Friday 26 June 2009

Information supplied by Frank Virgintino

Note that whilst this is a new law, it is not necessarily being enforced in all ports as yet. There is confusion over the new law and its administration, however, the new law is in force and one does not need to comply with any other request.

The President of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernandez, signed into law the following:

The way it WAS is as follows:

Marina Guerra (coast guard), M-2 military intelligence, Department of Drugs, Immigration and Agriculture could enter an arriving boat in any order they deemed fit. There were much confusion and many requests for different payments.

The charges were as follows:

Arriving boats had to pay $15 US per crew member plus $43 for the boat, plus $10 if Agriculture were present. And in addition to go from harbor to harbor in the country or to go out of the country, one had to pay $10 for a Despacho (permission to depart which was granted by Marina Guerra).

The way it is NOW is as follows:

Boats arriving from a foreign port can be boarded by NO MORE than 2 government representatives. This is usually the Department of Drugs and Military Intelligence. The boarding is generally done with a representative of the marina when the boat comes into the harbor. Marina Guerra will also show up with the above two but will stay on the dock as the new law requires that not more than 2 governmental officials can board.

The charges are as follows:

– 5% of the boat dockage is to be collected by the marina and referred as a tax to the new agency that oversees marinas, Ports (Portuario).

– 2% of any fuel purchased is an added tax as well.

– There is no charge for Immigration any longer and no charge for the boat.

Everything is included in the above 2 charges for up to 90 days.

If the boat is anchored or does not purchase fuel, there is no charge for anything.

To move from harbor to harbor no longer requires a Despacho from Marina Guerra. The despacho is obtained from the marina where the boat is docked and the charge for it is nominal, just to cover the cost of document reproduction.

When the boat is ready to leave the DR, they must get a Despacho from Marina Guerra for a charge of $10.00 US. It is a one time charge at the point of departure.

Other charges:

-$10.00 US for any passenger that may arrive on the boat that is not a crew member when the boat arrives.

-$16.00 if a crewmember wants to disenroll to leave by air or arrives by air and wants to enroll as a crewmember on a boat leaving the DR.

The above is exactly per the law and it is being enforced.

Received 3 August from Jim Graham

The “new” procedures for checking in/out of the Dominican Republic as mentioned by Frank Virgintino have not happened at the most frequented ports used by cruisers – Luperon and Samana.

First of all, the “new” procedures only address ports with marinas for transients. No mention is made or contained in the notice about harbors where there are NO marinas. Samana does not have any marinas at all, anchoring is the only way. Luperon has only one very small marina that rarely accepts transients as it is usually full of permanent boats. So anchoring out is the normal procedure there.

As far as Luperon is concerned, the “new” procedures have not happened and are unlikely to happen anytime soon. The old ways are still very much business as usual.