Apostille & Document Legalization for the Dominican Republic — from Canada

A legal wedding in Punta Cana, Puerto Plata, or Santo Domingo is a Dominican civil ceremony, and the officiant needs proof that both partners are who they say and free to marry. For Canadians that generally means an apostilled long-form birth certificate and an apostilled single-status affidavit (sworn before a notary) for each partner, plus divorce or death certificates where a previous marriage ended — each with a Spanish translation. Resorts coordinate the ceremony but expect couples to arrive with the documents already prepared, and most set a document deadline weeks before the travel date.

Visa Jet builds the wedding package as one job: drafting and notarizing the affidavits, ordering certificates, obtaining apostilles, coordinating Spanish translation, and couriering the set in time for the resort's deadline. Start early — vital statistics offices and apostille authorities each add days to the calendar.

Canadians buying condos, villas, or land in the Dominican Republic — or settling there for retirement — encounter Dominican lawyers and authorities who want Canadian documents in certified form: powers of attorney for closings handled at a distance, bank and pension letters for residency-related files prepared by Dominican counsel, birth and marriage certificates, and police checks where requested.

We prepare each instrument through the correct chain — notarization, apostille, Spanish translation — and ship it to you or directly to your lawyer in Santo Domingo. The legal and residency questions belong to Dominican professionals and authorities; the documents are our part.

The Dominican Republic is an Apostille Convention member, so since Canada's accession on 11 January 2024, Canadian public documents need a single apostille — issued by the province's designated authority or Global Affairs Canada — instead of consular legalization. That change shortened Dominican wedding and property files considerably.

Spanish remains essential: Dominican officials work in Spanish, and translations are expected for English or French documents. We coordinate translation after the apostille so the certified document is translated complete, and we match specific formats where the receiving official has described one.

Dominican officials, resorts, and lawyers most often request from Canadian clients:

Canadian citizens visit the Dominican Republic without a visitor visa for tourism, completing the country's electronic entry formalities around travel. Longer stays and residency run through Dominican procedures handled with local counsel — supported by the certified documents above. Permanent residents and foreign nationals living in Canada should confirm the rules for their nationality, and Visa Jet assists with preparing and organizing visa applications where one is required. Decisions rest solely with the Dominican authorities.

We are a document and application support agency — we do not act for any government and cannot promise how quickly any office processes its part.

Wedding files in particular run on deadlines, so our process is built backwards from your date: confirm the resort's or official's list, prepare affidavits and certificates in parallel, apostille, translate, and courier with tracking. Everything happens by email and courier from anywhere in Canada.

Write to info@visajet.ca or call +1 819-635-8787 with your wedding coordinator's checklist or your lawyer's request, and we will confirm the steps and start the clock.