Canadian tourists who depart with a tourist card valid for 30 days must apply for an extension in person at the Immigration Department in Santo Domingo, if they want to extend their stay up to four months. This is what many Montreal residents have been told by the Dominican Consulate. Information confirmed by the Embassy in Ottawa.
After verification, they will have 30 days to apply for an extension, so that they can stay in the Dominican Republic for 60 days with their tourist card. But in total, the length of stay can not exceed 120 days (4 months). After this time, they will no longer be considered tourists. If they want to stay longer, they will have to obtain a temporary residence permit.
This permit application can be made from Canada, said the Ambassador of the Dominican Republic in Canada, Briunny Garabito. Canadians will be able to come to the offices in Montreal, Toronto or Ottawa.
Mr. Garabito told La Presse that the Dominican Republic wanted to better regulate the whereabouts of foreigners on the island, "to ensure that the foreigners who stay there are indeed tourists." The Dominican authorities explain that "some people" have the intention of settling in the Dominican Republic. He did not want to specify the nationality of these "persons".
Tax or fine?
Currently, Canadian nationals staying more than 30 days in the Dominican Republic pay a "tax" when leaving the country - an amount based on the total length of stay. But there has never been a limit imposed by the Dominican authorities, so the snowbirds choose to stay the time they want, usually between 2 and 9 months.
In fact, this tax is considered by the Dominican authorities as a fine. Those who have extended their stay by paying the penalty could be turned back when they arrive in the Dominican Republic next winter, were told by Quebec travelers, who relayed the information on the site of the Organization of Canadian Snowbirds .
"Currently, the law is being restructured, and if you go beyond the 30-day period, you will continue to pay the fine when you leave the Dominican Republic, but you may be refused when you try to return to Dominican territory. ", Warned the Dominican consulate in an email sent to a resident of Senneville, Martin Gauthier, who had inquired about the situation.
"The payment of the exit tax is a type of fine for a stay of more than 30 days and it is not a pardon, says the consulate in the missive sent to Mr. Gauthier May 2, and since you have violated the rule in the past, the customs office may consider that you will reoffend and reject your entry. "
Change of tone
Ambassador Briunny Garabito has, it seems, changed its tone since the beginning of the month.
"Canadians do not have to fear being turned away, even though in the past they paid the fine on leaving the country. "
- Briunny Garabito
As long as they leave the country before the 120-day deadline, he said, they will not have any problems. Those who have exceeded this limit without having applied for a temporary residence permit could, in fact, be refused entry to Dominican territory during their next trip, he maintained.
If they are limited to stays of less than 120 days, will it be mandatory for Canadian snowbirds to go to the Immigration Department in Santo Domingo to apply for an extension? Or can they continue to pay the fine as they have always done, without fear of being later expelled?
On this issue, Ambassador Garabito is cautious: "Ideally, we would like them to go to Santo Domingo to specify the length of their stay, so we strongly encourage them to do so. But we do not want to complicate things for Canadians, he said. Consideration is being given to terminating the penalty payment system, but no final decision has yet been made. "
The exact number of snowbirds staying more than 30 days is not known, but Statistics Canada calculates that in 2016, 33,000 Canadian travelers spent more than "20 nights" on the island. Last year, 837,104 Canadians, including approximately 300,000 Quebeckers, traveled to the Dominican Republic, according to data from the Dominican Ministry of Tourism.
Obviously, the Embassy of the Dominican Republic in Ottawa does not want to discourage " Canadian Snowbirds ". To Montreal traveler Sveta Melchuk, who spends several months each year in Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic, the Embassy in Ottawa even replied:
"We are really sorry for the confusion and the inconveniences. There are changes in the application of our migration laws, but we need tourists like you, so send us your full name, passport number, dates of arrival and departure in our country and phone number and we will make sure that you and your family will have a good time in our country. "
"If you know people in your situation, tell them to contact us and we will make sure that they can return to our country without any problem, just like you. "What M me Melchuk was relaying the response of the Embassy on the Facebook page Everything Las Terrenas.
A link with Haitian immigration?
This decision, which stems from the "National Plan for the Reorganization of Foreigners", is not directly related to the situation of Haitians in the country, believes Diego Osorio, a Latin American specialist at the Raoul-Dandurand Chair at UQAM. But it is still "a way for the government to show that the Dominican Republic does not only target the Haitian population and that it applies its migration laws to all", even if Haitians must obtain a visa to enter the Dominican Republic. As for the Dominican Republic's willingness to deal with cases on a case-by-case basis, as some Canadians have suggested, the expert believes that "it opens the door to manipulation". "The application must be consistent everywhere," he believes. Mr.
