Canadian citizenship entitles you to get a marriage visa to marry your Dominican wife and sponsor her application for marriage immigration to Canada. Applying for a marriage visa and preparing for marriage immigration can be a time consuming task and you will need to be organized particularly with your Canada documents. To qualify for a spouse visa you must fulfill these basic criteria:

• You must be a Canadian citizen or legal permanent resident aged 18 years or over
• You must be financially independent and able to support her for 3 years after she gets her permanent residency
• You must also support any dependent children for 10 years or until they are 25
• You must have adequate housing where you, your Dominican wife and any dependants can live without relying on state benefits

When you marry your Dominican spouse you can legalise your Dominican Republic marriage in Canada.

Getting Ready for Marriage Immigration

Before you leave Canada, you need to prepare for your marriage immigration. You should go in person to your local Registrar of Marriages to obtain an Affidavit of Marital Status. This certificate costs $50 and proves your single status by confirming that you are not still involved in another marriage. You can use it within 3 months of the date of issue.

If you fail to do this in Canada, you can do it in the Canadian Embassy or consulate in the Dominican Republic prior to getting a Dominican Marriage Licence.

You will also need an original or certified copy your Birth Certificate.

If you have been married before you must produce one of the following documents to support the Affidavit of Marital Status:

• If divorced, you will need your Divorce Decree
• if widowed you will need your Certificate of Marriage and Death Certificate of your previous spouse

Changing Your Canada Documents

When official documents issued in Canada are to be used in the Dominican Republic, they need to be notarised, “authenticated” and “legalised “in order for them to be valid there.

The first thing you need to do is get a notary stamp and signature from any notary in Canada. Then get them “authenticated” by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT). The purpose of the authentication process is to prove the validity of the documents issued in Canada.

The last thing to do is to get your documents translated into Spanish and “legalised” by the Dominican Republic Embassy . After that your documents acquire legal validity in the Dominican Republic.

Documents in Need of Legalisation for Marriage in the Dominican Republic

• Affidavit of Marital Status
• Divorce Decree (if relevant)
• Former spouse’s Death Certificate and previous marriage certificate (if relevant)
• Your Birth Certificate
• Name change certificate (if relevant)
• Your Canadian passport cannot be legalised as it is already an internationally recognised document. You must however have photocopies of the ID and bio page notarised as true copies of the original.
  

Dominican Republic Visa Requirements

As a Canadian citizen you do not need a visa to visit the Dominican Republic as tourists providing your stay does not exceed 60 days. Your passport must be valid for at least six months after the 21 day period and have at least two blank pages. You must purchase a Tourist Card upon arrival at the airport. It costs $10 and is valid for 30 days. If you wish to prolong your stay, you can do so for up to 90 days. The fee is DOP 62.40.

Once you have prepared all relevant documents and you have a valid Canadian passport, you may make arrangements to join your Dominican wife.

Getting Married in the Dominican Republic

You may decide to marry your Dominican spouse in Canada however, getting married in Dominican Republic is a great experience and relatively straight forward providing you are organised and ensure that you and your Dominican girlfriend have the correct documentation.

Whilst your Dominican bride is excited about getting married in the Dominican Republic you should make her aware that under both Canadian and Dominican Republic Marriage Law, only the civil registration of your marriage will be recognised as legal and only a legal marriage will allow you to bring your Dominican wife back to Canada.

The legal age to get married in the Dominican Republic is 15 for women, if she is younger, she must present evidence of parental consent.

To register the marriage legally with the Dominican Republic authorities takes a lot of work and you should not underestimate the time or work involved.

The first step in planning your wedding in the Dominican Republic is to go to the Civil Registry Office with your Dominican wife to apply for a Notice of Intended Marriage, which costs RD $5,000. You should take your passport and all of the documents you brought with you from Canada. Your Dominican wife needs to present a Dominican Republic Affidavit of Marriage Status as well as her passport, birth certificate and proof that she is no longer married. If your Dominican bride has been married before, she will need to wait for 10 months until she can remarry.

Prior to the wedding ceremony the Registry Office will publish a notice of the intended marriage.

Document Check: Canadian Bridegroom

• Original Affidavit of Marital Status issued in Canada or by the Canadian Embassy in the Dominican Republic. It must not be older than three months from the date of issue
• Original valid Canadian passport
• Tourist Card
• Original birth certificate
• Original death certificate of deceased spouse if widowed
• Original divorce decree or annulment papers if divorced

Document Check: Dominican Bride

• Affidavit of Single Status
• Original birth certificate
• Original death certificate of deceased spouse if widowed
• Original divorce decree or annulment papers if divorced.

Once the Notice of Intended Marriage is published, you and your Dominican wife need to go to a Notary Public for the marriage ceremony. Two witnesses of legal age must be present. After the ceremony takes place, you will be given a document stating that the marriage took place; you must take this document to the local Justice of the Peace who will issue your Marriage Certificate. Marriage to your Dominican spouse does not automatically qualify you for Dominican citizenship; Dominican Republic permits dual citizenship and in order to become a Dominican citizen you must apply through the official government immigration channels.

Permanent Resident Application

When your Dominican wife comes to Canada she can change her name to that of your own and you can start the marriage visa process.. Any Canadian man wishing to bring his Dominican wife to Canada must sponsor her for permanent residence. The process takes between 6 and 18 months. Sponsorship is a part of the Canadian immigration system that allows individuals to come to Canada under the Family Class of immigration.

In your case, you will sponsor your Dominican wife to Canada, as long as you meet the requirements of a spousal sponsor. Sponsorship is an agreement between the Canadian government and you. This agreement is a promise on the part of the sponsor that you will provide your spouse with food, clothes and shelter i.e. all of the basic requirements in order to live in Canada.

The marriage visa sponsorship agreement includes financial support and health care because your Dominican wife will have no access to the social care system. In the sponsorship agreement you promise to sponsor your spouse for at least three years from the day she becomes a permanent resident. You also have to sponsor any dependent children moving with her to Canada for a period of 10 years or until they are 25, whichever comes first.

Spousal Sponsorship Requirements

To qualify for spousal sponsorship, you must meet the following requirements:

1. You are over 18 years old and a Canadian citizen or permanent resident living in Canada.
2. You are single and free to marry
3. You have married a citizen of the Dominican Republic in the Dominican Republic and intend to live in Canada with her
4. You are not on any Social Assistance program
5. You are not in default of any previous sponsorship agreement
6. You have sufficient funds and you are not bankrupt
7. You are not in prison

You may not qualify if one of the following points applies to your situation:

• You previously failed to provide financial support when you signed a sponsorship agreement to sponsor another relative
• You failed to pay alimony or child support
• You received government financial assistance for reasons other than disability
• You were convicted of a violent criminal offence, an offence against a relative or a sexual offence
• You failed to make payments for an immigration loan
• You have declared bankruptcy and have not recovered from it yet.

If you qualify for spousal sponsorship, you can fill out the application forms available from Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC). Read the guide and complete the application. Remember to support the application with relevant documents.

Canada Visa Application

Your wife must fill out the immigration forms. As part of the application process, she will need to undergo a medical exam and a criminal check. The medical exam is required to make sure that applicants do not have a medical condition that is dangerous to Canadian public health and safety, or would require elaborate treatment by the Canadian health services. The examination results are valid for 12 months and need to be done by authorised doctors. Your wife must present a valid police certificate from the Regional Police Office or at Police Headquarters in Santo Domingo showing she has no criminal record.

The next step is to pay you application fee to Citizenship and Immigration Canada. You can pay your fees by bank transfer or online. If you choose to pay at the bank, you have to order a receipt of payment, also called immigration form IMM 5401. Remember to bring this form with you to the bank when you pay your fees. If you pay online, make sure you print the receipt of payment form and include it with your application.

Visa Application Fees

The marriage visa application fees are as follows:

• $75 for you as a sponsor
  $475 for your Dominican wife
• $150 for a dependent child your wife who is under 22 and not married
• $550 for a dependant of your wife who is 22 or older, or who is under 22 and married $490 for the right of permanent residence fee which your wife will be have to pay before the status is granted.

The last step is to mail your application along with the receipt for the fees paid and all supporting documents to the Citizenship and Immigration Canada Case Processing Centre (CPC) in Mississauga, Ontario. You will be notified when your application is received and you can check the status of your application online.

After your wife has held her permanent resident status for three years, she is eligible to apply for Canadian citizenship.

Applications are refused if you provide false information on your application.