Hello,
I am Canadian born and raised. Currently living and working (as a teacher) in the Dominican Republic. I have been here since August 2009.
My husband is Costa Rican, although he hasn't lived there for quite some time, he is a freelance photographer, and is also working doing graphic design for a company here in the Dominican Republic. He has been here since February 2009.
We were married here in the Dominican Republic in August of 2009. We have been dating since 2005 (and we have proof of our relationship since then.)
Neither of us have residency papers for living or working here in the Dominican Rep, they are not very strict about that here. Although we have both STARTED our residency papers for the Dominican Rep, it will take a long time to get them completed still.
We will be applying for a temporary visa for my husband to come with me and visit my parents and friends before the end of summer.
The supporting paperwork we will be supplying besides the standard required paperwork is the following:
- A legal lease contract on our house here that is valid for over 1 year still (in both our names)
- Ownership (and insurance) papers for each of our vehicles (one in each of our names)
- Letters from both of our employers, stating that we will continue employment with them upon return from holiday
- Papers from our lawyer showing that we are awaiting our residency papers here in the Dominican Republic
- Various bills, cable, internet, medical insurance in both of our names here
My flight papers are a bit complicated. I have the return portion of a round trip flight which I will be using to get to Toronto at the end of July. To return to the DR I will provide papers of my new round trip flight from Toronto to Dominican Republic in August of this year, and the second half (returning to Toronto) will be booked for 2011 (for me to use on my next visit). I'm not sure if this will complicate matters at all?
We can show the round trip flight we want to book for my husband, but I'm not sure if it's helpful to actually BOOK the flight before we have received a visa. (??? Does anyone know if this actually helps or not?)
We both get paid in cash, so we have all the receipts from what we get paid, although they are hand written. We have a joint bank account that we use to pay the rent, with money transferred in from Canada every month. However our spending money while we are in Canada will be in cash, so should we get Travellers cheques from our money saved and send photocopies? Or how do we show our proof of money we have to spend?
Do letters of character reference help?
Should we get a letter of invitation from my parents stating that we will be their guests during our stay? If we do, do we need to provide my parents banking and mortgage information?
Now the problem with our application....
We applied for a visitor visa for my husband in February 2009..although he was my boyfriend, not my husband at that point, and were refused. However at the time we applied he was in between countries. He owns land in Costa Rica, but he has not lived there since around 2004. Since then he had one visitor visa to Canada (before we knew each other), and he has been travelling and doing photography in the Dominican Republic, all over Europe (mostly in Spain, where he did Volunteer work for a few years), and other small trips we did together through Europe, Cuba, Guatemala...etc. So since he was without residence (meaning not with a fixed address) at the time, although we had planned to go to Costa Rica after a short trip in Canada, (we had letters of job offer in Costa Rica) we were refused the visa. The lady actually told us (since we went in person) that if I had not gone with him, and if he applied on his own to go to Canada, he would have had a better chance to get the visa.
Do you think that will affect our chance of getting the visa this time in a negative way?
If anyone has suggestions of other things we should add to prove that we plan to return to our life here in the Dom. Rep. after our visit to Canada?
Should we attach any pictures?
Last question....our last visa was processed (in person - same day) in Guatemala, since his passport is Costa Rican. But since we are living in the Dominican Republic, but we don't have our residency papers here yet...is there no point to send here within the Dominican Rep to be processed? Would it just be sent to Guatemala anyways??
I appreciate all comments and suggestions that can be given. We have to send the papers in right away, because we want to go before August (it takes approx. 15 days to be approved or refused.)
I am Canadian born and raised. Currently living and working (as a teacher) in the Dominican Republic. I have been here since August 2009.
My husband is Costa Rican, although he hasn't lived there for quite some time, he is a freelance photographer, and is also working doing graphic design for a company here in the Dominican Republic. He has been here since February 2009.
We were married here in the Dominican Republic in August of 2009. We have been dating since 2005 (and we have proof of our relationship since then.)
Neither of us have residency papers for living or working here in the Dominican Rep, they are not very strict about that here. Although we have both STARTED our residency papers for the Dominican Rep, it will take a long time to get them completed still.
We will be applying for a temporary visa for my husband to come with me and visit my parents and friends before the end of summer.
The supporting paperwork we will be supplying besides the standard required paperwork is the following:
- A legal lease contract on our house here that is valid for over 1 year still (in both our names)
- Ownership (and insurance) papers for each of our vehicles (one in each of our names)
- Letters from both of our employers, stating that we will continue employment with them upon return from holiday
- Papers from our lawyer showing that we are awaiting our residency papers here in the Dominican Republic
- Various bills, cable, internet, medical insurance in both of our names here
My flight papers are a bit complicated. I have the return portion of a round trip flight which I will be using to get to Toronto at the end of July. To return to the DR I will provide papers of my new round trip flight from Toronto to Dominican Republic in August of this year, and the second half (returning to Toronto) will be booked for 2011 (for me to use on my next visit). I'm not sure if this will complicate matters at all?
We can show the round trip flight we want to book for my husband, but I'm not sure if it's helpful to actually BOOK the flight before we have received a visa. (??? Does anyone know if this actually helps or not?)
We both get paid in cash, so we have all the receipts from what we get paid, although they are hand written. We have a joint bank account that we use to pay the rent, with money transferred in from Canada every month. However our spending money while we are in Canada will be in cash, so should we get Travellers cheques from our money saved and send photocopies? Or how do we show our proof of money we have to spend?
Do letters of character reference help?
Should we get a letter of invitation from my parents stating that we will be their guests during our stay? If we do, do we need to provide my parents banking and mortgage information?
Now the problem with our application....
We applied for a visitor visa for my husband in February 2009..although he was my boyfriend, not my husband at that point, and were refused. However at the time we applied he was in between countries. He owns land in Costa Rica, but he has not lived there since around 2004. Since then he had one visitor visa to Canada (before we knew each other), and he has been travelling and doing photography in the Dominican Republic, all over Europe (mostly in Spain, where he did Volunteer work for a few years), and other small trips we did together through Europe, Cuba, Guatemala...etc. So since he was without residence (meaning not with a fixed address) at the time, although we had planned to go to Costa Rica after a short trip in Canada, (we had letters of job offer in Costa Rica) we were refused the visa. The lady actually told us (since we went in person) that if I had not gone with him, and if he applied on his own to go to Canada, he would have had a better chance to get the visa.
Do you think that will affect our chance of getting the visa this time in a negative way?
If anyone has suggestions of other things we should add to prove that we plan to return to our life here in the Dom. Rep. after our visit to Canada?
Should we attach any pictures?
Last question....our last visa was processed (in person - same day) in Guatemala, since his passport is Costa Rican. But since we are living in the Dominican Republic, but we don't have our residency papers here yet...is there no point to send here within the Dominican Rep to be processed? Would it just be sent to Guatemala anyways??
I appreciate all comments and suggestions that can be given. We have to send the papers in right away, because we want to go before August (it takes approx. 15 days to be approved or refused.)
