Permis de Sejour (Permit of Stay)

Upon landing in Haiti you are given a 3 month visa; if you intend to stay longer you need to apply for a Permis de Sejour.

Applying for the Permis de Sejour was a long and tedious process!!   I received my Permis de Sejour about a month ago and it's taken me almost 6 months to gather all the documents required for the application.

Here is the process in brief... I tried not to bore you with too many details.  I don't have enough fingers to count how many times I became impatient and frustrated with obtaining the documents for this application.

This is what I needed to apply... 

• Letter stating the reason why you are intending to spend more than a year in Haiti

• Photocopy of the first three pages of your passport

• Judicial record (Casier judiciaire) from the country in which you have lived for the last 5 years 

• Medical certificate from a Haitian doctor

I took a  day off school to do this... and it cost a little more than USD  $50


This is the hospital where I had my blood test taken...  It was very clean; unlike the first hospital I went to by mistake... phew!


I was later congratulated for a negative result of HIV.
(Fact file: 2.2 percent of adults are estimated to be HIV positive in Haiti)




 ...waiting at a different clinic to have a chest x-ray; checking for tuberculosis.  (The x-ray machine was broken at the hospital where I had my blood test; hence the trip to another clinic)

• Bank statement (from a Haitian Bank)

There's a story here too... Nothing is ever easy in Haiti!  I opened a bank account at one of the Haitian banks, to find out later that I needed $1000 deposited into the account to obtain an official bank statement.  Mwen pa gen $1000 ( I don't have $1000! and even if I did, I don't want to deposit it here, I just need proof of a Haitian bank account)

I closed the account, which cost me X amount of dollars (can't remember?) and opened a bank account with another Haitian bank.  I prefer their policy; only $100 needs to be deposited to receive a bank statement.

• Employment letter

• Copy of the Haitian immigration landing card

• Copy of the Birth certificate

• Two ID photos (color)

The cost....

• An amount of 150.00 gourdes is requested for the application (USD $4) and 5000.00 Gourdes (USD $125) payment for first time issuance... add to that USD $250 for an agent to monitor it's progress at immigration.

The permit allows me to legally live in Haiti for 5 years, though a renewal fee of $60 must be paid annually.

Here it is!