Dominican Citizenship by Descent: How Children of Dominicans Can Claim a Second Passport

Thousands of people born in New York, Madrid or Toronto carry a right they have never exercised: a claim to Dominican citizenship. If your mother or father is Dominican, the Dominican Constitution treats you as Dominican by birth, you do not apply for naturalization, you formalize a nationality you already hold.

The distinction matters. Naturalization is discretionary and slow. Citizenship by descent is a recognized right, and the process consists of documenting the parent-child link, foreign birth certificates, apostilles, official translations and the parent’s Dominican records, before the civil registry authorities. The paperwork is where most applicants stumble: a misspelled surname on a decades-old record, or a certificate issued in a format the registry will not accept, can stall an otherwise straightforward file for months.

For anyone planning to relocate, retire or do business in the country, the practical advantages are immediate. A citizen can live, work and own property without visas or renewals, open bank accounts and obtain financing on the same footing as any local, and skip the residency track entirely. The Dominican Republic also permits dual nationality, so there is no requirement to renounce your current passport, a point that distinguishes it from several other jurisdictions in the region. The Dominican passport itself grants visa-free or simplified entry to dozens of countries.

There is also a succession angle that families often overlook. Establishing Dominican nationality, and keeping the civil-registry chain clean across generations, simplifies future inheritance proceedings over Dominican assets, where heirs must prove their filiation with certified documents.

If a Dominican parent appears anywhere in your family tree, the practical first step is a document audit: gather the parent’s birth record and your own, and have a Dominican citizenship lawyer confirm that the chain of documents will satisfy the registry before you file. Arthur & Castillo regularly guides clients abroad through this process end to end, contact us to review your eligibility.

Do you want more information about our services for Acquiring Dominican Citizenship? Contact Us.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Maria Arthur Rodger is a Partner leading the Private Client, Successions and Tax areas at Arthur & Castillo Advisers and Consultants in the Dominican Republic. She specializes in private client, successions, tax, real estate valuation and advisory (Master in Tax and Finance Studies from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. & Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona) with more than 20 years of experience. She is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Valuator, Business Bankruptcy Expert and English and Spanish Interpreter.

Email: marthur@aclaw.com

Disclaimer: This publication is not intended to provide advice or suggest a guaranteed outcome as individual situations will differ and the situation may have changed since publication. For specific advice on the information provided and related topics, please contact the author.

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