New members of the Dominican Republic forum, introduce yourselves here - 2021

Hello and welcome.

Hey guys, my name is Morgan and my wife is Tatevik. We are both highly interested in moving to the Sosua region of the Dominican Republic. I am 36 and she is 34. I work in Fire Protection as a test/inspector of fire alarms and sprinklers and she is a bookeeper/accountant. We have a soon to be 5 year old son, soon to be 2 year old girl and baby boy Due on February 1st! We are busy to say the least and just really need a change of scenery and a more laid-back lifestyle. We are first thinking of renting a house to get a feel for the region before purchasing a house but we definitely are ready to jump ship once we take care of our current situation here in Seattle. We are mostly wondering if you have any helpful info pertaining to private schools, home school groups or other advice. We want what's best for our children and any pointers help. We also would like to start a business of some sort, possibly pertaining to tourism, weddings or a fishing charter. Also any info on security, internet speed/reliability, cell phone coverage would be helpful. I have a large family I would be moving away from that would love to contact me often. Also, do expats have get together or events? Family things to do? Purchasing vehicles? Sorry for so many questions but I have a lot on my mind! Oh yeah, our honeymoon was in Punta Cana and we fell in love with the locals we met.

welcome to the forums!      You do have a busy life. There is a ton of info on the various threads for you to review.  Feel free to open a thread to discuss what you need specifically. I recommend you start with the residencia forum to make sure you qualify to be able to move here, live here and work here.

Good to hear that you have joined Respectrtroops : like yourself my wife and I are moving over there and to seek a new lifestyle with new goals and join the community in Sosua. Those dreams will all come true  as you will see. For myself I did it in 65 days or so, now I am waiting for a closing date on the house here in Texas. Aim high by your code sign I know you can do it. Congratulations and Blessings to you and your family . Krumite

Welcome , I am going through the process of moving there now. I am retiring and don't need an income so I don't have to work. I am sure you will get good info here but also there are some good videos on YOU TUBE. As far as legal advice with residency I highly recommend Lily and I am sure you will hear her name from others. Her number is +1-809-860-1231. She does use Whatsapp and if you don't you should get it everyone in the DR uses it. How many times have you been to the DR? I am looking at some land about 15 minutes outside of  Sosua with a realtor Namibia. I have been going to the DR since 2013 4 times a year and I have traveled and have friends in many parts of the country. Good luck and call Lily. She speaks perfect english, lived in Boston. Super reasonable, honest, and caring

@Respectrtroops - as Planner said, start with the Residencia threads and talk with Lily. You'll want to ensure you can live here legally before digging into the rest of your questions and concerns. I hope it works for you!

Thank you all for your feedback. I will go check out Residencia now and I will sign up for Whatsapp. Thank you for the contact info for Lily and the congratulations on our new addition to be! I'm hopeful we can all meet someday and will try to remain active on expat.com 🙂

Please keep us updated on your progress and we hope to help along the way!

While I welcome all members, please do not post personal contact information on a public forum. It's not permitted.

Sharing personal contact info on an open forum is not allowed. 

You agreed to the rules when you signed up.

We have a private messaging option on the forum. You are welcome to use it.

Wow,  just cannot please some people.   The rules about  posting personal information is  very clear in the rules.

It is for your protection and to stop spamming and ID theft.

Hi all! My name is Chris, and finally after a long process of paperwork (here in Canada) I will be returning permanently to the Dominican Republic on Saturday. I'm a Golf Professional working at one of the islands most beautiful spots, and I'm very excited to be back to the Dominican for a longer stay than my last.

I was fortunate to come down for a week in early December and meet the team, some locals, and to explore where I would be living before  returning home and quarantining for Christmas.

It was quite the experience as prior to last month, I had never travelled outside of Canada or the USA in all of my 28 years.

Grateful for the many threads and easy answered questions I'm able to find here and the community that has been created that I look forward to be a part of.

Have a great start to the week!

Welcome to the forums!!

Hey everyone,

me and my family have been to DR for many times but only stayed on the resort. We have 4 young kids, and would need an international school for them. Our main concerns are
1) private school that kids can get accredited
2) in gated communities such as Cap Cana - is everything extra for gold/use of facilities if you buy a property there?
3) less wavy ocean (for kids safety) I know on Caberette it is super wavy
4) We do not vaccinate our kids - are there exemption forms that we can get to make sure our kids can get into school in DR?
5) With the covid19 situation is DR sustainable with getting food delivered and are stores open?

Thank you in advance.
Maria

Welcome to the forums. This is for introductions. Please open a thread and ask the questions honey.

Other members: please welcome Maria but do not answer questions here.

got it started a new one thank you. can i delete the one above here?

No worry honey.  Thanks for starting a thread!!! 

Hello All,
I lived in DR for 3 years in early 2000's and am now married to my Dominican wife for 13 years. We live in Ireland with our 3 kids aged 16, 8 and 6.
We are considering moving back to DR permanently. My wife is homesick and I love DR so seems like a good idea.
I am glad I came across this forum last week as I have got lots of valuable information from it, especially regarding international schools.
Our move back will not be for a couple of years yet but I like to do lots of research before making big decisions!

Looking forward to bombarding you all with lots of questions
Roy.

I'm originally from Vero Beach Florida, so love the sand and surf, especially the warm weather, living in NE Georgia mountains now, live in one of the greatest areas of the southeast, manage personal properties and small pressure washing business as a side gig, wife and I are getting closer to retirement and hopefully splitting time in the DR and a mountain escape. Hope to find the right property in the El Cortecito area of Bavaro, Punta Cana and making good friends of expats and the local alike.

Welcome to you both to the forums.  Glad you found us and are finding the forums valuable!!!   Keep reading and asking questions as needed!

Hello, I am new too and looking forward to live there. This forum is very useful and informative. I can't wait for Covid to get a little more under control so we can travel there again, now with more of a mindset of relocating there.
It is a little frightening for me specially with a little kid. That is why I keep coming to this forum to read and get informed on how everything works and what is going on currently.
We speak Spanish so that's one advantage, LOL.
We've been there many times before on vacation and we love the Dominican people and their culture.
Hopefully our dream will come true sooner than later.

Welcome to the forums as well!  I am  really  glad to hear it is helpful to you!  We try our best.

Welcome to the forums.  You will find a lot of info in the various threada on the cost of living. If you don't find what you are looking for honey, start a thread.

So I will repeat for the new members:

This is the welcome thread not the discussion threads

Please have this discussion in its own thread.  Open one as you need to. 

Thanks everyone

Yes Jim Fenoglio here I'm a retired physician.

Hello and welcome to this amazing group

Welcome to the forums!

Remember this is for welcoming not discussions.  Thanks

Please allow me to RE-introduce us:   

Jim (aka, Expat Rusher) & Lisa Rodgers are now OFFICIAL RESIDENTS of La Republicana Dominicana. 

We picked up our residencia card at the Immigration Ministry on Monday, March 8th, 2021.  Everything seemed to flow perfectly and quickly. 
>> Though we did have to make two trips across town to get our Cedulas -- the Immigration Ministry forgot to sign and stamp one of our forms that they place in a sealed envelope for us to handcarry to the Cedula people.  Sealed, so you can't open to check for accuracy or proper stamps. 
>> So we get there and GUESS WHAT?  Return to sender, try again. 
>> But it all worked out fine, and we were back to the the hotel by 1 pm.
 
We are SO GLAD to have finally completed this process.  It was far more challenging and much longer than we ever expected going in. 

Now, finally -- and COVID permitting -- we can just plan our annual Snow Birding visits...typically January through March, maybe April or May, it will depend on the year and family obligations. 
>> We're from SE Idaho at about 4500 feet near the Teton Mountains, so coming here is a welcome respite from the cold winters there.  True, Idaho isn't Canada...but it's close enough, eh?

We're still determining exactly where we're going to do our Snow Birding -- Lisa is NOT a city girl, so the only thing I'm sure of is that we won't be in any large cities. 
>> To start that research process, this next six days we're staying at Casa de Campos outside of La Romana.  Why Casa de Campo?  I'd never heard of the place before, but we got a great rate from SnapTravel.com and grabbed it.  This place is ritzier than I anticipated -- we got issued our own golf cart with the room!!   It's not at all crowded, but the resort is extremely thorough in their COVID-19 prevention protocols.
>> We hope to get out to the beaches and see the rest of La Romana, too.

If I may ask:  If anyone has any advice on must-do things in La Romana over the next week, we'd sure appreciate your suggestions.
>> But, PLEASE send them via DM or PM or whatever we're calling it, so we don't detract from the 'introductions' forum.

Again, we're thankful to finally be RESIDENTS of the DR.  Come on down and join the party!! 

THANK YOU to each and every poster here on expat.com; we didn't really start to get things under control, vis a vis our residency applications, until I found expat.com and the abundance of information here.  We also found Lishali Baez, our super-talented immigration lawyer, through recommendations here.  THANK YOU, especially to Planner for the immigration advice, and Lennox for the COVID-19 updates and Situational Awareness.  But so many others have helped us, too, too many to list.

Bless you all, looking forward to growing new friendships.

Jim
ExpatRusher

Welcome again Jim and Lisa!  Great introduction or re introduction!!!

And thank you for the kind words.  Glad we are helping!

Welcome to the forums Omar!   We. Look forward to your participation here!

Hello,,  my name is Bill Johnson,,  I intend to move to the DR. I already have experience in Mazatlan Mexico and I think that is a good foundation. What attracts me to the DR is that,,,  and if I interpret it correctly,,   there are medical benefits for US veterans???  I see a facility in Santiago and Santo Domingo,,       Do you know if this is true?     

I enjoy playing guitar and socializing. I also remodel all kinds of facilities,,   I volunteer for the Lions Club International and have made many improvements to the facility in Mazatlan,,   

Mexico doesn't offer any medical assistance and demands payment before exiting a facility.

Thanks Bill

Welcome Bill.  There are at least two threads regarding vets here.  Please do a search.  In those threads you will find answers and feel free to post your questions there.

Hi everyone - My name is Colleen. Have been considering retirement in the DR for many years and now we're just a few years away from making our dreams a reality. My husband was born in the DR but basically grew up in NY. We travel a few times a year and have stayed in a number of different areas on the north coast from POP out to Las Terrenas. He speaks fluent Spanish, although it's definitely Dominican Spanish. I can speak and understand for the most part but am always learning something new. I have the benefit of most of our friends being Dominicans so I've been exposed to the language/slang/Dominicanismos over the years. I know that will help somewhat once we retire.

After many, many trips, we were determined to settle somewhere maybe near Cabarete or Cabrera. We both used to love Sosua but it's changed so much and has no appeal for us anymore (no offense to anyone who lives there).

However, he's a golf junkie and then we took our first trip to PC in 2018. He fell in love with the courses and realized how much the north coast is lacking as far as golf. Now we're really torn. Love the scenery and the more authentic vibe in the north, but the golf around PC and Cap Cana is very appealing to him. Prices seem much better in the north too. We have a lot of decisions to make as we consider our eventual move.

I spend a lot of time reading every post I can on both areas, to keep up with things down there. I also read everything I can on the DR forums on another site (not sure if I'm allowed to post the name here), and both are just a wealth of information.

We are not really resort people. We've stayed at a couple but for the most part we rent condos/villas/apts when we travel because we want to be out and about, eat in local restaurants, and cook some of the local foods once in a while. I will probably continue working once we move as I can work remotely. He will golf.  We will both explore, spend time at the beach, etc. We're not into the nightlife scene and prefer to just relax at night. I love cooking and, as odd as it might sound, I can spend hours in the grocery stores looking for local products, or search for a truck full of fresh produce, so I can cook a few Dominican dishes while we're visiting.

Anyway, just wanted to give you an idea of who I am. I'm really confused about where we'll end up. We will rent for a year, for sure, before deciding, but now I'm thinking it may be better to rent for 6 mos up north and then 6 mos in PC, and THEN decide.

I welcome any opinions on both areas.

Welcome to the forums! After your intro I am excited for you!  Will be a tough decision but you can always travel around the country!

Hola amigos!

I'm Maria and my fiancé is Michael. We're from California. We just bought property in Cabarete and will start building next month! We are so excited and nervous about starting this project and starting the next chapter of our lives. We'll be doing the whole Airbnb thing until we can retire which fingers crossed, is sooner than later! Between us we have 8 children... 7 adult children and my youngest who's a sophomore in high school. This site has been so informative! Hoping to meet some of you all soon!

Welcome to you both. Congrats on buying and building.  Keep us posted along the way!

Hello all.  My name is Shantel and my husband is Paul.   We are looking to relocate to the DR this summer.   My husband will be taking early retirement and I will continue to work remotely.  I do have two offices in the DR (Santa Domingo and San Isidro).   We are looking primarily at the Sosua area to purchase a home.

I am actually meeting with Lily in April when I am there next for business and my husband is going over the first week in April to look at some potential homes for us.

So glad to be here and looking forward to learning more.