Legal driving and insurance.

You buy insurance for the car. You cn also buy insurance for the driver.
You can drive in the DR on your US, Canadian or other foreign license for a short time. If you are going to stay here for an extended period, yu can get a DR license pretty easily over at the Obras P?blicas offices. Tourist card?? I dont know aabout that. I would imaagine that you probably would need a c?dula to get the rivers license..wouldn't you??

The insurance is imporrtant...that's for sure.

Papa HB

Foreign driving licences are valid for a period of 90 days. After this you will need a dominican driving licence to drive 'legally' and so as not to invalidate any insurance you take out.

Daydream

As far as I have been told, foreign licences are valid for the duration of your entry visa, 14 days in most cases.

When you have an accident and the police are involved, they will take a photocopy of your passport, including the entry stamp.
This is standard procedure if you do not have a cedula.

Hi Robert

Well the 90 days rule was what I was told by the dominican embassy here in London back in July......perhaps this has since changed?

I will call them tomorrow morning and check because I too will be interested to know for when I move to the DR in Feb'06.

I will be entering on a tourist visa and applying for recidency straight away. I was told that as soon as I put in an application for recidency I will be issued a temporary recidency card - and I am assuming that, with this temorary card, I can apply for a dominican driving licence??

As I said, I will call the embassy here in London in the morning and report back.

Thanks
Daydream.

It is 14 days now, same validity as the tourist visa.

Snuffy said:

Okay 14 days. You can drive for 14 days here and after that your insurance is invalid? And after that you are driving illegally.

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Yes. Despite what your insurance company might tell you.

As Robert and Carina said, you can only drive legally on your foreign licence as long as you are legally in the country. After 14 days, your tourist card expires and you are technically illegal. I imagine you could still get a company to insure you but upon having an accident, they will balk at compensating you or the other parties involved because you are technically driving illegally, and so your problems begin. So dont be fooled by the fact that you can get insurance....if you have a serious accident, you will be up the creek without a paddle.

Larry

As most time the insurance is on the vehicle, not the driver. An unlicensed individual ( or a business, for that matter) can own a vehicle, but must have it operated by a licensed individual in order for the insurance to provide coverage. This would be the case for foreigners who own vehicles and have Dominican drivers.

Now that you mention it...

how do you stay "legal" if you are visiting for 3 or 4 weeks? Can you go to the airport and get a new tourist card near the end of your first 14 days? I've read many posts about just paying the penalty for overstaying your visa when you are departing, but what do you do to stay legal if you want to drive and be insured for your entire visit?

Any helpful info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

You can leave the country and then come back in with a new tourist card (a nice jaunt to Haiti perhaps?). Or go to the migracion office and get an extension. Budget two days for that.

Or apply for a visa with longer permitted stays before you come, though that is a lot of work if you can get one at all.

If this is so critical ( and normally car rentals are a losing proposition) hire a driver for 4 weeks. A sober one.

Thanks for your input.

We're not looking to rent a car -- we have a car (insured) at our disposal whenever we are down. But in the past our trips haven't exceeded two weeks at a time, so our tourist card was always valid for the duration.

And as enticing as it sounds, Rick, Haiti isn't on my itinerary in the foreseeable future.

Anyone else?

As is typical with the Dominican system, they never think of the contingencies when instituting a new law or tax. In the effort to raise more money by shortening the tourist visa to 15 days, they have created the problem you are facing. The cheapest and easiest solution is Rick's. Hire a sober driver after your 15 days is expired.

Considering the go to jail , do not pass go ,scenario if you injure someone that driver is a good idea for the first 15 days as well.

What if you are not a tourist and have a USA driver license?

Snuffy said:

My attorney contacted the department of transportation as I sat in her office. They told her that a tourist can operate a vehicle for up to 60 days. Now that is a new number isn't it . Does that mean as long as your tourist card is up to date? I didn't think to ask. I have finally been convinced that it is time to get the cedula. Cedula - License - Insurance - No More Problems

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This thread should also be taken into consideration with the "Long term rental" thread that is running at the same time as this thread.

This whole example of a long term rental car situation and the legality of the insurance on it is such a good example of how frustrating it is to pin down accurate information on many subjects in a third world banana republic.

Christ, I am a pretty experienced traveler. If it gets to me how will the less experienced 'independant' travelers to the D.R. make out. It is why it is doomed to be a short term A.I. destination point by the sound of things.

We just want to be able to get accurate information and the costs involved and then we can make our own decisions based on the facts.

Of course the fact that the D.R. is Spanish speaking does make it harder for those of us not fluent yet with it. With a first world country one can get all this sort of information with in an hour off the internet. In the D.R. it takes so long to find and figure things out that one does need to plan on being there for three to six months to get it all organized. Motoconcho's are out of the question as they are insane. A car is the basic requirement for any extended stay in my opinion.

I think I am finding it hard to get into my head that all my thinking needs to be skewed from the point of view of a third world mentality.

I am not sure if I will ever be able to achieve this.

Kiwi Bruce

2parrotheads said:

how do you stay "legal" if you are visiting for 3 or 4 weeks? Can you go to the airport and get a new tourist card near the end of your first 14 days? I've read many posts about just paying the penalty for overstaying your visa when you are departing, but what do you do to stay legal if you want to drive and be insured for your entire visit?

Any helpful info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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I'm guessing that when you enter the country, there is a way to get an extended visa/tourist card.

Here's some info on Continental's website:

Visa not required for a max. stay of 30 days, provided holding
Tourist Card (issued on arrival). No photos required.
Fee: USD 10.-.
Extension possible for a stay of 90 days. Fee: DOP 62.40.
Further extensions possible.
Note: Tourist Card not required if born in Dominican Rep

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They offer the tourist card for 15 and you can apply in town through a rigamarole for an extension, since this hassle and cost exceeds the overstay it is not a popular item with tourists. However maybe to make this car rental scenario safer it might be a method.