as i did my residency and received with it my cedula, right from the beginning when i decided to stay here,
i can't compare it to living here without it.
but i would never even think about living anywhere in any non-legal form, it's the way we've been raised by our parents i guess.
but i have a good example about "changes" in Island life from 2without" to "with" residency.
my best buddy here, i wrote several times on the regularization topics about him.
he lives here almost 20 years, a Austrian originally.
married to a dominican wife, they have one daughter, 14 years old.
he works since ever as a representative for a Tour Agency/Touroperator.
top salay, nice house, always new model Jeepeta, the real good life.
he never dared to take care about any paperwork at all, purely out of lazyness, even that i insisted often over the years.
so firstly, few years back, a Motoconcho hit his parked car. he was correctly stopped on the side of the road, with the lights on and bummm, a Moto without any lights crashed full speed in the middle of his car, a small rental from Avis, the company car.
the car was a full mess, the Moto of course, too, the driver took a flight and been peeled all over and got a hard hit on his head.
buddy been taken in by the Cops, Gringo with money is always something they are looking forward to lay a hand on, lol, mother of the Moto Driver crying and bringing in the neighbours to the police station taht evening to demand $$$$$.
at that time his passport was expired since many years, no residency, no drivers license, no nothing.
i went there and the cops let him go with me, under my "responsibility", how ever that is named.
that was a saturday evening.
the following monday morning he had to show up in court, we went there together with a lawyer of mine, a connected lawyer.
the family demanded money and a new bike and more money 'cause the Son is in so bad shape at the hospital, couldn't make it to the court meeting.
sure i checked that with my lawyer during the weekend. the son did spend only 90 minutes waiting and then 15 minutes for caretaking/licking some wounds at the hospital.
the bike was btrand new, no license plate, no matricula, the Kid was 15 years young who drove the bike.
judge gave the usual 6 months of investigation time, by law the other party has 6 months to press charges, for that the Kid would have to show up.
sure they never did, never heard a thing again from them.
but as a foreigner, and a foreigner without a cedula has for a court No Ties to the DR, that means to spend the next 6 months in preventional prison, or to pay bail to sleep at home and sign once a month the courtbook as proof that you are still in the country.
the bail, as usual for foreigners, been set on 1.000.000.- pesos.
the car had the Avis Full Insurance with casa de conductor and all that shyt, but that includes only 300K for Bail/Fianza.
again he got lucky, they accepted my signature to cover the missing 700K Pesos and we drove home.
for the next 6 months we went once a month for shopping to Higuey at Iberia, and he signed the book at the courthouse on that ride.
they accepted the long years expired passport from him, just due connections.
so there he started thinking about "what-if-when-without" etc etc.
he would have been in very deep shyt without a bit of connections.
he was ready for getting his darn residency, but there started the next trouble:
without residency he could not renew his long expired passport,
but without a valid passport he could not start residency, lol.
so an other couple years or so passed without doing a darn thing, out of his laazyness.
i was pizzed on him, because what ever happens it was my turn to turn things around, unneccessarily, because he was not a poor guy who couldn't afford the whole process and get his stuff done.
next episode:
the Regularization Plan.
here the shyt hit da Fan, because his Employer told all employed Representatives, that without a Residency Card they can not keep them on the payroll anymore, because they would face to get fined and in trouble.
so he subscribed to the Plan.
so in his case, yes, i guess to have or not have a cedula/residency at hand, can make a really big difference.
btw,
the end of his long regularization Plan process, last wek he got his legal papers.
he received thru the Plan right away(o.k., been some months of waiting, lol) his permanent residency card for 2 years.
not the real card, as they actually do not have the plastics to print out the needed amount of cards, but he got the permanent Residency Card as a sticker in his passport and within the next couple weeks we will ride to santo domingo to get his Cedula Card, for the cedula they still have plastic available, lol.
that residency sticker is in the still expired passport, hahaha, it expired in july 2007.
so with the sticker and the cedula he will then get his passport renewed, finally.
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the moral of all:
i would never like to be in any illegal kinda way in any foreign country,
not for living and not even for a vacay or what so ever visit.
Mike
