Regularization Card.

harry2010

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Does any body here has one yet?
It is said the card expires after one year. what happens after that year? Is the card Renewable? do you become illegal again after it expires.
what is the real purpose of that card?
 

Cdn_Gringo

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Harry,

From what I have read, I am lead to believe that the regularization card is intended to grant the holder a 1 year reprieve from being considered illegal after June 16. During that one year, the holder is expected to complete whatever process applies to them to become a "legal resident".

After one year, I do not believe the regularization card can be renewed. If one has not filed for residency by then, conceivably one would again be considered illegal. Of course a year is a long time and the specifics of this program may change during that time frame.

I also am led to believe that holders of a regularization card are not compelled to return to their home country to apply for an residency visa, they can get the necessary documents together and proceed directly to Santo Domingo to file them.
 

MpJuly

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Apr 30, 2009
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who knows, no law or decree talking about that... all is possible... no more than the decree specifies a 1 year-Regularization Card...
 

dv8

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this is from legal specialist, posted in legal forum thread:

Applicants who qualify for the Plan will receive a special card (not a residency card) indicating that they were accepted in the Plan and are in the process of obtaining a legal status. This card is valid for one year. Upon expiration of this card, the Ministry of Interior and Police will determine the migratory category corresponding to each applicant and will forward the file to the Immigration Department; where the applicant will complete an application process similar to the one that new applicants are completing now.

So far, the Immigration Department has confirmed that applicants referred from the Plan will not have to present any type of visas, so that will be the main benefit of applying for the Plan. Given that the main requirement for the Plan is to be able to prove that the applicant has been in the country since 2011, we understand that a local background check will suffice and applicants will not have to go back to their home countries to obtain a visa or background checks; however, this situation has not been confirmed.

Right now, the Immigration Department does not have a criteria to determine what will be the category assigned for the applicants. Also, they do not know what the process is going to be. Basically, we have been told that they are waiting for the Plan to expire to determine the next steps.
 

harry2010

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mountainannie, can you elaborate on your smoke and mirror comment?
what do you really think about this regularization program?
 

harry2010

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Cdn_ gringo

Let's go with the premise that the regularization is a step toward residency.
as of right now there is rd$ 10,000.00 minimum in a bank account for regularization . How much are you required to have for Residency?
 

windeguy

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Cdn_ gringo

Let's go with the premise that the regularization is a step toward residency.
as of right now there is rd$ 10,000.00 minimum in a bank account for regularization . How much are you required to have for Residency?

If a bank account is necessary for regularization, that would certainly rule out a vast majority of Haitians currently in the DR from regularization, would it not?

While anyone can legally apply in this manner who has the proper qualifications and funding, it is mostly non-Haitians that actually could do it. As for your residency question:

http://dr1.com/legal/migration/residences.shtml

Proof of Economic Solvency. All documents need to be in investments in the Dominican Republic in the name of the applicant. The applicant needs to have a minimum of RD$500,000 in investments. These documents can be:

a) Bank Letter indicating bank balance addressed to the Ministry of Foreign Relations.
b) Copies of property titles.
c) Copy of a vehicle registration.
d) Registration of a company legalized by the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
e) Copy of Financial Certificates.
f) Work Contract or Retirement Pension. If a work contract is submitted, the latter must be registered with the Ministry of Labor which will send an inspector to determine work conditions and that the foreign applicant is not filling a position that a Dominican national could fill. This verification process takes about a month.
g) Sales Contract, Income Affidavit, etc.
 

windeguy

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As you can see from above, even if someone qualifies for the one year reprieve offered by regularization, they must then qualify for residency or become illegal in the DR.
 

Cdn_Gringo

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Cdn_ gringo

Let's go with the premise that the regularization is a step toward residency.
as of right now there is rd$ 10,000.00 minimum in a bank account for regularization . How much are you required to have for Residency?

When I went through the residency process, I did not need to have an open DR bank account. I just had to demonstrate that at least $2000 US (from a guaranteed source: pension/investments etc) was being deposited and has been deposited for at least the last six months into a bank account somewhere in the world. Migracion assumed that I had some way to get $$$ here to live on.
 

Cdn_Gringo

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Remember, this regularization program is two pronged: One for Haitians and one for Gringos.

Haitians are treated differently and accommodations will probably be made for the sugar cane harvester than doesn't make enough to need a bank account.

For the non-Haitians who wish to use this process, it is expected that one has been in the DR since at least 2011 and if you haven't opened a bank account by now you never will. Opening a new account these days can be difficult as at some banks a cedula is now a requirement.

For Gringos, regularization is not a welfare rescue boat as it is for Haitians. It is a time extension for those already here to get the proper residency process done without having to go home and get a visa like everyone else. Gringo's without a bank account after at least 4 years in country may be able to get around this requirement by supplying statements from their accounts elsewhere, maybe not, I don't know.

The requirements for the next step after regularization (in one years time) have not been announced. I would expect that Gringos will still need to meet minimum income requirements from specific sources to qualify for whatever steps towards post-regularization residency are eventually put in place. It is probably prudent to assume that this regularization extension is nothing more than a time extension for us "rich Gringos". If one were to assume that next year, those who do not have sufficient income to qualify now, will be given a pass on the income requirements then, one might be disappointed.

Regardless, those who want residency and can make use of this regularization process should do so. Hedge your bets. Maybe, just maybe, next year will bring a surprise that could see "real residency" super easy to get. Missing this opportunity to get on the list to qualify for a potential win without having to go home for a visa is still too good to pass up.
 

mountainannie

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mountainannie, can you elaborate on your smoke and mirror comment?
what do you really think about this regularization program?

that it is NOT a cedula.. from what is being said, that it is not any sort of guarantee of being given a cedula, that according to what is being said by those in the know, the only advantages are that one is only exempt from deportation for a year, that one will not have to go back to the home country to start the process to get a visa for the residency, and that a criminal background check for the residency from the country of origin will not be required.

Everyone who applies is evidently being asked to have the signatures of seven Dominican neighbors, and the signatures of seven members of a church group or sporting club. Any of the options.. as in one must have either this or that, which a person assumes would be options that would be exercised by the applicants, are actually options that are being applied by the State.

The clamor that Haitians are making over not getting their passports is one indication, since under the Plan, they would not even need their passports, just a birth certificate. Haitians are taking advantage of this opportunity to actually get their passports since the Haitian state has reduced the cost... not that that matters, since evidently they have run out of passports and are taking months to deliver any.

So after this all over, after the people have applied and gone back four or five times,lost work, paid for lawyer's fees to notarize their documents, they will have to go through the ACTUAL process of getting their cedulas in one year.

In the first six months of the Plan, only 233 cards were given, out of 117000 applicants. That is less than one percent.

Juan Bolivar Diaz, who won the National Prize for Journalism last year, has been one of the vocal critics of the
Plan. An?lisis de Juan Bol?var D?az: Regular la inmigraci?n requiere voluntad pol?tica He points out that the head of the department which is in charge of adminstering it, Jose Ricardo Taveras, is the head of a small, ultra nationalist political party, La Fuerza Nacional Progressista.

Diaz notes that for businesses to regularize a foreign worker the costs are now estimated at 34,000 pesos.

Bolivar cites public census figures which state that 36% of the more than 500,000 Haitians counted arrived here between 2010 and 2012, while a full 2/3 entered under the government of Leonel when the ultra nationalist had control of the migration policy. He calls the denunciations of the illegal migrations on the part of the government hypocritical.

Members of the agricultural sector say that 80% of the labor is done by Haitians. Bolivar cites the law that says that no more than 20% of workers in any industry be foreign.

Above all, Bolivar underscores that it is a capital offense to confuse the legalization of recent immigrants with the "denationalization" of the descendants of Haitians whose roots were planted in this country since 1929 as the Supreme Court has done. He points out that 55% of the Haitians in the census survey had Dominican birth certificates.

El Caribe ? Estudio: en RD viven 534,632 extranjeros
here is another scathing commentary from Hoy Es culpa nuestra

I call this the "James Watts Environmental Policy" in memory of when Regan put the noted anti environmentalist in charge of the environmental protection agency.

The DR has implemented this Plan, put the implementation of it in the hands of those who are opposed to it, and at the same time, withdrawn from the InterAmerican Human Rights Court so that they will not longer be subject to any court cases there.

Because it is place, the DR can say, as it is saying, that they are giving "amnesty" to illegal Haitians, even with a success rate of less than 1%.

Those who are following closely can understand that the Dominicano Haitianos, who were denationalized by the Supreme Court decision, and might have been entitled to voting rights rather than a "no vota" foreign cedula, were given the shortest time to comply with the complicated regulations.

Conveniently, the Haitian state has acted as it always does by being either absent or corrupt and a very small percentage of those who went to get their papers from the consulats even got them.

According to Bernard Vega, who wrote in Hoy, the Dominican consulate in Haiti regularly i ssues more visas than are allowed by accord. This is particularly telling since those who qualify for a DR visa must have both passports and money and will most likely not be working in construction or agriculture.

So, from my point of view, this program was put in place as a cover to appease the international community to quell the uproar over the Supreme Court decision of stripping away the possibilty of citizenship for thousands who were born here. There is no question that the DR is sovereign and has the right to determine migration and citizenship issues.

However, what is happening now is that Dominicans are being told that this process is open and just, that all illegal Haitians have been given a fair and easy path to become legal, that the process is free, that all the hold ups are from the Haitian side, and that the Dominican State is opposed to this massive illegal immigration.

So, when large deportations resume, as they most assuredly will, and the international outcry arises, as it will, Dominicans will be completely confused and feel attacked and put upon, not understanding the finer points of exactly what the objections have been.

Because, of course, all those illegals had an ample opportunity to regularize themselves under the Plan.
 

yacht chef

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I was told by the office of Guzman that that the fast track residency requirs that $2000 every mounth be deposited and that there are other tipes of
Residencys that only requires you to have $2000 in the bank at the time of renewal at this point i am think about puting 2000 in my bank over there and forgeting about it.This came from a lawyer in the office of Guzman who did
Residency work. She spoke perfect English and as a side note I asked her about some of the things about no more over stay fines not being
Allowed back in if I had too meny over stays and she kind of laffed at me.
 

mountainannie

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I was told by the office of Guzman that that the fast track residency requirs that $2000 every mounth be deposited and that there are other tipes of
Residencys that only requires you to have $2000 in the bank at the time of renewal at this point i am think about puting 2000 in my bank over there and forgeting about it.This came from a lawyer in the office of Guzman who did
Residency work. She spoke perfect English and as a side note I asked her about some of the things about no more over stay fines not being
Allowed back in if I had too meny over stays and she kind of laffed at me.[/QUOTE
I know that I speak for a lot of us when I say that it is a very good thing that you are speaking to someone at the office of Guzman...

You can schedule an appointment with them and have a face to face for no fee and that should really allay your fears. Find out from them WHAT exactly is now required for the Foreign Office to issue a visa for residency -- in terms of "financial solvency" (remember that lawyers are very precise about language and that $2000 in the bank "at the time of renewal" is not the same as getting the orginal visa)

I had heard that the Foreign Office was now only issuing visas for those who had the fixed incomes above $1500 a month or the $200k-- but that is just scuttlebutt..... one never knows until one tries.

I do not know if US $2000 is going to be enough to GET you the orginal visa but the attorney at Guzman will. They may be able to figure out some sort of walk around for you.


Here is what is posted on the DR Embassy page in the US Embassy of the Dominican Republic, in the United States

Documents showing the applicant's financial solvency. All documents must be issued for the applicant and NOT the guarantor. These documents may include as applicable:

a) Letter from Bank: updated with details of the account balance
b) Copies of certificates of titles of property (must present the original)
c) Registration of established companies,
d) Copy of the last tax return
e) Copy of Financial Certificates
f) Letter of employment or proof of pension"

Certainly, even the very few people who have qualified under the Plan will be able to fulfill this criterion if it is applied at the US $1500 a month from external sources level.
 

mountainannie

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It was always 100, 000 in bank account, not 500, 000.

this may be apples and oranges...

it is $100k pesos in the bank to prove solvency to renew Direccion General de Migracion

no one is quite clear on how much to GET the Visa... I have never seen a government web page that defined "economic solvency" for the purposes of an ordinary residency visa. These are two different departments.. one is the Foreign Office, the other the Control of Migration.. right hand, left hand.

So the advantage of the PLAN is that adherents do NOT have to go to the Foreign Office to get their Visa.

Specifically.. for Yacht Chef and Derfish.. I may have alarmed you needlessly.. in that I deal with HAITIAN sources primarily and also a lot of "informed sources" who may or may not be so....as in the info that the Foreign Office is only issuing the Visas for Rentistas and Inversionistas..

these may NOT be affecting you so PLEASE CALL THE GUZMAN offices. Or EVEN (gasP) the Dominican Consulate where you would apply .It costs nothing to consult with them.

I have heard that the FOREIGN office is ONLY issuing residency visas for retirees and investors -- which is the high level of 1500 a month and $200k US. THIS MAY NOT APPLY to all citizens from all countries. Life is like that.

I would really really hate to think that anything that I said on these boards had made people leave here when they could have comfortably stayed.
 

yacht chef

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Sep 13, 2009
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I was told that if I applied for residency through incoraperating my self or that I would not need to have the mounthly income. But I would still have to go through the Forigen office I think I do not know what is the Control of Migration is that only for the regulashion process or is that in the
Dominacan embise in Miami also. Guzman also told me about getting married as an opthion that would not require the 2000 mounthly but what
Office would give the visa for these two opthions?