New members of the Dominican Republic forum, introduce yourselves here - 2025

Hello my name is Andreza, my family and I are excited for this new leg of our journey in Dominican Republic and cannot wait for all the adventures we are going to have.

Welcome to the forums.  Feel free to ask questions along the way and to tell us about your adventure.

Hi my name is Howard and planning to relocate to the North coast (Cabarete) in 2029/30

I travel to DR currently 3-4 times a year with my wife who is a Domincana

My background is in healthcare as a Paramedic/ Emergency Management

I currently teach allied health programs

My wife Anna background is in labor relations as a paralegal

Welcome to the forums Howard!!! 

@Julien

Hi, my name is Ramil, I am a Russian from the city of Kazan. I am fluent in English, and it seems that this site could be a great asset for an expat. I am retired early, physician by trade. I have a girlfriend in Santiago, and we are planning to marry soon.

Welcome to the forums!  We try our best to help expats with insights and knowledge gained over the years!

Looking for the realtor/lawyers who serve La romana ,not new to DR but new to use of this part of system.What is reasonable cost idf dealing with A rental .

Welcome to the forums. This thread is for introductions and welcomes. You are best to ask in a related thread or start one for your question.

Hi all.

My name is Teck and new to the Dominican forum. My wife (Melissa) and I have been to Punta Cana several times and love it there. We just got back from our anniversary trip last week. We currently reside in Ontario Canada. On our last trip we started to talk to an owner of a 10 unit apartment building that a friend lives in. He wants to sell his building and property and my wife and I are interested in buying but don't know the whole process and would love to get some information on this forum.

Welcome to the forums!   I suggest you start searching and reading the various threads on property purchasing, finding a good lawyer and property management. Ask questions along the way and feel free to open a thread!

Hello! I'm so glad I found this site and wanted to jump in. I'm new here, but not to the Dominican Republic. I arrived in this beautiful country 14 years ago, met an amazing person, got married, and started a family of my own—never looked back! We have three wonderful kids: a 19-year-old, an 11-year-old daughter, and a 16-year-old son. My spouse and I have been married for 13 years.

We've been living in Santo Domingo, but we recently upgraded and are now in Cap Cana—we absolutely love it! I'm excited to meet new people here and learn things I haven't discovered yet.

Cheers!

Welcome to the forums. Your experiences and opinions are very welcome here!

@Julien

HELLO. I am french. Taking my retreet soon. Want to moov to RD with my family. Project to buy villa and stay in RD like Permanent resident. My name is Jack. Cheers all

Hi All members. Glad too join this chat

@JackBB

Welcome to the forums!!!! I hope we can be of help.  Lots of great information in the various threads!

Hi My name is Mary. I am American with Dominican parents. I am in the process of obtaining dual citizenship and investing in real estate in DR. I am still far away from retirement age, but the plan is to eventually live permanently in DR.

Welcome Mary!    Or should I say welcome home?   

@Julien

Welcome I’ve been on this thread a couple of years. I’m a snowbird staying in Cana area having a place built from the United States of a summer home in New Jersey about the same distance from the beach as my condo that’s being built in Cap Cana. It would be a good idea to familiarize yourself with the rules as far as the use of names and solicitations, etc. There’s a lot of good information and of course there are some people with axes to grind. 

Hello Everyone ! My name is Carl Heard from Charlotte NC. My wife Sabrina and myself are preparing to move to Puerto Plata in June 2025. So very exciting next couple of months. Thanks for the outlet, as i am sure i will have a ton of questions.

Welcome to the forums!!!! Lots of info on here so make sure to try the search function.  Ask questions and start new threads as needed honey!

@carlheard9277

Hey Carl, I have a place in puerto plata, puerto plata…. Very close to San Felipe …As I find it’s getting a little more busy in my area  now with traffic…..basically in the morning ,  i find it has retained the Dominican flavor and not as flooded with tourists…. Which I like… good luck,keep posting

@carlheard9277

Welcome! My husband and I moved here from Charlotte almost 5 years ago!

@Julien

I posted an introduction, but your website threw it away

OK, I'll try this again.

My name is Rich.  My wife and I recently purchased a home in La Vega.  I'm American, wife is Dominican.  We are in our late 60s.  My wife has a large family in Dominican Republic, in fact a cousin lives about 1 block away from our home.  This is convenient, as we need services, they know people.  For example, we are remodeling this home and need construction contractors.  Well, we have them and they are doing a very good job.  Things are done a little differently here in DR, so as a retired nuclear quality control inspector, I need to be flexible with "my requirements".

We are waiting for our shipment of household goods and automobile from the US.  This has been a long process.  Our shipping company is Solomon and Sons Relocation.  We have had some difficulty with them and the process has taken longer than expected.  The ship left Port Everglades Florida on 4/17, but I still don't know it's arrival in Rio Haina (Santo Domingo). 

That's my partial story for now.  Any questions, don't hesitate to contact me.

Welcome.to the forums.  Looking forward to more updates.   It will be hard to adjust to the "good enough" standards here and "ahora" timing!

Hello @Julien, my name is Eunice. My husband and I will be moving the end of 2026 to Santo Domingo Este. He will be retiring and I am hoping to be able to find work remotely when we move. Any ideas regarding remote work are welcome. Thanks

Welcome to the forums! I am in santo Domingo Este!   Easiest to find remote work from there!

@oldsmobile442

Wishing you the best of luck as you arrive here and establish yourself. 

Welcome!

@Julien Hi I am a born and raised New Yorker who had just moved to Long Beach when my mother, who lives in Santo Domingo, had a stroke. I sold my car and found a local moving company to ship all of my belongings back in July 2024. I am pretty busy with mom but do have domestic help and physical therapists for mom. My challenge now is obtaining my Dominican citizenship which is held up due to my mother's first name being misspelt on her birth certificate, verses her correct name being on my birth certificate. Mom is a dual citizen. I hope the rumor of Trump eliminating dual citizenships proves to be false! I also need to find out how to pay people here electronically as I used Zelle in the US. On a social level I do not have any friends yet so I am hoping to meet up with other expat groups in the area.

@genxval

Welcome to the forum. My prayers for your mothers health to get better day by day.

There is a lot of information throughout the various threads about/on many topics.

Planner or others may have recommendations on how to get the birth certificate corrected or where to start that process. Is it a DR birth certificate? Normally, a reputable lawyer here in the DR can assist and there are recommendations within various threads on who many of us recommend. Again,  welcome to this platform

Welcome, you have your hands full.  Prayers for the both of you. 

Welcome to the forums.  Yes we are a bit behind in electronic payments.  My best advice is use online banking! I will reach out to you privately!

@ddmcghee

Hi asking for my daughter who is currently visiting and planning to move to Dominican Republic. It seems like their process of getting a visa is a little difficult/ daunting. Was that the case for you? Any tips that I can pass on to her?

Hello! 

The husband and I have decided this will be our LAST Saskatchewan Canada winter and we are planning to relocate to the Dominican (Sosua / Cabarete) in the spring.

We have so many questions and are very excited to start on this journey!  If anyone could kindly point me in the direction of where I can get information on some of the following questions it would be MUCH appreciated.  Is there anywhere that outlines specific steps to take and approximate timelines to have things completed by to get this process going?  Our initial plan was to apply for a Temporary Residence permit and rent then work towards making it permanent and purchasing a home.  Also curious about what specifically the income requirements are, ie. can you have a investment that pays you monthly from Canada?  Are there listings available for remote jobs?  Is it easier to get a work visa, and if so are Automotive Technicians in demand?

Thanks for reading!

Welcome and start reading the threads. It's all there

I have been spending so much time on here the last day gathering information, what a great forum!!

There is one thing I can not find an answer for, I am trying to learn some Spanish before coming so I am using the Duolingo app and it had asked me to install a Spanish keyboard on my phone. I went to do this and there appear to be 3 different options one for Latin America, one for Mexico and one for Spain. I am not familiar with the different dialects and I realize from reading here there is a Dominican slang but can someone recommend which of the above options would make the most sense to focus on for the North region? Thank you so much!

Duolingo won't help you with Dominican slang alas. I think any of the Spanish keyboards would work fine, in fact I can't imagine how they would differ. Whatever it is, it's not likely to hold you back -- go for Latin American!

Worrying about Dominican dialect might be too much to ask of yourself if you're new to Spanish in general (or doing a basic review). Maybe for now the best thing is just to know that it's difficult (it has pronunciation quirks AND people talk fast). When you get to the point where you do want to explore that, there are a lot of YouTubes on the topic. If you watch 100 of them, they will help you .01% lol -- explaining the mechanics of it doesn't seem to make it much easier... although it is good to at least know what the patterns are, and fun when you hear something they mentioned.

I still really struggle with local Spanish but I've only been here 5 months. There is a lot of good free listening practice online, for Spanish in general and for Dominican/Caribbean Spanish. News shows tend to be the easiest to understand IMO, and comedies the hardest. For Dominican Spanish, the first three Sanky Panky movies are available free online. They are super silly but fun. The newspapers have video segments. For "received" pronunciation, BBC Mundo is really good. If it still exists, NPR's "Radio Ambulante" series is good Spanish-language programming and I believe they have transcripts, English translations, and maybe other language-learning aids as well.

Suerte!

After thought and reading the additional feedback comments. Yeah, don't now recommend renting a car. Go with the recommend alternatives. Be safe!!

As always this is for introductions and welcoming new members. Let's take discussions to a new thread