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Dominican Residency (almost)
By Anton | October 21, 2008
I’m at work right now, well, on break actually and thought I’d write a little.
Exciting news, I just got an email from the branch here informing me that (drum roll please) my residency is FINALLY ready to be picked up! I am thrilled! It has been quite a long time coming, in fact, we started the process in January. The best part about the whole thing is that the date it is good for starts the day you deposit and ends one year later so… once I finally get it, it will only be good for 2 months! Hahaha ain’t life grand. The plus side of it all is that when I go to renew it, it will take less time, cost half the money and last twice as long so, yeah, there’s that.
They recommend that if you are going to spend any less than 2 years here, you not even think about getting legal residency. It just means you have to pay a tax every time you leave the country and that you have to leave every 9 months. That isn’t really well enforced though… if fact I have a friend who was here for almost 2 years before she left and it just meant she had to pay more as she left, not too bad though. The real benefit to having your Dominican “cedula” or ID card though is being able to whip it out as you tell locals that you are in fact “Dominicano” and they then all laugh and call you “Rubio” (blond) anyway.
In all seriousness though, it is an important thing to get, especially for any brothers in the Congregation since Bethel’s stance is that unless you are legal in the country, you are not able to hold responsibilities in the congregation.
Well, the bloods been drawn, x-rays taken, documents signed, documents lost, pictures taken, phone calls made, bus rides, taxi rides, concho rides, more bus rides, money paid, more money paid… and now, $400 later, the final trip and the final $100 till I can brag that I am a Dominican resident… for another 2 months anyway.
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