Finding a job in Dominican Republic during the pandemic

It is almost impossible for expats to find jobs here that pay enough to live a modified expat lifestyle.

In order to work you need either a Dominican cedula (ID card issued with residency) or a work visa.

The days are gone where you can show up and go to work.

During the pandemic the gov't put in new rules about work visas.  The job must pay over  25,000 RD a month and last at least a year.  That was done to protect the lower end jobs for locals. Our unemployment rate is  really high, in some areas over  40%. 

There are many expats who move here and work remote.  That is currently not exactly legal but is done a lot!   Do so at your own risk.

Lets hope the gov't adopts the  strategy of other  countries and welcomes  Technologically based Nomads!   That would be awesome.

If you are lucky enough to have an offer  due to specific skill sets, you want to have included a  housing allowance or accommodations,  transportation allowance and health insurance.

Hello Planner,

Thanks for your insightful observations. 

I'm sure jobseekers will benefit from your analysis.

Have a nice weekend,

Diksha
Expat.com team

Diksha   what do you mean that your "expat.com team"?

It means she is an employee of expat. Com.  She works for the owner of the site.

The DR is a place to come to retire.  If you have to work and want to be somewhere else, think of getting a good paying job on line in your home country before you move anywhere.

Getting a "work visa" here is very difficult.  Getting a regular day job requires you to have legal residency unless you have a work visa, and then you have to live with the low price of labor here.   As I said, the DR is a place to retire to and work on line for a decent salary.

I am going to follow this post because I'm very curious what kind of online jobs expats have and if they would be willing to share the names of the companies for others to look into.

lmclmf2009 wrote:

I am going to follow this post because I'm very curious what kind of online jobs expats have and if they would be willing to share the names of the companies for others to look into.

I think many work for the same companies they've been working for and just took the work-from-home option to an extreme! I know of at least some whose employers don't know they are working from DR. The employer thinks the person is still sitting in just a short commute from the office. When the pandemic ends and people start returning to the office, I think a lot of folks will be returning or having to give up their jobs.

I've seen a lot of folks talk about teaching English online. There are many opportunities to teach people in China, but the hours can be strange given the time difference.

With any online work here, you have to have backup power because of the frequent outages, and you need multiple ways to get online. A few weeks ago, all internet was out for the entire Samana peninsula - wired, wireless...it didn't matter. No one had internet for about half the day.

I will be following this post too.