The step-by-step plan for Dominican Republic

In this step you learn how you may come to live in the Dominican Republic. It always goes in two steps, in two places.

• First you apply at the consulate general in The Hague for a Visa de Residencia, the residence visa (RS). That visa can be used for sixty days, for one entry.
• Then, within thirty days of arrival, you report to the Dirección General de Migración (DGM), the migration service. There you apply for residence itself. The visa is your first piece of evidence.

Whoever comes with a pension or lives off capital has a law of their own: Ley 171-07. It knows two kinds of residents:

• the pensionado: you receive a pension from abroad of at least 1,500 dollars a month;
• the rentista: you receive fixed income from capital of at least 2,000 dollars a month.

Neither goes through the ordinary desk at the DGM, but through the desk for investors. The regulation to the migration law says that this way you don't have to go through temporary residence. There is no minimum age.

Whoever comes through family gets temporary residence first. You renew it every year, and after five years you apply for permanent residence.

Not retired yet? Whoever leaves before the AOW age looks at the income that exists then, not at the income of later.

• Pensionado is only possible with a pension you already receive. The law names a pension from a foreign government, an official body or a private employer. If your pension fund lets your retirement pension start early, that counts. The AOW only counts from the moment you receive it.
• Rentista suits whoever lives off capital before the AOW age. The threshold is 2,000 dollars a month, plus 250 dollars for a partner: 2,250 dollars together. You show that this income is fixed and will keep running for at least five years. Wages don't count.
• Investor is the route for whoever puts at least 200,000 dollars into a Dominican company or project.
• If you meet none of these thresholds, work with a Dominican employer or family reunification remain.

In this step you see what emigrating to the Dominican Republic does to your tax, your AOW and your healthcare. The short answer: the Netherlands has no treaty at all with this country that covers them.

Tax. There is no tax treaty. The Belastingdienst puts it like this: if there is no treaty with your country of residence, the Netherlands has the right to tax. So the Netherlands keeps taxing your AOW, a government pension, your occupational pension and your annuity. As a resident of the Dominican Republic you get no tax credit. On the Dominican side, the law for pensionados and rentistas provides that the income with which you obtain your residence is exempt from Dominican income tax.

The AOW itself. The Dominican Republic isn't among the 36 countries with which the Netherlands has a social security treaty. The AOW does go along, but up to the married rate: the amount for someone who is married or lives together. For a couple nothing changes. Whoever goes alone drops from seventy to fifty percent of the minimum wage.

Healthcare. The country isn't on the list of treaty countries for healthcare either. So there is no CAK, the Dutch body that arranges your care in treaty countries. Your Dutch basic insurance stops when you deregister. After that, a policy of your own is your healthcare system.

Your AOW build-up stops. What you built up until you leave stays. But whoever lives outside the Netherlands is usually no longer insured. Each year until your AOW age then costs 2 percent of your later AOW. You can insure yourself voluntarily with the SVB. The registration has to be in within one year. If you already receive AOW, this no longer matters.

In this step you choose where you want to live. A holiday in a resort and living in the country are two different things.

At every place, look at three things you don't notice on holiday:

• The offices. Exchanging your driving licence can only be done at the head office of the traffic agency in Santo Domingo. The cédula office for foreigners is in Santo Domingo, Santiago and Bávaro. Ask where the DGM desk is that handles your application, and count on a few trips in the first months.
• Healthcare. Where you live determines which clinic is within reach. At every place, ask where the nearest hospital is, and whether your policy works there.
• Daily life outside the season. Rent for a few weeks in the period when there are few tourists. Then you see what it's like in your months.
• Land. If you're looking at a plot to build on yourself, ask during the trip already which proof of ownership the seller has. What you need to know about it is in step 5.6.

In this step you see what the move will cost you. On the application side the country is affordable. The RS visa costs 200 dollars per person in fees. The cédula, the Dominican identity card, costs 5,000 to 10,000 pesos.

The money is in three other items:

• The health insurance policy that replaces the CAK, and comes back every year.
• The move across the ocean.
• The car, because a car older than five years may not enter the country.

In this conversation you decide together whether the Dominican Republic fits, and when. Three things come with this country that you need to see together.

• The AOW. The drop to the married rate only hits whoever goes alone. If one of you dies, the other becomes single. Even then it stays the lower AOW for married people as long as you live in the country.
• Healthcare. A private policy gets more expensive the older you are. Discuss what you'll do if one of you needs long-term care.
• The distance. Family and grandchildren in the Netherlands are no longer a quick visit away. Agree how often you come back, and who pays which trip.

Choose the day you want to leave. The plan counts back from that date: when the papers from the Netherlands must be in, when you apply for the visa and when you deregister.

Count two clocks. The RS visa can be used for sixty days after it is issued. And after arrival you have thirty days to report to the DGM.