Marital Status

KatwillNY

Newbie
Jun 15, 2018
7
0
0
Hi All,
Great forum.
My wife and I have been married since 2000 in the United States and are planing to move to DR inside of 5 years. I am Dominican born and my wife is American. What is the legal process we'd have to go through to 1) get married in DR and 2) start her residency process?
Thanks in advance.
 

Matilda

RIP Lindsay
Sep 13, 2006
5,485
338
63
1) You do not need to marry in the DR as you US marriage is legal. 2) For your wife to obtain residency she qualifies as she is married to you and she needs to go to the Dominican Consulate nearest to you in the US to obtain a residency visa (hand over a load of paperwork) and then come to the DR to complete the process at the Migracion office in Santo Domingo. The list of documents required are roughly:

• Your passport which should be valid up to the date you are expecting to return home or longer.
• Passport size colour photo with a white background, hair off the face and not wearing earrings.
• Where appropriate birth and marriage certificates. These should be the long form in countries where they also issue abridged versions, should be issued within the previous six months, apostilled, or legalized in those countries which are not signatories to the Hague Convention (such as Canada) and translated into Spanish. The translation should also be legalized.
• A medical certificate which can be issued by your General Practitioner and must certify you have no contagious diseases. This should also be translated into Spanish.
• A Criminal Record Check from your home country which should be apostilled and translated into Spanish.
• Proof of income which can be bank statements or a letter from the bank, rental agreements or a pension letter.
• A copy of your local identity card such as passport, driving licence or residency card.
• If any visa request involves minors traveling alone, the authorizations of both parents or legal guardians must be provided in a notarized document with their signatures. It should also be translated into Spanish.
• Most visa requests require a letter, in Spanish, addressed to the Consular Section, including your name, address, nationality, occupation and reason for visiting the Dominican Republic.


Matilda
 

Waitman

DR1
Dec 12, 2016
110
9
18
waitman.net
Not sure if you need to get married in DR? You can have your marriage certificate legalized. I just did this,

You need a certified and apostilled copy of your marriage certificate, from your State. The apostille certifies the signature on the marriage certificate. It's going to be much cheaper to do in the US while you are there. (In the US cost about $30 USD, outside was $350 USD.) Then you get it translated to Spanish in the DR by a licensed (if that's the correct word?) translator. I had this done for RD$1700 from some girl working out of her apartment (not sure if that's alot or alittle or just right). After that you pay the taxes and fees (i think was RD$300 or maybe RD$700), then you go get everything legalized and registered at the govt office.