Using check to open new bank account?

Strange , 8 years ago I opened an account with just my American passport that's all.
Chase charges 45.oo to transfer to Banco Popular even for sums in the thousands ( it is not the same bank as the one in America )
Please read about the history of each bank ,

Banco Popular won't open accounts to non dominicans now unless they have a Cedula. You can try a dollar account with BHD Leone, as they are still opening accounts without residency. If the account isn't a dollar account, you cannot cash a check written in dollars.

If you have a Cedula, you shouldn't have any probelm openening a dollar account in popular

This will be a business account, and the business is registered to operate in the DR. We had been told that showing property ownership and a letter of reference from our attorney would allow us to open the account.

I would go directly to the bank manager and have them explain the requirtments...it never hurts to have them as your friend trust me. Otherwise youll get 20 answers from 20 people.

Thanks for the update , I had opened my account in a town where everyone knows everyone's business and your vecinas  can be your asseset !

Most banks here will freeze funds on a deposited check for 30 working days (6 weeks). Check with your bank here but that is the usual policy.

BObK

Thanks Bob! I figured there might be a hold, but for this account, that's fine. I just wanted to make sure it will be accepted!

It should be.  The funny thing is that when you check with your home bank depending on timing you will see that the money was transferred to the bank in the DR in 1-3 days.  Yet these yahoos will hold your money at no interest to you for  another 25+ days.  Basically they get over a month of float to invest your money at no cost to them.  Heck of a racket.

Bob K

We ended up not getting the account opened, so didn't have to worry about depositing the check!  We went to 2 banks (with a local, well known expat) and both told us that the process takes 2 weeks. You have to submit all the paperwork and then they take about 2 weeks to do their due diligence before approving the account.

Yup  2 weeks seems the minimum

Sounds about right.  However did  you try Banco Santo Cruz?  They seem to work well with Expats.

Bob K

I recently opened an account at progreso, just passport and 10k pesos.  Funny so many keep doing things the hard way.

Colonel ,  Opening a peso account with $10,000 pesos cash is soooooo very different then opening a US dollar  account with a check drawn on a US bank.
Bob K

Yeah, that's what I meant about doing it the hard way.  Mind that it's hard like that is one of the justified reasons that the dr is soooooo abysmally  low in those rankings.  99 in ease of doing business, and 76 for economic freedoms.

Great info.... But...... the OP was asking about opening an account with a check deposit.

Bob K

We didn't even get around to discussing the check!  We could have opened a personal account with no problem, but because it was a business account, we would have had to wait for the 2 week process. The LLC is owned by a self-directed IRA, so it is uber important to keep a complete paper trail on all the funds in the account, or everything in the account could become taxable and we'd get a penalty for early withdrawal!

For now, the property management company will keep our funds in a sub-account until we get the bank account open on our next trip!

Wow.