interesting, getting a Dominican passport saves the hassle of answering a question and displaying a cedula.. Now it's clear. Here I thought that no one "needs" a Dominican passport except a Dominican.
- Thread starter Taylor
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Dominican Passport for naturalized Dominican
For me getting a Dominican passport was more of a personal choice. Do I use it? No not really. I mean I guess it saved time when leaving the DR by just showing it as opposed to pulling out my cedula, etc... I do have to renew it next year, so we shall see since I do not spend as much time in the DR as previously. I do not spend months at a time now, more like 3-4 weeks at a time.
Unless things change you will need several visits to SD and a lot of aggravation to renew. And showing an expired passport to Customs is the same as a current one for verification that you are a Citizen. You could not have got that if you were not a citizen............
Not true! The whole mess with passports for naturalized citizens now is because they issued 'who knows how many' passports to people who, let's say, did not have a right to have one.
That's why now they limited issuing them to just one office and only one window in that office, where one employee is supervised by another one standing behind his back, and that one is supervised by another one in the office behind them, and that one is supervised by cameras.... and they ask for your Certificado de Nacionalidad, and before issuing it, Ministerio de Interior y Policia checks all your history in DR since your first visit, then your first residence, then how you applied for citizenship, etc.... The same checks go on JCE level... and only if you 'no tienes ningun situacion', they will renew it following the procedure that I described in the post #3.
So having the expired passport right now doesn't prove that you have a citizenship, because maybe you are one of those who received that passport without any legal grounds to get it and you just can't renew it now.
now you're throwing fraud into the mix. Don't forget counterfeit passports while you're at it. . I have traveled the world and never had one single solitary problem at immigration. Furthermore, anyone that wants to use 'before boarding" at STI does not need to stand in line with the sweaty masses at immigration. An agent comes to you. Its worth the cost.
I completely understand why I am very unlikely to renew my DR passport.
I understand the corruption that exists. I was a victim of it myself when renewing residency with Migracion.
Yet another reason I don't trust lawyers.
That corruption and incompetencies at Migracion pushed me to become a naturalized citizen.
If more than one trip to Santo Domingo is needed to renew my DR passport then that option vanishes for me.
It is hardly worth one trip in my case.
I will save you the trip. You can check with Puerto Plata on this in case the rules changed. But if not do not waste your time. You will get nowhere fast on this. I went one day and would not waste another minute with this nonsense. And I had help and still needed to come back. Not really necessary to have a current passport. Your Cedula is only what you need. And also everyone in the DR will need to get a new Cedula starting Oct. 27. You can get one anywhere.........
This is just an fyi, but whenever I go to MegaCentro (SD Este) on a weekday there are people hanging out in droves at the passport office. I always look in and it's packed there as well. I couldn't deal with it.
Like all things Dominican, it's better to get there early before they open and be one of the first, than arrive later in the morning.
Going at 2:30-3:00 in the afternoon sometimes works as well.
Going at 2:30-3:00 in the afternoon sometimes works as well.
Do you have links or information regarding this? Years (many years ago) ago it was much easier to become a DR citizen and obtain a passport (I did mine back then). But the process has changed drastically, and it is much more difficult. Maybe counterfeit passports I can understand happening but passports being issued to people who do not qualify for one, I am not so sure of. And if it does happen, I have doubt it is on the level that you are indicating.
Links for what? You think they will publicly admit how many passports their corrupted employees issued based on fabricated documents during all those years and print that stats in newspapers, lol ?
They fight the corruption the way they can do it, I can't blame them for that. If they can't control more than a few employees, they do it as they do it now, only at one place and with triple checking on every document, starting from that certificate from MIP. I don't like the passport renewal process now, but I understand why it's like that now, and honestly I can handle it once in 10 years. I don't have to cry about SD traffic jam, I am living in the middle of it.Regarding the point that the process to become a naturalized citizen has changed drastically, I disagree. It takes longer time to wait now, but the process is almost the same, a little bit more paperwork needed. The process is still very transparent and you don't really need a lawyer to go thru it. Well, 20 years ago there were 3 questions in the interview, now it's about 45 questions and you have to write the answers. Doesn't make a big difference, even people who don't speak Spanish at all pass that test.
This much I can tell you about the process from years ago...getting citizenship/passport was much easier. In fact, many received theirs based on who they knew (who could "push it through") rather than going through the process. If what you are saying about "passports being issued by corrupt employees" is in fact true (which maybe it is) then I would not say that the process is "very transparent".Links for what? You think they will publicly admit how many passports their corrupted employees issued based on fabricated documents during all those years and print that stats in newspapers, lol ?
Regarding the point that the process to become a naturalized citizen has changed drastically, I disagree. It takes longer time to wait now, but the process is almost the same, a little bit more paperwork needed. The process is still very transparent and you don't really need a lawyer to go thru it. Well, 20 years ago there were 3 questions in the interview, now it's about 45 questions and you have to write the answers. Doesn't make a big difference, even people who don't speak Spanish at all pass that test.
There's a process of naturalization that has nothing to do with passports per se and MIP is in charge of that, and there's a fact that 'who knows how many' passports were issued to people who were not really naturalized at all, including passports on fake names/double identities, etc. Don't you remember news every year when they captured another drug dealer or smuggler no matter where, be it Colombia or Cambodia, and he had a 'real' Dominican passport? And that's just the tip of the iceberg. As I understand it, thru many years the problem was like a snowball running down the hill and finally came to the point where some international organizations told DR Government that enough is enough and they have to stop it. So they stopped it. And that's why renewal process for naturalized citizens is what we have now. Because now they REALLY make sure that you were really naturalized and have the right to have that passport. Is it good or bad? In long term perspective, it's good. In short time, renewal is a mess. That's it.
Thank you, Glenn, for your insight on the topic...Some of us just had different experiences. I truly do not pay attention to news involving captured drug dealers for the most part. I wasn't even aware as you posted the "some international organizations told the DR government enough is enough".
There was never any need to 'push it thru', that's all just ******** stories from lawyers and other 'helpers' that milked their clients for money.
The requirements for naturalization were always clear and published on their website (it's MIP now, it was SeIP back then), if you qualify, you prepare and submit all documents, then wait for your interview, then wait for your inauguration, then get your certificado ne nacionalidad, Dominican birth certificate, cedula and passport.
Still not necessary to it like this. It should still be possible to for example go to Puerto Plata, or even online, upload/hand over any documents needed.
Then they send that to one government entity, like for example a special passport issuer in for example Santo Domingo who only deals with that. Who then checks that everything is correct etc.
That's what they do for example in the country where I'm from.
There the national police is the issuer of the passport.
You go to your local police office (if they have that service available in your area, otherwise you go to the closest police office that has that available) you hand over any documents needed to create a new passport.
They confirm that all the details are correct according to their system.
Then they send it over to their passport "group" in the capital who are ONLY working on approving passports.
You come back like 1-2 weeks later and you get your passport.
So this is just overcomplicating things and also making sure that as few as possible are actually willing to go through this.
Then they send that to one government entity, like for example a special passport issuer in for example Santo Domingo who only deals with that. Who then checks that everything is correct etc.
That's what they do for example in the country where I'm from.
There the national police is the issuer of the passport.
You go to your local police office (if they have that service available in your area, otherwise you go to the closest police office that has that available) you hand over any documents needed to create a new passport.
They confirm that all the details are correct according to their system.
Then they send it over to their passport "group" in the capital who are ONLY working on approving passports.
You come back like 1-2 weeks later and you get your passport.
So this is just overcomplicating things and also making sure that as few as possible are actually willing to go through this.