What does emigrating to the Dominican Republic cost?
Answer a few short questions and you have an honest range for your situation. For every item it says whether it's a checked rate or an estimate. The application itself is affordable: the residence visa costs 200 dollars in fees, the cédula 5,000 to 10,000 pesos, exchanging the driving licence 1,900 pesos. The money sits in three other items: the health policy that replaces the CAK and returns every year, the move across the ocean, and the car, which may be at most five years old. One thing we state honestly. We couldn't check the DGM's own fees; that item is shown without an amount.
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A rough indication for your situation
A few short questions, and you get a range instead of an amount. That's deliberate: an exact figure would suggest a precision nobody has.
Count on a total of
€ 3.500 – € 8.600
Where does that difference come from?
- The first months€ 2.500 – € 6.000
Below you'll find per item where the upper and the lower limit come from.
- Aanvraag en papieren
- € 450 – € 900
- De verhuizing
- € 400 – € 1.000
- De eerste maanden
- € 2.600 – € 6.700
Every item, one by onePer item the amount, the source and whether it's a rate or an estimate
Aanvraag en papieren
- The RS visa at the consulate general in The Hague€ 150 – € 250
- The cédula at the Junta Central Electoral€ 70 – € 200
- VOG, apostilles and sworn translations(estimate)€ 200 – € 500
The amount depends on the number of documents. A couple with birth certificates, a marriage certificate, two VOGs and the statements from the SVB and the pension fund quickly reaches eight documents. A VOG for a visa or immigration costs € 41.35 through the municipality. An apostille from the court costs € 27 per document. MIREX has every document that isn't in Spanish translated by an intérprete judicial, a sworn translator; there is no fixed rate anywhere for that translation, count on a few tens of euros per document. Whoever needs documents twice, for the consulate and later for the DGM, is at the top.
De verhuizing
- Flights(estimate)€ 400 – € 1.000
The spread sits in the season and the luggage: whoever travels with two extra suitcases pays the top. The amount is for one way from Amsterdam to Santo Domingo or Punta Cana. Whoever later leaves the country again pays, since the tax reform of June 2026, a departure tax of 30 dollars per person (Ley 30-26).
De eerste maanden
- The first months(estimate)€ 2.500 – € 6.000
This item consists of deposit and rent paid in advance, furnishing what didn't come along, and the months in which you still pay double. The rent law of 2025 (Ley 85-25) caps the deposit for a home at two months' rent. Rents vary widely: in Santo Domingo, Punta Cana and on the north coast you pay a different rate in the better districts than in a town inland. Count the currency risk too: your income comes in euros, life runs in pesos.
- Bank, phone, contador and the first desks(estimate)€ 150 – € 600
Small money, but it's here because it all comes at once in the first weeks. It's about a Dominican account, a local SIM card, the certified copies and translations you hand in again at every desk, and a contador for the first annual return and the application for the exemption at Hacienda. It's also here because the bank charges a rate when transferring your pension that you want to know in advance.
- Exchanging the driving licence at INTRANT€ 25 – € 100
Deliberately no amount here
Residence at the DGM, with examination and guarantee policy
There is deliberately no amount here. For residence the DGM asks for fees, a medical examination by a doctor it recognises, and a póliza de garantía: an insurance for health and repatriation costs (Decreto 631-11, articles 48 and 57). The amounts are on the DGM's website, and that couldn't be read on 15 October 2026. Any figure here would be made up. Ask for the fees at the desk, and for the premium of the guarantee policy at an insurer the DGM recognises.
And if you buy a house?
This calculation assumes renting: the first months include deposit and rent in advance.
If you buy, count on 3 to 6% of the purchase price on top of this amount. On a home of € 250,000 that's € 7.500 to € 15.000.
The fixed item is the transfer tax of 3 percent, payable within six months of the deed. On top come the notary, the entry in the register and a valuation; those amounts aren't at an official source and are the top of the band. A pensionado or rentista under Ley 171-07 pays no transfer tax on the first home, and as long as the residence runs half the mortgage tax and half the IPI. The IPI is the annual real estate tax: 1 percent on a person's real estate above 10,695,494 pesos (2026). Those exemptions too you first apply for at the finance ministry. If you buy land to build on yourself, count in the land registry's certificación de estado jurídico (1,000 pesos), and a surveyor if the seller only has a constancia anotada.
An order of magnitude based on averages, not a quote. The real amounts depend on your occupation, your route, the season and dozens of choices you still have to make.
Rates checked on 15 October 2026.
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One thing you can sort out today
Closing down the Netherlands is the same work for everyone, wherever you're going. With the letter pack you enter your details once, and every cancellation and notification letter is ready: health insurance, rent, employer, bank, pension fund. Each comes with the date by which it has to go out. € 49 one-off, and it's also included in every plan.
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From range to your own budget
The calculator above works with a few questions, but the journey itself knows more. In Vertrekklaar the same model calculates with your real situation: who's coming, and whether the household contents and the pet come along. It also watches the clocks: the sixty days of the visa, the thirty days after landing for the DGM, and the year until the first renewal. A one-off € 399, no subscription.
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