It can also be granted to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through naturalization or for a foreigner who has provided exceptional service to the nation.
[5] The 2015 Constitution specifies in Article 18, Section 1, that those entitled to birthright nationality are:[6] Naturalization requires completion of an application of request that is supported by the requisite documents to establish eligibility.
[7] Requirements, detailed in the 1948 Law #1683, include that applicants must be adults who have attained the age of 18, or 16 if married or authorized by a legal guardian, who have established a residence within the territory for a minimum of 2 years.
The law opened debate on whether children who had been born in the Dominican Republic could be citizens if their parents were considered to be temporary immigrants.
[10] In the 2005 case Yean and Bosico vs. Dominican Republic challenged the law under the pretext that denying the right of nationality to the two girls rendered them stateless, impacting their ability to attend school, and made them socially vulnerable.
[15] The court advised authorities to audit birth records beginning on June 21, 1929 to the present and revoke Dominican nationality from anyone whose parents were classed as in transit.
[17] In response, in 2014 the government passed a Naturalization Law (Ley 169–14) which divided foreigners who had been born in the Dominican Republic between 1929 and 2007 into two categories.
[18] The second group, of approximately 53,000 people, was made up of children who had been born in the country but whose births had not been recorded in the Civil Registry.
They were required to register as foreigners and could be naturalized if they could provide documentation proving their birth and residency in the country prior to the 2015 deadline.
[8] For three centuries, the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo was ruled by Spain, except for a brief period from 1795 to 1808, when it was ceded to France by the Treaty of Basel.
[24][25] The period of this union, introduced the French civil code to the Dominican legal system, when it was adopted by the republic in 1825.
[27] Wives of foreigners who lost their nationality because of their marriage were required to sell their holdings, if they owned property in Haiti.
[33] Because of Haitian attempts to reclaim the territory, leaders sought annexation with various nations and in 1861, the Dominican Republic was reannexed by Spain.
[37] Children of naturalized men automatically derived Dominican nationality, but could renounce it within a year of reaching their majority.
[36] In 1933, Tulio Manuel Cestero, the Dominican Republic's delegate to the Pan-American Union's Montevideo conference, signed the Inter-American Convention on the Nationality of Women, which became effective in 1934, without legal reservations.