Foreigner regularization advances, slowly

Santo Domingo.- The National Plan to Regularize Foreigners has entered its second phase but has processed a meager 300 people since enacted five months ago, Interior and Police Deputy minister Washington González revealed Monday.

He said the Plan, which concludes on June 2015, includes the start of issuing Dominican IDs (cedula) to applicants who qualify by updating their immigration status, with as many as 200 cedulas delivered per week.

The official said 114,146 people have already registered and their biometric date collected. "On Thursday we’re probably be already delivering 120 IDs, each week we will be issuing 100, 200, 300, as the process continues.

The official also referred to Haiti ambassador Fritz Cineas’ statements suggesting that the Dominican government extend the deadline for the process, citing “hurdles” to expediency. "I think he’s pretty uninformed, resulting from a lack of knowledge about procedures, which is first the exclusive competence of the Dominican Republic, which has provided the necessary facilities for foreigners to participate in this process."