Illegal no longer

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
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Some of you might remember the saga of Mi hijo - el ilegal and the subsequent El ilegal - an update.

The story has finally come to a satisfactory conclusion, but not without pain.

To refresh memories and for the benefit of recent arrivals, my son (who is now almost six) is in the unusual but not unique situation of having been born to a Dominican parent outside DR territory. As we live in Santo Domingo, he has to enter the country as a tourist (paying the $10 airport tax) when we come back from our annual holiday, and always overstays his permitted amount of time here (the overstay fee is something over RD$2,000).

The process of getting him registered as a Dominican was unclear and far from a smooth ride, but late last year, with the help of a lawyer, we finally got his 'acta' from the JCE which is the legal equivalent of a Dominican birth certificate, and opens the way for him getting a DR passport.

This week, we finally applied for his passport. We took the VIP (same day service, RD$2,700) option but we may as well not have bothered. There were a couple of delays that meant that although we applied on Tuesday, we didn't actually get it until today, and had to spend the best part of the day sitting on our arses in the company of a lot of ****ed off people waiting for it at the passport office.

The six-year passport cost us just a little more than as one year's worth of tourist card and exit penalty fees, so financially it made sense.

The stress, frustration and days lost in getting the damn thing made me wonder whether it was really worth it.

Having a son who is no longer an outlaw... priceless.
 

rellosk

Silver
Mar 18, 2002
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Chirimoya said:
Having a son who is no longer an outlaw... priceless.
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Very enjoyable read. I don't know how I missed the first two parts.
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
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Thanks!

The passport office experience was mayhem. They kept on getting it wrong - producing passports with incorrect spellings of people's names, wrong birth dates, etc. The reason we were kept waiting was because they'd put the 30th instead of the 13th as my son's DOB, and had to pay the price for their mistake. One woman was complaining that they'd spelled her surname with an N instead of an M and they tried to fob her off saying it didn't matter. When we were given the corrected passport, they'd got the country wrong - insisting it had to be Great Britain because Gibraltar isn't a country. Well, it isn't, but seeing as my son wasn't actually born in Great Britain, that's not the solution, is it?

They say the system is better than it used to be... I'd hate to see what it was like before. VIP my arse!

Here's a photo of the proud ex-ilegal.
 

Cleef

Bronze
Feb 24, 2002
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wonderful - it's over!

I'm happy for Chirimoyito, now he can go to Oxford without a problem.

The picture of him with the passports is really great. He's grown a lot since the last time I saw him.

Congrats Chiri.
 

trina

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Jan 3, 2002
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I'm so happy the stress is finally over for you. Sincere congrats, Chiri and family!

Chirimoyito is SO handsome!!! I can't wait to someday meet him.
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
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Belated thanks for all the congratulations and kind comments.

Just to say that it all went smoothly - when we travelled last week we presented his shiny new DR passport when going through Migracion at SDQ. They asked to see his GB passport in the absence of an European visa in his DR passport. However, they didn't ask for the notarised travel authorisation letter from Mr C.