The Dominican Republic e-Ticket is a free online form that every traveler fills in before flying in and again before flying out. It combines the immigration card and the customs declaration, sometimes with a few health questions, and you do it yourself at eticket.migracion.gob.do, the site of the Dirección General de Migración (DGM), the Dominican immigration service. Allow 15 to 20 minutes per form with every passport at hand, then save the QR code it produces on your phone and on paper.
There is no fee, no approval to wait for and no strict deadline. The classic mistakes are paying a lookalike website to "process" it and forgetting the departure form until check-in on the way home.
Who needs an e-Ticket, and who does not
Everyone who enters or leaves the country by air needs one, whatever their age or passport. That includes infants and frequent visitors: you need a new e-Ticket for every trip. A completed form is not a visa, and it does not replace the US$10 tourist card, which for air travelers is already built into the price of your plane ticket.
- Needs one: anyone flying into PUJ (Punta Cana), SDQ (Santo Domingo), POP (Puerto Plata), STI (Santiago), LRM (La Romana) or AZS (Samaná El Catey), and again for the flight out.
- Needs one: cruise passengers who fly in to start or end a cruise in the DR.
- Usually does not: cruise passengers on a port call (see below).
For passports and the 30-day stay, see Entry requirements and the advice section's passport rules for Americans.
How to fill it in, step by step
- Type eticket.migracion.gob.do into the address bar yourself rather than clicking a search ad, and check that the address ends in .gob.do. Switch the language to English.
- Start a new application and choose arrival. The first question asks how many people are traveling with you, so a family of four enters 3. Get this right: a wrong count means starting over.
- Fill in the general, personal and flight sections described below, then the address where you will stay.
- Answer the customs questions and any health questions shown, confirm whether anyone helped you complete the form, and accept the terms.
- Submit, then download the PDF with the QR code. Save it to your phone's photos and print a copy.
- Go straight on to the departure form, which the site offers right after the arrival form, and save that QR code too.
Insider tip
If you do the form on a phone, turn off autofill for names. It drops middle names and swaps in nicknames, and a name that does not match the passport is the usual reason officers send people back to redo the form.
Field by field
General information
Your permanent address, country and city of residence (pick the nearest city if yours is not listed), state and ZIP code, and whether this form is for arrival or departure. The form also asks whether you have stopovers or change planes in another country on the way.
Traveler information
For each person: full name exactly as printed in the passport, date and place of birth, sex, passport number (entered twice), marital status, occupation (choose "Other" if nothing fits) and, optionally, email and phone. You are also asked if you are a foreign resident of the DR (for a tourist, no) and what kind of lodging you have: hotel or resort, rental, or a private home.
Flight
Embarkation airport, airline, flight number, date and arrival airport, plus an optional booking code, the purpose of the trip and, optionally, how many days you will stay. On a connection, enter the last flight into the DR: for Chicago to Miami to Punta Cana, the embarkation airport is Miami and the flight number is the Miami to Punta Cana leg. On the departure form it works the other way: the first flight out of the DR, the departure airport and your final destination.
Address in the Dominican Republic
For a hotel or resort, pick it from the list or type its name and town. For a rental or family home, give the province, municipality, sector (neighborhood) and street address. Many Bávaro rentals sit in La Altagracia province, municipality of Higüey, sector Bávaro or Punta Cana; ask your host if you are unsure. If you are touring, give your first night's address.
Customs declaration
Three yes-or-no questions: whether you carry US$10,000 or more in cash or monetary instruments (or the equivalent in other currencies), whether you bring animals, plants or food, and whether you carry goods that owe duty, such as new items for sale. A "yes" opens extra fields. Carrying more is legal; not declaring it is the problem. Customs rules are on the entry page.
Health questions
Depending on the version of the form you get, there may be a short health section. Answer it truthfully for each traveler. For the CDC's advice on shots, see Health.
Families and groups
One adult can put a whole household on the same flight under a single application, with children under a parent or guardian. You get one QR code for the group, and the address and travel answers apply to everyone on it. That is fast, but one phone then holds everyone's code, so keep a printout in a second bag.
The alternative is one form per person, which gives each traveler a QR code of their own. Do that for groups of friends or anyone on a different flight home. Children who are Dominican citizens, including dual US-Dominican citizens, have separate exit rules when they travel without both parents; read the minors section of Entry requirements and Dominican-American roots well before the trip.
The DGM has also been adding user accounts. By August 2026 it reported 67,881 e-Tickets issued under the new system, 50,301 accounts and 32,377 saved companion profiles for people who travel together. If the site offers you one, it saves retyping passports next time, and it is still free.
When to fill it in
The old rule that the form had to be done within 72 hours of the flight is gone. You can submit once your flight and lodging are booked; travelers report the calendar opens about two to three months before the travel date. The sensible time is the week before you fly, when schedules have settled, and the latest is before you leave for the airport, since airlines can ask for the code at check-in or the gate.
Do both forms in one sitting. Having the departure code saved before you land means one less job on resort Wi-Fi. The planning timeline puts it one to two weeks out, along with your eSIM.
If your flight or details change
Do not count on editing a submitted form. Fill in a fresh one; the most recent e-Ticket under your passport number is the one that counts. A short delay on the same flight usually does not matter, but a new flight number or date does, and so does a typo in a name or passport number.
- Rebooked onto another flight: new form.
- Rerouted through a different US airport: new form, since the last flight into the DR changed.
- Extended your stay: new departure form, and see the stay fees on Entry requirements if you pass 30 days.
- Changed hotels before arrival: a new arrival form is the safe choice.
QR codes and showing them
Arrival and departure codes are separate, though you can save both in one PDF. Save each as an image in your phone's photos, so it opens without a signal, carry a printout with your passport, and check the name and date before you close the page.
Check-in staff in the US may ask for the arrival code, and the departure code is checked on the way home. On arrival, officers often skip it because the data is linked to your passport, but they can ask, and customs may scan it. Have it on screen at the desk.
Different from home
Nobody hands out paper arrival or customs cards on the plane. Everything for the DR is in the e-Ticket.
What it costs, and the lookalike sites
| Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| e-Ticket at eticket.migracion.gob.do | Free | Arrival and departure, every trip |
| Lookalike "processing" sites | $30 to $90 a person | Same form; no faster entry |
| Tourist card | US$10 | Already in your airfare |
| Departure tax | Included | Already in your airfare |
| Staying more than 30 days | From RD$3,500 (about $57) | Paid when you leave; see Entry requirements |
The scam is simple. Sites with official-sounding names sit at the top of search results for "Dominican Republic e-Ticket" and charge a fee to submit the free form for you. Some do file a real e-Ticket, but you have paid for nothing and handed your passport details to a stranger.
Watch out
If a site asks for a credit card, you are on the wrong site. If you already paid one, check that the PDF it sent shows your correct details, fill in a free form yourself if in doubt (the newest counts), and ask your card issuer about disputing the charge.
What happens at PUJ and SDQ
The process is the same at Punta Cana, Santo Domingo's Las Américas and the smaller airports.
- Follow signs for Migración (immigration). Join the line for extranjeros (foreigners); the automated gates at Punta Cana are aimed at Dominican citizens with the new electronic passport. The officer scans your passport, may ask for the QR code, and may take a photo and fingerprints. Families go up together.
- Collect bags. Uniformed porters expect $1 to $2 a bag if you use them.
- At Aduanas (customs), every bag goes through an X-ray scanner. Officers may scan the QR code again and open a bag.
- Walk out past the tour desks and transfer reps to your ride. Our guide to Punta Cana airport taxis covers fixed fares, Uber and transfers; the Flights page covers Santo Domingo.
On winter Saturdays at Punta Cana, several US flights land within the same hour and immigration can take an hour or more, whatever your paperwork.
On the way home, show the departure QR code at check-in and at outbound migration, pay any stay fee first if you were in the country more than 30 days, and arrive 3 hours before a US flight. Travelers who never filled in the form have managed it on airport Wi-Fi after landing, but an airline at home can refuse to board you without it, so do not plan on that.
Cruise passengers
If your ship calls at Amber Cove, Taíno Bay, La Romana, Santo Domingo or Samaná for the day, the ship handles immigration and you do not fill in an e-Ticket. If you fly into the DR to board a cruise, or fly home after one, you need the e-Ticket for the flight like any other air traveler. The form is built around airports and travelers report trouble with the departure section when leaving by ship, so ask your cruise line how to handle it. Port details are on the Cruises page.
If the site is down
On October 16, 2026 an internal fault took the DGM's online services offline for a time, with the e-Ticket among the last to come back, while airport immigration kept working. If the site will not load, try another browser, turn off a VPN or come back in a few hours. Do not switch to a paid site; it uses the same form.
E-Ticket questions people ask
Is the Dominican e-Ticket free?
Yes, for arrival and departure. Anyone charging you is a third party.
Does a baby need an e-Ticket?
Yes, every traveler is listed. Add infants and children under a parent's or guardian's application; they share the family's QR code.
Do I need a new e-Ticket for each trip?
Yes, even if you were in the country last month.
I do not have a hotel booked yet. What do I enter?
The address where you will sleep the first night. If you are staying with family, give their province, municipality, sector and street.
Do I need a printer?
No, a saved image works. Paper is insurance against a dead battery; see Staying connected and the packing list.
See also the FAQ and, for airport touts, Safety.
Add it to a route in the trip builder, or ask us to plan the hotels, trains and guides for you.