
All of us want to get married somewhere beautiful, whether in an autumn forest or on a tropical beach or anywhere else that feels like the perfect place for you. The Dominican Republic is one of those places if a sunset wedding on a beach is your dream.
However, if you’re also planning on sponsoring your spouse to come to Canada, then what is called a spiritual wedding won’t really do. What you need is a civil or religious (canonical) wedding to ensure that immigration officials back home see your marriage as valid. And that means preparing to deal with the surprisingly complex marriage regulations and rules in the Dominican Republic. Even in paradise, you have to get the paperwork right.
If you’ve been following our series of blogs on getting married and sponsoring your spouse in various countries around the world, you can think of the marriage rules in the Dominican Republic as a combination of Cuban processes and fees, and Brazilian rules – especially those that deal with the division of assets between the couple.
So, to get to that perfect wedding on a perfect beach with your to-be spouse, it’s time to start preparing and planning how to gather and process your documents. First up, an overview of marriage in the Dominican Republic, and then sponsoring your spouse.
Marriage in the Dominican Republic
The first thing to understand is that the validity period for notarized, translated, legalized, and/or apostilled documents is quite short – usually 3 months. That means you need to set a wedding date that gives you enough time to obtain and process all your documents, but not so far in the future that the validity of the translated and legalized/apostilled documents expire before your wedding.
Most of your documents will be gathered in your home country and they will have to be translated and legalized at the Dominican consulate, before you fly to the country for your wedding. Since late 2008, the Dominican Republic has been a member of the Hague Convention and Canada recently joined as well. So, you can apostille your documents before taking them to the consulate.
You will need the following documents:
- Valid Passport with a photocopy of the identification page (bio-page)
- Original birth certificate notarized and translated into Spanish with both the original and the certified translated copy apostilled (unless the translation is done at the Dominican consulate in your country in which case you don’t need to apostille the translated copy).
- Divorce Certificate (if divorced) notarized, translated by a certified translator or the consulate, and all copies and the original apostilled.
- Death Certificate (if widowed) notarized, translated by a certified translator or the consulate, and all copies and the original apostilled.
- Affidavit of marital status (with your current address included) notarized, translated by a certified translator or the consulate, and all copies and the original apostilled.
Your Dominican spouse will need:
- A National Identity Card and/or Passport
- A birth certificate
- A divorce certificate if divorced
- As well, there is reportedly a mandatory waiting period of 10 months if the divorced spouse is a woman before they can remarry.
- A death certificate if widowed
- An affidavit of marital status if single
CIVIL WEDDING
You should choose a Civil Registry Office, double check on all the requirements (especially documentation) and reserve a date for your civil wedding. Remember to have your documents authenticated, legalized, apostilled, and/or notarized as required, no more than 3 months prior to your wedding date.
You will need 2 witnesses for your wedding who will need their National Identity Card or their Passports. They cannot be family members but many resorts can provide you with witnesses.
You will need to pay a number of fees as part of the process, so make sure you budget for this.
As mentioned above, you will also have to choose a matrimonial property system similar to the process in Brazil. However, the options are more complex in the Dominican Republic. Here’s an overview, but it is recommended you and your spouse discuss this thoroughly with a lawyer. Use an interpreter if you are not functionally fluent in Spanish. The options are as follows:
COMMUNITY PROPERTY SYSTEMS
I: Legal Community is the most common community property system and divides spousal property into:
- Common property which includes all movable property and any earnings from such property as well as real estate acquired during the marriage. Common property is further divided into:
- Ordinary property which is property owned by either spouse prior to the marriage which based on the marriage then becomes common property.
- Reserved property which is property that results from the personal work of the woman or savings resulting from such work. Reserved property is administered by the woman but legally is common property as a result of the marriage.
- Property owned by the wife
- Property owned by the husband
Under legal community, the husband has the right of management and administration of the property although the wife has some guarantees against mismanagement by the husband, including liens and judicial division of the property.
II: Reduced to Earnings is a property system where the common property is a function of the debts incurred by both spouses and where the respective movable property of each spouse is not part of the common property.
III: Universal Community is a property system where all present and future properties are considered common property.
SEPARATE PROPERTY SYSTEMS
These systems involve each spouse administering, disposing of, and using the property they own. However, even under separate property systems, the wife faces a number of limitations:
- The wife needs the consent of her husband or judicial authorization to dispose of her property.
- Movable goods owned by a spouse can be liquidated in the event the marriage is dissolved.
- A wife’s property can be subject to the claims of creditors for debts incurred before and during the marriage as well as debts incurred by either spouse in maintaining the property, or in the case of insolvency on the part of the husband.
If you are considering a prenuptial agreement to nail down the details on the distribution of property between you and your spouse, there is one final detail you should never forget.
If you have signed a prenuptial separation of goods act or a prenuptial limitation on the distribution of goods, you must have that agreement submitted to a Civil Judge to be notarized, translated into Spanish, and apostilled (both the original and the translation).
RELIGIOUS (CANONICAL) WEDDING
First of all, you should choose which Chapel to have what is called your matrimonial preparation: either the chapel where you reside, or your spouse’s chapel.
You’ll also need the following:
- A Baptismal Certificate issued no more than 6 months prior to your religious wedding ceremony. It should indicate your confirmation, if you have been confirmed.
- Your civil wedding certificate, if you’re also holding a civil ceremony.
- The birth certificates of any children, if applicable
- The annulment certificate from your church of a previous marriage, if applicable
- Written proof from the church of your matrimonial preparation
- Written authorization from your chapel priest if you are marrying in another church
- Written approval of your marriage by the Chancellor of the Dioceses
- Please note that all documents obtained outside of the Dominican Republic must be translated and legalized by the Dominican consulate prior to taking them to the country.
Following your religious ceremony, the church will assume responsibility for registering your marriage with the civil authorities there.
Finally, you can have a religious wedding in any other religion you choose.
Sponsoring your Spouse to Canada
The spousal sponsorship process in Canada is now done online, not on paper, unless you qualify for special treatment, including disabilities, that prevent you from applying online. So, you will have to register with and use IRCC’s Online Portal for permanent residence applications (of which spousal sponsorship is one of the main types along with economic applications such as the Express Entry).
There are several key takeaways to the spousal sponsorship process in Canada:
- You have to apply to IRCC to qualify as a sponsor. That means giving information on your job, income, and savings (as well as other information) to ensure that you can successfully support your spouse and any accompanying dependents when they come to live in Canada. If you are deemed ineligible to be a sponsor, the application is often cancelled, although you can appeal.
- Your spouse has to apply for permanent residence in Canada, which means they have to satisfy all the eligibility requirements that IRCC has in place for permanent residents.
- The forms your spouse fills out are region-specific or even country-specific. In this case, they will have to download and fill out and submit those forms appropriate to a permanent resident application from the Dominican Republic.
- You have to decide whether you want to do:
- an overseas sponsorship where your spouse remains in the Dominican Republic until your application is successful and they have their PR visa, or
- an inland sponsorship where they get a visitor visa to visit Canada and you apply from inside Canada. You can also apply in Canada if your spouse is on a work or study permit.
- As a sponsor, you should know what your “undertaking” (a contractual obligation to support your spouse) involves and for how long you will be responsible for your sponsored spouse and any dependents.
I have this problem …
In a multitrack process like marriage abroad combined with spousal sponsorship there will almost always be problems with documentation and status, among other things. Here are some typical issues that can slow down your application or even result in a rejection:
- Not enough evidence of a relationship: one of the key alarm signals for IRCC officials is the suspicion that a spousal sponsorship is for immigration purposes only. Not only that, but either party to the marriage may be suspected of using the sponsorship for the wrong reasons. So, it’s essential you convince IRCC your relationship is genuine. You may find that immigration officials require an interview and additional proof of your relationship, given increased concerns over marriages of convenience with Dominican spouses. It may be unfair on their part, but be prepared to handle an interview.
- Sponsor’s eligibility: you may feel you will be a responsible and caring sponsor, but there are financial metrics you have to meet. It depends in large part on whether your spouse has dependent children.
- Misrepresentation: it is never a good idea to bend the facts in any application whatsoever when dealing with IRCC. You might get away with it but it is much more likely that a misrepresentation will land you in trouble with IRCC. Cleaning up a misrepresentation is not easy and may sometimes require a waiting period of years.
- Criminality: this is perhaps the toughest one. It will depend on whether a misdemeanor or a felony is involved and means a complex process of appeals to various agencies or departments of the Canadian government.
The key is to prepare as much as possible – especially for possible interviews – when putting together your application. That also goes for planning and doing your wedding in the Dominican Republic. So, understanding the process, especially the country’s rules on division of property, is key. Be focused, patient, and prepared and make sure your documentation is in order, and use an interpreter if necessary, and your sponsorship will be that much smoother.