Immigration law enforcement - Take care !

JRP55 wrote:

Ok so those 2 and a half months I thought I was illegal I really wasn't so I was sweating for nothing

Ah, you probably were illegal during the time after 2 months that your residency was in process, but if you explained your situation, it would have been unlikely they would do anything. 

PeteZZZ wrote:

You are naive in assuming that even if legal, you have any sort of 'protection' in the dr.

As a legal resident you have every legal right that a DR Citizen does with one exception, you cannot vote.

You are incorrect in stating that residency does not provide "protection" .  It certainly does.
I am able to get a driver's license,  a firearms permit,  work legally, run a business legally, and everything else a DR citizen can do minus voting.  As a DR resident, you can also apply for DR Citizenship, something I am gathering the documents to do.

As an illegal alien overstaying a tourist card (or any other visa that expired) you have no legal rights.

PeteZZZ wrote:

Ask that guy to write in here, and tell us the whole story, otherwise I, for one, don't even believe it.  I'll bet there were some extraneous circumstances if it's even true that he was kicked out.

I think you should read his posts and there is more than enough information in them for you to see that he is giving first hand information of his friend being denied entry and returned to his home country and being blacklisted for 18 months after multiple entries and overstays over a few years through POP airport. You should be grateful he is offering such information rather than suggesting he is being deceptive.

This is not the first such report which have been few and far between over the past year but those reporting such events have included lawyers.

It may be a sign of the times now that the deportation of Haitians is at a significant maintained level and after sufficient time for long term overstayers to have got their act together and sought residency which was the clear advice of many foreign embasiise this time last year.

Things have changed to be more in line with the immigration law and for example, no longer can you avoid paying the exit fine and bribe officials. Your biometrics are now collected and your entry and departure records are on file.

Perhaps DR will come in line with almost every other country and the remaining deniers may well have missed an easy cheap route to residency. Even worse they get denied entry to any assets they hold here for 18 months.

JRP55 wrote:

You might think the govt would lose millions but in reality most guys come here and spend their money on food,liquor and whores the govt doesn't see any of that money they actually make the bulk of their money from the 10.00 entrance fee which is now built into your airline or cruise line ticket unless your buying property or starting a business the govt sees very little of your money

If no snowbird ever came to the DR again, the amount of money lost would be insignificant for the reasons you mentioned.  Some local business in Cabarete and Sosua would suffer more than they are and that is about it for real effects on the DR.

More than 10 million short term vacationers and thousand of  Cruise ship fees weekly are vastly more important to the DR government than a few thousand  snowbirds. Snowbirds might not like to face this reality.

Steverino7777 wrote:

In my discussions with the Dominican Embassy in Ottawa last fall, I was advised that the Dominican Gov't did not want to disrupt their "snowbird overstays" and that existing or proposed legislation was targeting other parties. The attitude at the embassy was very accommodating, for whatever it's worth.

This has been reported and snowbirds can advise their embassy of their plans. That said the Canadian Embassy travel advice says different.

The visa situation is unlikely to change soon. All nationalities need to be considered and the law changed. But there are elections nextvyear so be patient.

Steverino7777 wrote:

The recent spate of tourist deaths and violent encounters has been front page news across North America. It has rattled the nerves of the private and public sector in the D.R. They are concerned about loss of future business in the tourism and investment sector.

In June, Delta Airlines granted waivers to  passengers flying into Punta Cana if they wanted to cancel their flights without penalties "due to recent events". American Airlines as well as Jetblue and Sun Country have also said they will work with passengers wanting to change or cancel flights on a case-by-case basis.

My point is, cash flow may trump immigration concerns in the D.R. when it comes to enforcing 30 day tourist visas....

I would suggest that 8 new projects for the East Coast of value $467.5 million shows the very strong confidence by investors in the DR tourist industry.

https://www.arecoa.com/hoteles/2019/07/ … -millones/

And a secure tourism industry must go hand in hand with strict controls in every sector including immigration, especially in PUJ with the pre-US clearance plans. I would therefore suggest that the recent bad press will accelerate improving all controls including the need for tighter immigration controls rather than the opposite that you suggest, and the latter likely be driven by US Homeland Security through PUJ.

Food for thought.