I started the process in June of this year. It took three months to get an FBI report with an apostille.
Keeping true to form and using a lawyer only when absolutely necessary, my documents were submitted and approved yesterday for my citizenship application at the Guacal in Santo Domingo in the office of the Department of the Interior and Police. The government lawyer who reviewed my documents was very helpful. She is also VERY, VERY picky on how the documents are arranged in order, with four copies of everything, and on how a certain four documents are worded.
There were four documents I needed to be written and notarized in the DR. Those four documents done by a lawyer were the only ones I needed to re-do , using a different notary who followed the prope format, and I was good to go. Go figure it was a lawyer who screwed that up, saying he knew how to do those documents and did not and those documents needed a do over based upon the very particular style the government wanted. Examples of those documents are not posted on line, but were given to us by the government lawyer.
Every other document from the US and the DR , we did correctly by ourselves. FBI Report, Divorce, Death of Spouse, Solvency pre-requisites, all of the Apostilles, legalization and translation of them we had done ourselves.
Total cost all in including paying for the application is under $1,600 US. My total costs include all of the expenses I paid for the documents and trips to Santo Domingo including hotels and transportation. A lawyer wanted $400 US just for two simple to get documents from Migracion showing my record of entrances and exits and the other showing how long I had residency (which is 16 years). Another wanted to charge almost $500 to get my FBI report. I can imagine the cost for a lawyer to do the whole stack of documents I submitted. My wife did most of the work and the government lawyer said most lawyers do not do so well.
Did I mention the government lawyer was very particular? We took the 9:20 Caribe Tours bus to Santo Domingo and it was late. We arrived at the office at 5 minutes before 3 PM which is the time at which nobody else is admitted in to submit documents. The lawyer took our stack of documents, collated the newly done documents into the originals and four copies that are required and a guy walked in at 3:04 PM saying it was 3 PM. The government lawyer said no, it is 3:04 PM, I am working with these people and you come back tomorrow. Precise , she is. He left without further ado.
Now I have to study for the exam. Unfortunately, I was never good in my life at rote memorization. History, dates, and such held little interest in my educational process becoming an engineer. So now I do face a challenge greater than most in passing the test.
Thanks to William Webster and Matilda on how to proceed with this process.
Keeping true to form and using a lawyer only when absolutely necessary, my documents were submitted and approved yesterday for my citizenship application at the Guacal in Santo Domingo in the office of the Department of the Interior and Police. The government lawyer who reviewed my documents was very helpful. She is also VERY, VERY picky on how the documents are arranged in order, with four copies of everything, and on how a certain four documents are worded.
There were four documents I needed to be written and notarized in the DR. Those four documents done by a lawyer were the only ones I needed to re-do , using a different notary who followed the prope format, and I was good to go. Go figure it was a lawyer who screwed that up, saying he knew how to do those documents and did not and those documents needed a do over based upon the very particular style the government wanted. Examples of those documents are not posted on line, but were given to us by the government lawyer.
Every other document from the US and the DR , we did correctly by ourselves. FBI Report, Divorce, Death of Spouse, Solvency pre-requisites, all of the Apostilles, legalization and translation of them we had done ourselves.
Total cost all in including paying for the application is under $1,600 US. My total costs include all of the expenses I paid for the documents and trips to Santo Domingo including hotels and transportation. A lawyer wanted $400 US just for two simple to get documents from Migracion showing my record of entrances and exits and the other showing how long I had residency (which is 16 years). Another wanted to charge almost $500 to get my FBI report. I can imagine the cost for a lawyer to do the whole stack of documents I submitted. My wife did most of the work and the government lawyer said most lawyers do not do so well.
Did I mention the government lawyer was very particular? We took the 9:20 Caribe Tours bus to Santo Domingo and it was late. We arrived at the office at 5 minutes before 3 PM which is the time at which nobody else is admitted in to submit documents. The lawyer took our stack of documents, collated the newly done documents into the originals and four copies that are required and a guy walked in at 3:04 PM saying it was 3 PM. The government lawyer said no, it is 3:04 PM, I am working with these people and you come back tomorrow. Precise , she is. He left without further ado.
Now I have to study for the exam. Unfortunately, I was never good in my life at rote memorization. History, dates, and such held little interest in my educational process becoming an engineer. So now I do face a challenge greater than most in passing the test.
Thanks to William Webster and Matilda on how to proceed with this process.