and the cedula in the afternoon. But remember that the lawyer will need your documents a few days earlier so she can have them stamped by the public notary
 

windeguy

Platinum
Jul 10, 2004
42,211
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I disagree on this ,,I do not think that you are being ripped off ..You still need your Dominican sponsor and his bank account details and also the name of another Dominican and the documents have to be notarised by the Public notary and then you still have to deal with all the queues and time wasting in the office of Immigration and a good immigration knows all the right people in the office and it just sails through ..Of course ,once you have your residency card you can go the cedula office near Las Banderas and get your cedula renewed .. Just my opinion as my lawyer charges almost the same . If you live some distance from the capital it is great to have the residency card done in the morning and the cedula in the afternoon. But remember that the lawyer will need your documents a few days earlier so she can have them stamped by the public notary

Wrong information. There is no requirement for bank details and a Dominican sponsor for residency renewal. I just did it.

I had my residency card in the morning and cedula in the afternoon of the day I returned more than 10 working days after the medical exam. NO lawyer. All you need is to follow the instructions in the thread on renewing residency. It is not difficult to do it yourself.

The medical exam has to be done in Santo Domingo. And I went back after 10 days to get my residency in the morning and cedula in the afternoon and was home that evening in Cabarete.
 
Last edited:

bob saunders

Platinum
Jan 1, 2002
32,504
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dr1.com
The op is talking temp residency not permanent. No req for medical or blood test on renewable of temp residency. I just fead the whole procedure and will be doing it myself in November. Criminal records check, sponsor letter, bank statement or property or car title. I will not be using a lawyer.
 

Olly

Bronze
Mar 12, 2007
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j&t - If it was your Tempory -ie Yellow card you got in 2012 and renewed last year. The next one should have been a Blue card and usually it is good for TWO years. So if you renewed in 2013 and got a Blue Card you should not have to renew until 2015. Thats if things haven't changed.

Check it out !

Olly and the Team
 

Kipling333

Bronze
Jan 12, 2010
2,528
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Wrong information. There is no requirement for bank details and a Dominican sponsor for residency renewal. I just did it.

I had my residency card in the morning and cedula in the afternoon of the day I returned more than 10 working days after the medical exam. NO lawyer. All you need is to follow the instructions in the thread on renewing residency. It is not difficult to do it yourself.

The medical exam has to be done in Santo Domingo. And I went back after 10 days to get my residency in the morning and cedula in the afternoon and was home that evening in Cabarete.
I did mine with a lawyer and was in the room when the immigration official told the lawyer that the Dominican sponsor of good standing had to reconfirm his support and that this and my non criminal record had to be stamped by the public notary ,,which takes time and the lawyer normally has a stand in person to complete this . So we are at odds here
 

Kipling333

Bronze
Jan 12, 2010
2,528
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j&t - If it was your Tempory -ie Yellow card you got in 2012 and renewed last year. The next one should have been a Blue card and usually it is good for TWO years. So if you renewed in 2013 and got a Blue Card you should not have to renew until 2015. Thats if things haven't changed.

Check it out !

Olly and the Team

My new residency card remained yellow and my cedula changed to green when I went to get the cedula with the mandatory chip
 

windeguy

Platinum
Jul 10, 2004
42,211
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I did mine with a lawyer and was in the room when the immigration official told the lawyer that the Dominican sponsor of good standing had to reconfirm his support and that this and my non criminal record had to be stamped by the public notary ,,which takes time and the lawyer normally has a stand in person to complete this . So we are at odds here

This sounds like you went from provisional residency to permanent residency for which there seem to be additional requirements.

My responses were about renewing permanent residency once you already have permanent residency, so please take them in that context and I apologize if I misunderstood the original post. .
 

windeguy

Platinum
Jul 10, 2004
42,211
5,966
113
j&t - If it was your Tempory -ie Yellow card you got in 2012 and renewed last year. The next one should have been a Blue card and usually it is good for TWO years. So if you renewed in 2013 and got a Blue Card you should not have to renew until 2015. Thats if things haven't changed.

Check it out !

Olly and the Team

When I recently renewed my permanent residency and cedula on the same day this past August, I have a four year renewal with both now expiring on the same day in four years.
 

william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
30,247
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4 yr terms are for permanent residency - as I understand it windy....

unless the wind blows in a different direction each month... :laugh:
 

sheribabi1

Newbie
Sep 18, 2014
6
0
0
I just renewed my temporary residency for the first time by myself yesterday, Thursday. I have always used a lawyer, but was tired of paying out the money. Believe it or not, I was less stressed doing it myself and finished quicker than with my lawyer (usually because they are late meeting me there and they are sometimes working with not only me but others as well.)

I used the sticky thread from here as my guide. Its the do it yourself temporary residency renewal sticky.

The directions were fantastic. I will just go through the few little changes. I made 4 copies of my originals, but they must only need 2 sets, as she gave me back 2 of my sets. And, yes they have a numbering system, where you are given a number and then you are told which window you need to go to.

First, I collected all the papers as listed on the sticky note. I went to Mega Centro mall to the GOB.DO office and got my letter of good conduct. you had to go first to Banco Reservas and pay the $330 Rd fee for a letter of good conduct and take that ticket to the GOB.DO office with a copy of your cedula front and back. I then used a lawyer to draw up a letter of guarantee for me using a friend of mine as my guarantor. They notarized it and also had their messenger take it to the Procuradaria General to be legalized. My friend also went to their bank to get a certified reference letter which they had ready for her later that afternoon. The notarized letter cost me $100 USD which I think I may have been ripped off, but maybe not. Anyway, I gladly paid it thinking of all the money I was saving doing it myself. If you have $100,000 RD in a Dominican bank or a recent model car, you don't even need to worry with a guarantor. Just take your own banks certified reference letter or a copy of the title of your car. All the other things in the sticky are pretty easy to do or get.

Ok, so this is how my day went. I wanted to get there when it opened but I didn't get there until 9am. I took all my documents, the originals and my 4 sets in a file folder (again, I only needed 2 copies in the end). I walked up to the migration information and told them I wanted to renew my temporary residency. He asked if I had all my documents. I said yes and he told me to enter and make an immediate left to a little ticketing counter to get a ticket to buy the temporary residence form. Two friendly faces met me. The lady gave me a ticket once I told her I needed to purchase the temporary residence renewal form. I waited about 5 minutes to be called to a Caja to pay $100 pesos for the form and prevent my IDs. She gave me a form and told me to fill it out and then to go back to the ticketing counter to be given another number. I had forgotten a pen and she was nice enough to lend me one. After filling it out, I went back to the two friendly faces and told them I had finished filling the form. They gave me another ticket (I used this 2nd ticket number for all the rest of my transactions. I never had to go back to the friendly faces for a different number again) and told me to wait to be called to a Ventana. My number was already on the screen when I turned around, telling me which Ventana (window) to go to. There she had me fingerprint the form and told me to wait to be called (BUT I should have gone at this point and made two copies of the fingerprinted form at the copy station which is right next to the two friendly faces). So I was called within 2 minutes to a different window using the same number that I just been given and was asked to hand over my folder and documents, the form and its copies. Well I didn't have the copies yet, but she was nice and told me to go make the copies and come back. When I came back she gave me back the 2 extra sets of documents and told me to take a seat and wait to be called. (FYI in my set of documents, I incuded a copy of my back and front of my cedula, the face page of my passport, and the page of the passport with my last entry--I just wanted to tell you this as the sticky says take your cedula and passport but did not really mention the copies, but I had read this on the migracion's website..It seemed a lot of lawyers were being sent back to make copies of their clients' passports, but what I had copied must have been fine as they never asked me for anything additional. My originals as well as each additional set had its own copies of my passport info and cedula.) Ok, after the lady briefly checked everything, she told me to take a seat and wait for my number to be called again. I waited about 30 minutes and then they called me to a Caja. I was asked did I want VIP (same day service), Yes I said. $4000 RD please. Paid the money, got my receipt and told to sit and wait for the same number to be called again. Ok, about 15 minutes later my number flashes up to go to Foto 1. I go up to the guard at the glass doors between the cajas and ventanas with my number and receipt and tell him I've been called for my Foto. he opens the door for me. I never got a VIP badge. Some people had VIP badges and were going in and out. Not sure who that is for...and if I needed one, but I seemed not to need one...as others too going for fotos were going in without VIP badges too. So I didn't need a VIP badge. I went in and took my foto and was told to go sit in front of Ventana 9 and wait for my name to be called out. About 10 minutes later, a girl from behind window 9 made eye contact with me and fingered me to come up. "Sign here" and slid me my residency card. It was 10:15 when I walked to the cafeteria to get me a juice and then I hopped a car over to the JCE on Luperon. I was at the JCE for about 45 minutes and I was handed my new cedula.

I just kept thinking why hadn't I done this myself before. But I have to say, the headache of years back was knowing which window to go to and what papers you needed, etc. But now with the computer ticketing system, you don't really feel lost and if you can read your number and letters up on the big screen tvs, it would really be hard to get lost now, especially if you know a little Spanish. I just couldn't believe how so much smoother things went this year.

Usually my lawyer tells me to be there at 9. She arrives at 10:30 or so...we usually are there all day until 2 or 3 until she rushes me to the JCE to get my cedula. And I get home at 4 or 5 exhausted and drained and hangry...yes that's a new word my sister just taught me...hungry and angry together. Today I was there at 9 am and home by 11:30 am. I will never use a lawyer again for my residency renewal.

Hope this helps and encourages.

Sheri
 

HUG

Silver
Feb 3, 2009
3,940
1
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Nice and refreshing to see that just following instructions and doing something the right way can get you somewhere, rather than the usual BS of 'oh, you need to back hand here, pay a lawyer (unnecessarily) there', etc etc etc. A generally 'user unfriendly' place could be so much more attractive if all had similar experiences. I'll keep my fingers crossed that this kind of experience continues, and expats no longer require lawyers to wipe their arse for them.
 

InsanelyOne

Bronze
Oct 21, 2008
895
28
28
I gladly and willingly pay my lawyer to handle the residency renewal crap. I don't know how you people have the patience to do it yourself. I would most certainly end up punching someone in the face. All this bull**** about going to several different places just to get the paperwork ready and then all the jockeying around from window to window and room to room at the immigration office. It's madness. I sit there book in hand, headphones on and let him do all the work.
 

Kipling333

Bronze
Jan 12, 2010
2,528
829
113
Well done Sheri ,,I think you did very well doing all that work in mega Centro and also with yout guarantor and then at multiple places in the immigration office and then at the JCE . I am a little too old and impatient to do all that myself so I am rather like InsanelyOne and I get a lawyer to do the leg work and we meet at the immigration office and all is over in less than an hour . My lawyer is punctual which makes life easier. So now the DR1 readers have two good options
 

sheribabi1

Newbie
Sep 18, 2014
6
0
0
I can understand those that still would like to use a lawyer. But if you are wanting to save a little money, it is not hard as I had imagined, just a little leg work and a little patience. I always thought it would be too much of a hassle, so I was pleasantly surprised with my whole experience.
 

HUG

Silver
Feb 3, 2009
3,940
1
0
There is some pocket money there if you are open to helping people through, just a little hand holding and people would certainly be willing to pay you a good hourly rate to assist them. I think people know they don't need the lawyer nor the rates they charge but at the moment there is little option. Biggest obstacle for expats in DR is how lazy everyone is with the lingo.