Country-wide policy
A state of emergency covers the department that contains Port-au-Prince
On 17 September 2026 Le Moniteur published, as Special No. 47 of its 181st year, a decree of the Council of Ministers instituting a state of emergency over the departments of the Ouest, the Artibonite and the Centre for three months. The Ouest is the department that contains Port-au-Prince, and with it the Direction de l'Immigration et de l'Émigration on Avenue John Brown, where residence permits are applied for. The decree's recitals describe a multiform crisis producing a situation of extreme urgency, marked by increased violence from armed gangs and a worrying humanitarian situation threatening the existence of the population and the foundations of the Republic. An earlier decree to the same effect had been published on 2 June 2026, so this is a renewal rather than a first measure. What we hold of the decree is its opening: the copy we could read carries the gazette heading, the title and the recitals and stops before the operative articles, so we cannot say what powers it confers or what it suspends.
Topics it changes
- Visiting as a tourist
- Residency on passive income
- Residency as a retiree
- Residency through work
- Residency through investment
- Residency as a student
- Residency through ancestry
- Residency through marriage
- Residency under a regional treaty
- Becoming a citizen
- When you become a tax resident
- Opening a bank account
- Access to healthcare
- Driving and licence exchange
- Bringing your belongings
What it requires
- Expect administration in the Ouest, the Artibonite and the Centre to be operating under emergency powers whose content we have not read
- Treat any procedure described here as a description of the law rather than a prediction that an office is open
At a glance
- Departments covered
- Ouest, Artibonite, Centre
- Duration stated in the title
- Three months
- Published
- Le Moniteur, 181st year, Special No. 47, Thursday 17 September 2026
The gazette's own masthead numbering, quoted on this record. The year number is Le Moniteur's volume year, not a quantity.
- Earlier decree to the same effect
- Le Moniteur, Special No. 27-A, 2 June 2026
Recorded from the document archive's catalogue entry for that issue, not from the issue itself, which we did not read.
What the law says
«181è Année _ Spécial No 47 PORT-AU-PRINCE Jeudi 17 Septembre 2026
SOMMAIRE
DÉCRET
DÉCRET INSTAURANT L’ÉTAT D’URGENCE
SUR LES DÉPARTEMENTS DE L’OUEST, DE L’ARTIBONITE ET DU CENTRE
POUR TROIS (3) MOIS»Our translation - not official
181st Year - Special No. 47, PORT-AU-PRINCE, Thursday 17 September 2026. SUMMARY. DECREE. DECREE INSTITUTING THE STATE OF EMERGENCY OVER THE DEPARTMENTS OF THE OUEST, THE ARTIBONITE AND THE CENTRE FOR THREE (3) MONTHS.
The copy we hold runs to the recitals and stops. Nothing is said here about what the decree enacts, because we have not read it.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
A Haiti document archive holding about five thousand items - central bank circulars, customs statistics, electoral council decrees, and facsimiles of Le Moniteur going back to 1959. Used here because Haiti's own law collection at sgcm.gouv.ht would not answer a single request and Le Moniteur has no reachable archive of its own. What it serves for the instruments quoted here is the gazette's or the State Printing Office's own page image, so the artefact is the State's even though the host is not.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It is not the publisher of record and must never be cited where a Haitian government host serves the same file. It does no amendment tracking, so nothing taken from it is evidence that a text is current - the 1959 immigration law quoted here is known to have been overtaken at least in part by a 1978 decree-law we could not obtain. Its catalogue metadata is not reliable: it dates the immigration law "8 juillet 1959" where the document's own title page says 8 December 1959, and it attributes the Labour Code to the justice ministry when the PDF carries haitijustice.com as a watermark on every page. That Labour Code edition also replaces four articles - 426, 483, 505 and 507 to 510 - with a bracketed editorial summary instead of their text, so it cannot support a claim that the Code is silent on something.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Considérant que la crise multiforme que connait le pays entraine une situation d’extrême urgence caractérisée
notamment par une violence accrue des gangs armés et une situation humanitaire préoccupante menaçant l’existence de
la population et les fondements de la République ;»Our translation - not official
Considering that the multiform crisis the country is undergoing entails a situation of extreme urgency marked in particular by increased violence from armed gangs and a worrying humanitarian situation threatening the existence of the population and the foundations of the Republic;
About this source
A Haiti document archive holding about five thousand items - central bank circulars, customs statistics, electoral council decrees, and facsimiles of Le Moniteur going back to 1959. Used here because Haiti's own law collection at sgcm.gouv.ht would not answer a single request and Le Moniteur has no reachable archive of its own. What it serves for the instruments quoted here is the gazette's or the State Printing Office's own page image, so the artefact is the State's even though the host is not.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It is not the publisher of record and must never be cited where a Haitian government host serves the same file. It does no amendment tracking, so nothing taken from it is evidence that a text is current - the 1959 immigration law quoted here is known to have been overtaken at least in part by a 1978 decree-law we could not obtain. Its catalogue metadata is not reliable: it dates the immigration law "8 juillet 1959" where the document's own title page says 8 December 1959, and it attributes the Labour Code to the justice ministry when the PDF carries haitijustice.com as a watermark on every page. That Labour Code edition also replaces four articles - 426, 483, 505 and 507 to 510 - with a bracketed editorial summary instead of their text, so it cannot support a claim that the Code is silent on something.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
Everything else on this country describes what the law provides. This policy is here because the law's provision and a reader's experience of it are further apart in Haiti than anywhere else in this comparison, and because the office that issues residence permits is inside the emergency area.
The reading we hold is the gazette's first pages only. We did not record a duration, a start date or any measure from the operative part, because they are not in what we read.
The decree was published by Le Moniteur, which continues to appear: Special No. 47 of 17 September 2026 is the gazette's own numbering.