Country-wide policy
The residence permit runs on the tax year, and renewing it needs a tax receipt
A Haitian residence permit is not granted for twelve months from the day it is issued. It is granted for a fiscal year, 1 October to 30 September, which means a permit obtained in August expires six weeks later. Renewal is annual and the application must be accompanied by the slip attesting payment of income tax for the fiscal year just ended. The permit therefore sits downstream of the revenue directorate: a foreigner who has not settled with the Direction Générale des Impôts cannot complete the immigration file. The same coupling appears from the other end in the immigration law, where the exit visa a departing foreigner needs is issued only on a certificate from the revenue administration that he is square with the tax authorities. Dominica's record holds the same coupling at one end - an exit certificate required by its Income Tax Regulations - and no record here holds it at both.
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 marriage
- When you become a tax resident
What it requires
- Plan the application around the fiscal year end of 30 September, not around twelve months from arrival
- Keep the income tax receipt for the fiscal year just ended: the renewal file must contain it
- Expect a tax clearance to be asked for on departure, under article 46 of the immigration law
At a glance
- Permit period
- One fiscal year, 1 October to 30 September
The fiscal year the mission states, 1 October to 30 September. These are calendar dates rather than durations.
- Renewal condition
- The income tax receipt for the fiscal year just ended
By reference to article 34 of the decree-law of 26 December 1978.
- On departure
- A tax clearance certificate before the exit visa
Article 46 of the immigration law as rewritten in 1959.
What the law says
«pour lʼobtention dʼun permis long séjour, valable pour un exercice fiscal, soit du 1er octobre au 30 septembre, conformément au décret-loi du 26 décembre 1978 sur l’Immigration et l’Émigration et plus précisément en ses articles 31,32, 33 et 34.**»Our translation - not official
to obtain a long-stay permit, valid for one fiscal year, that is from 1 October to 30 September, in accordance with the decree-law of 26 December 1978 on Immigration and Emigration and more precisely its articles 31, 32, 33 and 34.
About this source
Haiti's mission in Ottawa, and the most useful live Haitian government source we found. Its consular page publishes the visa tariff, states that no prior visa is required of a Canadian citizen staying under ninety days, and reproduces in full the long-stay permit procedure of the Direction de l'Immigration et de l'Émigration, which it attributes to the DIE by name and ties to articles 31 to 34 of the décret-loi du 26 décembre 1978.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It is a mission describing an instrument it does not publish. The article numbers it cites belong to a decree-law we have never read, so the figures on the page - the ninety-day courtesy stay, the fiscal-year permit, the bank attestation of 7,500 gourdes or US$200 - are the agency's account of the law and not the law's own words. Its ninety days also contradict the thirty days article 16 of the immigration law gives, and the page cannot settle which governs. It mentions that citizens of certain countries must meet conditions as to status in Canada to be exempted from the visitor's visa, and does not publish that list.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Article 46.—Toute personne (étrangers ou nationaux) laissant le territoire haïtien devra au préalable acquitter toutes les taxes dues à l'Etat ou aux Communes et le Département de l'Intérieur (Service de l'Immigration et de l'Emigration) n'est autorisé à lui accorder le «VISA DE SORTIE» prévu à l'article 43 ci-dessus, que sur le vu d'un certificat délivré par l'Administration Générale des Contributions contre un droit de «VISA POUR TIMBRE DE CINQ GOURDES (G. 5.00)» attestant qu'elle est en règle avec le fisc.»Our translation - not official
Every person (foreigners or nationals) leaving Haitian territory must first discharge all taxes owed to the State or to the Communes, and the Department of the Interior (Immigration and Emigration Service) is authorised to grant the EXIT VISA provided for in article 43 above only on production of a certificate issued by the General Revenue Administration, against a VISA FOR STAMP fee of FIVE GOURDES (G.5.00), attesting that she is square with the tax authorities.
It applies to nationals as well as foreigners on its own terms.
Practical notes
The fiscal-year rule comes from Haiti's own mission describing the immigration directorate's procedure. The article numbers it cites belong to the decree-law of 26 December 1978, which we could not obtain, so the rule is reported by the agency that applies it rather than quoted from the instrument.
The exit visa provision is quoted from the 1959 text. Whether it is enforced today is not something any document we read says.