Dominican Republic

[New Wife]

Has anyone gone through the Embassy in Santo Domingo for their Permanent Residency part of the application? I've been hearing all sorts of horror stories that it is taking 12-17 months for applications to be processed and in the meantime medical & police forms are expiring.

My husband who is in the DR is hopefully our application will only take a few months, but I am preparing in my heart for the long haul.

I've been approved as his sponsor, but I know that means nothing when it comes to the speed that our application will be processed from this point on.

Does anyone have any helpful advice, or know how it is working in Santo Domingo in connection with processing times?

Thanks

 

[Cdagal]

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/international/05-fc-spouses.asp

Sorry I have no experience with this visa office, but the above link has information about processing times in various foreign offices

 

[sitandwait]

Hi and welcome!
So nice to see someone else sponsoring from DR. I have heard recently of many people's applications being finished up as there were some pending from before the earthquake in Haiti. Those were taking more time as their files had been in Haiti when the earthquake hit then the files were transferred to Santo Domingo as I understand. Some of those were taking 13-14 months. I'm hoping things will go a little faster now.
I've been approved as a sponsor, a month ago but I'm still not "in process" on e-cas. May I suggest you join Dominicano Spouses on FB and DR1 for more information. (and support)

 

[tigergirl]

Hi, I just realized you asked a very similar question to mine. I do have a good friend that also married a Dominican and he was here in three months; however, their application was first in Haiti (got there one day before the earth quake) so their file was sent to Santo Domingo.

I am using an immigration Lawyer the same as my friend. We have submitted a complete package with all fees etc paid.

My approval came through at the beginning of September one month after sending in the application. It has now been in Santo Domingo for just over a month. The eCAS shows nothing at this point other than I was approved.

Yes, the waiting is driving me crazy. I do not like the feeling of having a total stranger decide what is good for our family.

If anyone as info that would be great. I think my friend was lucky!

 

[sitandwait]

Oh my goodness, I would say that 3 months is extremely unusual/lucky. I'm in the same boat, Approved in Sept. to sponsor but no update on ecas. It just says "not available". I didn't use a lawyer but I had a consultant . Well worth it in my opinion. I'm going crazy, I know someone who was "in process" a week after sponsorship approval. It's going on 5 weeks and still nothing for me. Good luck to you and me, hope it's soon.

 

[tigergirl]

Talked to my lawyer this week. She said that we should have some information within the next few weeks. Regarding a B file number and be able to see in process.

We sent in a full package, all fees paid etc. It is driving me crazy this waiting. So here we wait. Please post and let me know when you receive information.

 

[New Wife]

Thanks for the information tigergirl, very thoughtful of you to let us know what your lawyer said.

I know waiting is the hard part, not easy leaving your life in someone else's hands.

We also sent in all of our forms, and paid all the fees, so I guess we just have to wait. Keep your chin up!

 

[tigergirl]

Ok So we are now at 7 weeks and when I log in to ecas with my info nothing has changed, under my hubby it says not available. Have still not received an AOR from the Santo Domingo Office. All fees are med, meds are done, full file. Maybe I am just hoping for too much too soon but wondering if either one of New Wifey or sitandwait have any updates on their files. Patience is not my strong point. LOL.

 

[New Wife]

Hey tigergirl I feel for you! I'm in the same situation too.

Nothing has changed for us on Ecas either. I did get an email from the Embassy in Santo Domingo confirming that they will send out an AOR once they receive it. But whether it will come in a timely fashion or not is yet to be seen. So an email from the Embassy was hopeful, although they did say that all files were being transfered from Haiti still, so it might have just been an old form email they sent out to appease the masses...who knows???

Waiting is very hard, try to keep busy and do your best to be patient...although that is easier said than done....

I have seen that it takes other embassy's about 2-3 months to put files "in process", but that all depends on whether there is a cue or not. And Ecas is not always reliable, sometimes it's just not updated in a timely fashion.

If anyone else hears anything from the DR please keep us posted.

New Wife

 

[New Wife]

To all who are applying to the Embassy in Santo Domingo I have a little bit of information I hope you will all find helpful.

As I had mentioned I received an email from the Embassy in Santo Domingo stating that they were anticipating our application to be sent to them shortly from Haiti. I called Immigration here to ask them about this, since in my sponsorship approval letter from CPC-Missisauga it was indicated that our application was sent directly to Santo Domingo.

Immigration here clarified that all files are uploaded electronically and sent to Haiti since they are still the main embassy. From there Haiti will forward a copy of our electronic application to Santo Domingo.

Electronic uploads take only 1-2 days to do here in Canada depending on how much information is included in the application.

Now Santo Domingo told me that as of October 25th, 25 days after my sponsorship was approved they hadn't received anything yet. Immigration here did confirm with my that our application was uploaded and sent to Haiti. She did confirm that for me. However the fact that SD had not received it yet was concerning.

So immigration here said that we should wait 30 days - to November 25th and contact Santo Domingo again. That should be our "panic date". If the embassy in SD has not received our file by them I am to call immigration here, they will uplaod things again, and investigate what happened.

I guess my suggestion for you all waiting for SD, is to email the embassy in SD directly to see whether they have your application or not. Whether it is in process or not, they should tell you at least if your application is there. You can go to the Santo Domingo website directly and fill the in case specific form and email them. Very easy. If they email you back and say they have nothing, call immigration here. Tell them the embassy in SD has confirmed they have nothing and get immigration here to confirm they whether they sent your information or not. It's a starting point.

I hope this is helpful....

New Wife

 

[New Wife]

Case specific inquiries to the embassy in Santo Domingo:

https://dmp-portal.cic.gc.ca/cicemail/intro-eng.aspx?mission=santo%20domingo

 

[vvargas]

I'm sending my application on Monday!!!! very stressed and worried!!!

Good luck to all of you!!

I will keep you posted on what I receive from CIC.