Dominica lifts visa requirements for Dominican Republic citizens

Roseau, Dominica: The Commonwealth of Dominica has removed visa requirements for citizens of the Dominican Republic. In a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the proposal of lifting restrictions was approved and the changes will come into effect from February 1, 2026.

The citizens of Dominican Republic are now allowed to enter Dominica without visa for visits of up to 180 days, as per the new cabinet proposal. The Cabinet stated that they are amending the Visa (Exemptions) Regulations to give legal effect to the removal of visa requirements for citizens of the Dominican Republic.

The approval follows an announcement by Prime Minister Dr Roosevelt Skerrit during his New Year press conference with journalists. He said that the government would review Dominica’s visa entry requirements as part of a broader strategy to support population growth, economic activity and regional cooperation.

PM Skerrit said that the government will look into the matters of national security and immigration frameworks. He also shed light on the visa entry for other countries and added that the decision on other countries will follow as the review process continues.

PM Skerrit also mentioned that this has been a long time coming and said that he has always been against this longstanding visa restriction that the government of Dominica has. “As a matter of fact, we will be lifting in a dramatic way the visa restriction on citizens of Dominican Republic to allow people to come in because there are so many things that can be done.”

PM Dr Skerrit further noted that he would remove visa requirements for all nationals of the Dominican Republic for visiting Dominica. He also mentioned that it is unreasonable to expect visa-free entry while Dominica maintains visa restrictions for others.

He also mentioned Haiti and said that there should also be openness with the nationals of Haiti. In addition to that, PM Skerrit said that they have a duty and an obligation to the first country from which slavery was emancipated and all of them got their motivation from them.

Further, the government said that further reviews are underway regarding visa entry requirements for other nations and decisions regarding these will be provided upon completion of the evaluation process.