The National Immigration Council (CNM) has assigned top priority to the regularization of temporary foreign workers in keeping with the guidelines of the National Immigration Legalization Plan. The plan seeks to legalize foreigners with irregular status in the Dominican Republic and to organize immigration.
In Resolution 01-14, the CNM instructs the Foreign Relations Ministry to implement the Temporary Worker Visa (VTT) established in General Immigration Law 285-04. The Ministry says that this visa that is now available will be issued to foreigners who have a job offer from a company that is registered in the country.
The resolution has been notified to foreign missions in the country and abroad. The visa will be valid for a maximum of one year, with one or multiple entries depending on the duration of the work contract.
To apply for the VTT, the company that is offering the job must send a letter notifying of the position, and the prospective employee must sign a commitment to comply with conditions and labor rules in the country, transport, travel expenditures and repatriation expenditures.
To comply with Article 151 of Immigration Law 285-04 that orders the National Foreign Legalization Plan it orders the Ministry of Foreign Relations and Department of Immigration issue the documents corresponding to the migratory status of foreigners who qualified, as established in Decree No. 327-13.
It also instructs the Immigration Department (through the National Immigration Institute) to begin consultations with companies involved in agriculture whose practices need to adhere to the minimum fair trade rules and to propose quotas for each economic sector.
The CNM also instructed the Ministry of Interior and Police to establish a preferential procedure for companies and individuals that employ these temporary workers so they may proceed to legalize them.
As part of the new resolution, the Ministry of Interior and Police will start discussions with the National Social Security Council, the Ministry of Labor, the Department of Immigration and the JCE to implement regulations so that the beneficiaries may receive a Unique Identification Number (NUI) and can be eventually included in the Dominican Social Security System. The CNM also announced that Florinda Rojas Rodriguez has been appointed director of the National Immigration Institute by Decree No. 326-13.
www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2014/01/11/i435551_poder-ejecutivo-prioriza-regularizacin-los-trabajadores-extranjeros.html
www.mip.gob.do/Portals/0/docs/Marco_Legal_Transparencia/2013Actualizacion/Ley%20No.285-04%20Migracion.pdf