SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (CMC) – Haitians living in the Dominican Republic whose temporary visa permits will start to expire from July 17 to December, have been given another year to complete documents to obtain residency cards.

On Tuesday, Interior and Police Minister Jose Ramon Fadul said the Immigration Agency’s proposal was presented to President Danilo Medina, who agreed to the extension.

“With this plan continues and we are providing stability to all those people, from which we’ve collected their fingerprints, name, address and it’s most feasible right now.”

He said the measure saves the government an additional expense while continuing to regularize foreigners, mostly of Haitian nationality, adding that details will be provided through announcements in the media.

The announcement follows last week’s demonstration in which a group of Haitians protested in front of the Haitian embassy here, stating that they were unable to complete papers needed for provisional permits due to the lack of passports from the Haitian government.

The protestors then said that despite paying in advance for the passports, they had not received the documents.

Last year, the government issued residency permits to 184,000 Haitians who could prove they had been living in the Dominican Republic before October 2011.

Officials have warned that anyone without legal residency could face deportation.