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@ExpatRusher

Hi.

There seems to be a "Junta Central Electoral" in :

HIGUEY

Agustin Guerrero

809-554-2175/ Fax.746-0114

Here link to JCE info :

The link to "Centros de cedulación" is void.

@Guineo Verde

Thank you so much!!  It's a place to start.

My lawyer says that sometimes the Junta allows offices outside the capital, but then they don't. Seems to cycle. We'll try to give them a call. 

I know several who have replaced cedulas at local offices! Fingers crossed it works. It was fast and not expensive.

I thought all non-citizens had to go to the one cedula office in Santo Domingo. When someone I know lost his cedula, he had to file a police report and take it with him to get a replacement.

I thought all non-citizens had to go to the one cedula office in Santo Domingo. When someone I know lost his cedula, he had to file a police report and take it with him to get a replacement. - @ddmcghee

That was precisely what we were trying to figure out.  We planned to go to the local police office today to file the required police report -- multiple folks advised that was the process.

Where advice differs, is whether the local offices can replace the cedula for expats (us foreigners). 

Our lawyer -- Lishali Baez, also known as Lilly -- advised that the policies have cycled back and forth several times.  Sometimes the local offices can replace expat cedulas, sometimes they can't.  The central government office (the Junta de Central Electorate) apparently cycles back and forth. 

1. Which explains why we found sources that said that it definitely not permitted...and other sources during other periods when folks definitively asserted that they had indeed done so at the local offices.
2. Lishali explained to us that the only way to know for sure, is to go to the local office and attempt to get the replacement cedula.  They will either do so, or tell us to go to the capital for the replacement. 

Now, there's a story of how this turned out.  But I'll do that in the next post.

Jim

HOW IT ALL TURNED OUT -- The Lost Cedula Saga:  The Rest of the Story

We had given up on finding my lost cedula.  So, we prepped to go to the local police station to file a report.  We prepared and translated a written statement that could become the report, along with ensuring we had the right translations to explain why we were bothering the local police.

We were in the Uber, pulling out of Serena Village on our way to the police station.  As we started through the gate, a guard we'd become friendly with spotted me inside the vehicle and flagged down the Uber...wouldn't let him out the gate.

1. The guard ducked back into the gate building for a moment, then approached the car.
2. He drew up to the rear window on my side, smiled, and showed me a cedula...that had my picture on it!
3. WE HAD FOUND THE LOST CEDULA!!! 
4. Turns out, someone had found my cedula in the parking lot for our building -- that was where it came out of my pocket, not in the Uber (nor the banks, nor the theater, nor the restaurant) as we had feared. 
5. Not wanting to knock on a bunch of strangers' doors, they turned it over to the security guards at the shack.

Fortunately, that friendly guard recognized my picture...but he didn't know where we were staying, or even whether we were still in Serena.  Apparently, Serena records the arrival of new Airbnb guests on their log...but for some reason, the logs don't seem to be retained.  So, he held it over the last week, looking to catch us on the way in or out.

Now then:  You guys know I'm retired military, and we military dudes just LOVE our Lessons Learned!!  It's part of the culture to shred every training experience or operation, trying to learn how to improve for the future.

So, what are my lessons from this experience??

1. Dominicans are, as a whole, honest and helpful to others in their journey through life.
2. I already knew this, but it is once again reaffirmed!!  First, with the kind person who found my cedula and got it to the security guards.
3. Second, with that security guard -- who could have just thrown my cedula into the trash can and called it a day.  Instead, he kept it for over a week trying to find me.  What a wonderful person!
4. This experience also reaffirms the wisdom of spending time with the locals, just chatting and visiting, when the opportunity arises.  Going beyond being just the quiet gringos in the upstairs apartment...and being a real person. 
5. You may not be close friends, but you can become more than just a faceless Airbnb guest. 
6. When the gate guard smiles, smile back and say hola!
7. I should have thought to ask at the guard shack earlier.  I had convinced myself that it had come out of my pocket in the Uber, or at the theater, or somewhere else we had stopped.  Never occurred to me it might have come out in the parking lot...but in retrospect, it makes sense.
8. Don't overcomplicate your situation with worst-case assumptions.   
9. Look for the simplest explanations, first.
10. ½ûÂþÌìÌà (DR forum) once again provided succinct & wise advice on how to navigate the Dominican bureaucracy and processes. 
11. We're scattered all over the island, but our collective experience has helped solve many problems and will assist with many problems in the future.   
12. I should have asked for that advice here much earlier.   

Thus ends the tale of an expat's lost cedula.  A happy ending, as it turns out. 

Thank you, everyone.

Jim

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