[rarpAcconavox]

I have obtained a “Residency Visa” from the DR's London Consulate. I hope the following will help others to get through the process more easily than I did.

General advice would be:
Always to pay for a priority service where available; and
Don't book your return ticket to the DR until the process is complete.

The process is difficult and nerve racking for those who now normally live in the DR.

Firstly obtain an application form and list of required documents from the Consulate. The list I was given was slightly out of date, being based on procedures in the past, but was mostly correct. The email address for enquiries is consulate@dominicanembassy.com.

The completed form needs to be accompanied by the following:

1. Birth and Marriage Certificates. Copies of these, if needed, can be obtained from The General Register Office General Register Office (GRO) - Official information on births, marriages and deaths. The cost is £9.25 a certificate for standard turn-round time or £23.40 for the priority service which takes about 3 days.
2. A Police Certificate. An application form can be downloaded from acro.police.uk. It must be accompanied by two proofs of address dated within the last 6 months, and a photo endorsed as a true likeness by someone from one of the professions listed in the guidance notes. The cost is £35.00 for normal turn-round time (10-12 days) or £70 for fast-track (2-3 days) plus postage £7.00. The notes from the Consulate state that the certificate must be dated within a month of the visa application.
3. A Doctor's Letter confirming good health. My GP insisted on seeing me, and she included information on my current medications with the letter she provided. It took four days to obtain the letter and cost £15.00.
4. A Guarantee Letter from a Dominican citizen or permanent resident. My husband, who already has residency, provided this. The letter needs to include a guarantee of funds to cover my costs in the DR and, if necessary, the cost of my repatriation to the UK!
5. Other evidence of financial support/employment etc. The information I provided included my UK P60 Pension Forms and a copy of a statement from my Dominican bank account.
6. One passport photo
7. The Birth, Marriage and Police Certificates need to be apostiled (legalised) by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. You have to download, print and sign an application form. You can pay on-line. The cost is £30.00 per certificate plus £6.00 return postage. (The cost of sending F&CO the certificates by recorded delivery is approximately £5.00). The turn-round time (if there are no problems) is about 3 days. The process seems generally very speedy and efficient but communication in the event of query is difficult. When they receive payment an automatic email states the documents have been sent, this is not necessarily the case.

I took the papers in person to the Dominican Embassy in Inverness Terrace, Bayswater, together with payment of £250.00 in cash (YES £250) they do not accept personal cheques or credit/debit cards. The person I dealt with was very helpful. They retained all documents until they stamped the passport with the necessary visa. I was told it would take 2-3 days.

The documents are scanned and sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the DR who give permission for the Consulate to issue the visa. Time taken in my case was 6 working days, but it would have been considerably longer had they not known in advance that I had a flight booked and had I not rung twice a day for the final 3 days.

At the very last moment I had to send an e-mail to the Consulate stating why I wanted to live in the DR. I didn't see that one coming!

The whole process took me three + weeks and cost about £450.00 (without travel costs in the UK and telephone calls – of which there were many to premium rate lines). It may be possible to do it more quickly and a bit more cheaply if you are organised, do as much as possible in advance on-line and don't need copy certificates.

The next stage is to go through whatever procedures are now needed in the DR. I suspect they will include a further $1,000 - $1,5000 to a Dominican lawyer. I have 2 months to start this process.

[Ngdyoysv]

Great post! Should be made a sticky.

[casinobonusfrees]

Excellent work! Well done Pansy. Did the documents such as birth certs have to be translated into Spanish?

Matilda

[Info-phone]

£450!?!? This is way out of hand! I can't believe the D.R is going to get away with this ridiculousness!

[petrarkaponye]

A truly informative post... thanks for sharing your experience.

[chootsonege]

And, as an aside, THIS IS WHY is keep saying, if you can, get it started here and now...

Just saying,


HB

[rarpAcconavox]

Excellent work! Well done Pansy. Did the documents such as birth certs have to be translated into Spanish?

Matilda

The apostilazation (is there such a word?) involves a piece of paper being stuck on the back of the form with basic information in English, French and Spanish. Otherwise the Consulate says they do all necessary translations.

[RagonaCon]

Just a minor correction. The Consulate's email address is consulate@dominicanembassy.org.uk (not .com)