Paradise Found

Welcome Joy and Keith,

You may find long term rental in Sosua listings in the following Facebook pages:

Everything Compra Venta Renta puerto plata sosua cabarete
Everything Sosua! "For Sale, Specials, Questions, Misc"

Thank you. I'll peek around.

Glad you are looking to rent first. Good for you!   Have you checked any other areas of this country?  You should just to make sure you are  moving to the place that suits you the best AND because it is fun to explore!

Hello Planner, I've read a number of your responses on other threads. Lots of great information. We love the Sosua area plus we have friends there. We did some outreach with DCDR while visiting and this is something we want to continue to be involved with. We definitely intend to explore while there. We'll be tourists in the country for 1 year but with a home base in Sosua. We will be purchasing a Jeep to get around too so we hope to see a lot of the country. Right now I'm looking at long term rentals / lease. I have a vision of what I hope we can find. The paradise dream I suppose. I will be volunteering at a village school and we'll be back here in Canada during the summer months while my husband does relief pharmacy and we'll visit family. Now that the goal is set there are lots of practical issues. Health care is a big concern for us because we're pretty spoiled in Canada. Also, finding a way to have dual citizenship but spending as much time as we can in D.R. Everything is very exciting

A couple of things for you
You will need to extend your visitors visa multiple times (I believe this can be done in Puerto Plata) as the government currently is cracking down on those who are here for over 30 days and have not gotten, or applied for, their residency
If you are out of Canada for an extended period of time you lose your Canadian health benefits (the time can vary depending on the  province you are in)
If you are going to work for any compensation at all you need your residency and cedula.

Bob K

Dual citizenship is very possible. It starts with residency and getting your cedula.

Sounds great playing tourist for a year.

Health insurance is available here at a very reasonable cost if you are under 65. I have a group plan I offer thru Humano and Universal offers very good coverage. They are the 2 biggest providers.

Its a bit controversial this extending the tourist visa.  Legally you can overstay the visa and simply pay a fine at the airport when you leave. They are not extending visas in Puerto Plata yet!  However if you are renting or buying a vehicle and driving be aware your license is only good for 30 days each time you enter the country!  You are going to want to start the residencia process!

Most provinces in Canada allow you to benout of province 6 months, Ontario is 7 months!

Thanks for the insurance information Planner and Bob K. I will definitely be looking into that. We're going to apply for the resident visa prior to us arriving for our 1 year trial. Maybe that's overly cautious but the security is worth it for us. We're both big worriers. The plan is to go to D.R. with paperwork in hand, get a furnished villa, spend a few days in the city applying for the visa and then sit back by the pool or at Jolly Rogers with fingers crossed. Ugh. At our age it's a bit scary to finally quit our jobs, sell everything and move to an island but hey! Life is short. Oh, and no working in D.R. for us. Time to enjoy our time. We'll be coming back in the summer to visit the grandsons and Keith will do relief pharmacy for some pocket money.

There are a number of health insurance companies in the Dominican Republic. Here a the top three providers in order of clients (highest first)

Humano (https://humano.com.do/)
Universal (https://www.arsuniversal.com.do/SitePages/Inicio.aspx)
Palic Salud (http://arspalicsalud.com.do/)
among others

When are you coming down?
We will be neighbors when you get here
As to insurance lots of options that you can explore when you are here.  There is a "club" that we belong to (no membership anything) that has a group policy with Universal that we have been very happy with (and I am a medical provider...retired).
Let me know if I can help with anything

Bob K

Funny that you titled this  thread Paradise found.  When we first moved here almost 11 years ago we did a three year blog on moving and building a villa here called Paradise Found.

Bob K

We've planned a quick visit for April 2017 to poke around a bit more. Visit some neighborhoods etc. This time will be with more of a 'future' residence lens rather than tourist lens. Thank you so much for the information about the insurance. This is Keith's biggest concern. Mine is 'does the house have a pool?'

Let me know when you are here and we can meet up if you want

Bob K

Sounds like a great plan -.poking around is a great start!!!

Sounds like fun Bob K. I'll let you know once we're settled in. Shouldn't take too long since we're staying in the same place as we did at Christmas, on Playa Laguna beach.

Ok keep me posted

Bob K

Hi,
It's Tammy and Wade here from NL Canada, we are in the same place as “paradise Found”. We have a winter home in FL that we are selling so we can snowbird to the DR. My daughter has been to DR many times and is advising us this is the way to go. We plan to take a couple weeks in the fall, secure something/somewhere nice to live Nov 19-April 20 this year coming. This will give us next winter to find a home to buy. Any and all advice is appreciated.