Expat Living in Dominican Republic

Back in the late 1990s, life was good for Johan Flores in Venezuela. He had graduated as an engineer in a public university, held an executive position in an oil company and had a lovely family.

He was part of a generation of people that took advantage of the wealthy country that Venezuela was at that time. However, a sudden change affected the country when a socialist leader was elected as president.

In a few years, democracy began to decline and insecurity, corruption and inflation ramped up. Life became harder for millions of venezuelans who started fleeing from their country.

However, Johan decided to stay and fight for his country. He and his wife were active members of the opposition, attending rallies and meetings. In 2003, more than 20,000 oil workers were fired after being part of an oil strike, Johan and Linda, his wife, were one of them.

It was a cataclysm. Not only were they banned from working in the oil industry, they couldn't attend public hospitals, access social security, open a bank account or even create a company. 

After a few years fighting against being excluded from the system, the family looked up inmigration choices to escape from socialism. If they moved to the United States, they would have to apply for political asylum, meaning that returning to Venezuela and visiting family would be impossible. Another option was to move to the Middle East, where Johan would surely have job offers in the oil industry.

At first, moving to another country in Latin America was not an attractive option because of their permanent problems with corruption and instability. But everything changed when a friend told them about the thriving tourism industry in Dominican Republic, which was fostered by a democratic government that valued private industry.

Johan loved his family more than anything. So on, he knew that if he wanted his kids to have a normal life, they would have to start from scratch in another country. And the chosen place was Santo Domingo, the capital of Dominican Republic.

After selling most of his assets, Johan amassed 1 million USD, enough to start a new life in a foreign country with his wife and two children. As soon as they arrived in DR, they were astonished. 

Dominican Republic had everything they would want. Sunny beaches, delicious caribbean food and lots of places where you could dance salsa and merengue. 

He bought a comfortable department in Santo Domingo for 80,000 USD and built a small inn for 400,000 USD. That left him with more than a half million dollars that he had as savings.

Cost of living was low and they had plenty of residency options for establishing in the DR. Johan chose the investors path with his small inn. That meant that he could get the permanent residency in less than a year and become a Dominican citizen in just four years. When the Venezuelan government froze the process of passport renovation, it was not a problem for the Flores because they already had Dominican passports.

The tourism was booming, so reservations to their inn were often sold out. Dozens of temporadists stayed every month in Johan’s inn, giving the Flores Family a great source of income in a really cheap country. After some years, they sold the small inn and bought a bigger one, and then built a hotel. The expansion was fast thanks to an undervalued real estate market in a booming tourism industry. 

The Flores valued a high standard of education, so they enrolled the children in an international school, where they could meet children of foreign diplomats, bankers and wealthy businessmans.

Johan was a baseball lover, and he was delighted when he found out that

Dominican Republic is one of the powers in the Caribbean on baseball. His dream to raise a child to become a professional baseball player who played in the MLB suddenly became possible. 

A crucial fact when they decided to move out to Dominican Republic was its closeness to most places they wanted to visit. Their relatives in Caracas were only 1 hour and a half flight from Santo Domingo. The same case was if they wanted to visit old friends in Miami or Houston, 2 and 3 hours by plane, respectively.

Certainly, people who live near the beach tend to get bored of the sea, and the Flores were not the exception. However, that was not a problem because DR has so much to offer.

On a weekend, Johan and his children could hike on the fresh mountains of Constanza and Jarabacoa, located in the central mountain range of the country, where they could find natural pools, waterfalls and rivers with natural rivers. Johan always dreamed of climbing a great mountain and it came true when he reached the peak of Pico Duterte, the highest mountain in the Caribbean.

When years passed by, Johan found out how lucky he was to choose the Dominican Republic as his new home. Dominicans welcomed him as one of them and his children assimilated their culture and values really fast. He amassed a fortune by investing in the real estate market and the tourism industry. 

If he had stayed in Venezuela, he would have lost everything because of socialism. But he moved in the right time and took advantage of the huge opportunities that were presented to him. Now he could send his sons to some of the best universities in the world while enjoying his retirement on a beach drinking coconut juice and eating fried fish.

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