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Living in Santiago is not a lawyer's office and as such we cannot and do not give out legal advice. Saying that Living in Santiago has teamed up with law office of Licda Teresa Batista. Teresa has been practicing law since 1981, and has been a notary since 1990. The Dominican Republic is a bit different from other countries; to be a notary here you must be a lawyer first. So all notaries are lawyers but not all lawyers are notaries.

We have sat with her a couple times and now meet at least weekly, to discuss services that she will offer and information that will be displayed on Living in Santiago. We have decided to start with offering the letter of singleness and translation of the birth certificate for foreigners that would like to get married here. This was decided to be the first since that page is already written and pretty straight forward and we get a lot of questions about this requirement for a local wedding.

Licda. Batista is in the process of writing up the procedures and requirements for things like residency, citizenship, and different types of businesses. She is also looking at the latest laws and their status, for example there were some changes to the residency requirements about 2 years ago, however they have not been implemented yet. They changed the types of businesses and the requirements at the end of 2008 and have extended the deadline to change your present business to one of the new types. There was a major change in the law that affects foreign men married to Dominican women. So she is checking on the latest status of these changes.

As we firm up the steps and requirements with her, we will be posting them to the site and announcing them in the blog and newsletter. We will try to keep the site as up to date as possible, however that is sometimes hard weeding through the changes and when the changes take effect. There are some interesting laws on the books that people can take advantage of. In time as we explorer and research these laws we will keep you up to date.

Once again, Living in Santiago is not a lawyer’s office but only the reporting medium. The Law Office of Teresa Batista will be the source of information and any services provided. We at Living in Santiago will try to assist you in any manner possible. Including coordinating with her office if you need help.

In a perfect world, I would like to be posting 1 new legal article per week, however this is not a perfect world and it takes time for the lawyer to review the laws, write it up and then for us to translate the information. I would rather the information be late but be accurate.

Check back often as we try to update the site with new articles and info.