Entering Haiti as a Visitor: a Thirty-Day Card in the Statute, Ninety Days at the Border
The instrument still on the books gives a visitor thirty days. Haiti's missions tell travellers ninety. The Loi du 8 décembre 1959 sur l'immigration et l'émigration rewrote article 16 of the immigration law so that American and Canadian tourists, and nationals of countries that have an agreement with Haiti waiving passport or visa formalities, may enter on a simple card and stay thirty days; everyone else buys a visa from a Haitian consulate. Haiti's own embassy in Canada describes something different and larger: no prior visa for a Canadian staying under ninety days, entry formalities settled on arrival at any international airport or land border, and a ninety-day "séjour de courtoisie" after which a residence permit becomes compulsory. Both are Haitian government statements and they do not say the same thing. The statute also makes leaving a formality: article 43 requires an exit visa of any foreigner subject to an entry visa who has been in the country more than seventy-two hours.
At a glance
- Visa-free stay stated by Haiti's mission in Canada
- Under 90 days for Canadian citizens
Entry authorisation is settled on arrival by the immigration authorities at any international airport or land border crossing.
- Stay the immigration law grants on a visitor's card
- Thirty days
Article 16 as rewritten by the law of 8 December 1959, for American and Canadian tourists and for nationals of states with a passport or visa waiver agreement. The card is valid for two consecutive years.
- Courtesy stay before a residence permit is required
- Ninety daysas of 2026-10-06
From the mission's own description of the Direction de l'Immigration et de l'Émigration's procedure. Persons of Haitian ascendancy are excluded from the requirement.
- Visa fee at the embassy in Canada
- CAD 40 single entry, CAD 50 multiple entryas of 2026-10-06
From the tariff block on the mission's visa page, which prints $40 CAD for one entry and $50 CAD for several. The figure has not been traced to an instrument and no Haitian instrument we read prices a consular visa in Canadian dollars.
- Visitor's visa fee in the 1959 law
- Ten gourdes
Article 16. The figure has not been traced to any later instrument and is not what missions charge.
- Exit visa
- Required of a foreigner subject to an entry visa who has stayed over 72 hours
Article 43 as rewritten in 1959, with a twenty-five gourde stamp duty and a tax clearance under article 46. Nothing we read repeals it and no mission page mentions it.
Requirements
- A passport valid for at least six months, on the Haitian mission's stated condition, both outward and on return
- For a national of a country Haiti has not exempted: a visa obtained from a Haitian embassy or consulate before travelling
- A completed and signed visa application form with a 35 x 45 mm photograph, where a visa is required
- Proof of status in the country where the application is made
- A letter from the institution requesting the visa, or the applicant's attendance in person
- Contact with the Direction de l'Immigration et de l'Émigration before the ninetieth day if the stay will run longer
In detail
Two Haitian answers to one question
A traveller asking how long they may stay gets two answers from the Haitian state, and the difference is sixty days. The immigration law, as the law of 8 December 1959 rewrote it, gives thirty days on a card to American and Canadian tourists and to nationals of countries with a waiver agreement; everyone else is on a consular visa. Haiti's embassy in Canada says a Canadian needs no prior visa for a stay under ninety days and that formalities are settled on arrival, and it describes a ninety-day courtesy stay running before a residence permit becomes compulsory. We did not find an instrument that replaced thirty days with ninety. The decree-law of 26 December 1978, which the embassy cites by article number for the residence permit, is the obvious candidate and we could not obtain its text.
The card, and what it was for
The 1959 card is not a modern visa waiver. It cost ten gourdes, it was valid for two consecutive years rather than for one trip, and it sat beside a consular visa that cost the same ten gourdes. The law was passed to raise money for airport and port improvements, which its own recitals say in terms, and the schedule of charges it rewrote runs from the tourist card through the residence permit to the price of a passport booklet. Reading it as a statement of visa policy rather than of fees would be reading it for something it was not written to do.
Leaving is also a formality
Article 43 requires any foreigner subject to an entry visa who has been in Haiti for more than seventy-two hours to obtain an exit visa before departing, valid for a single journey and void if unused within a month. Article 46 adds that nobody, Haitian or foreign, may be given that exit visa without a certificate from the revenue administration that they are square with the tax authorities. No mission page we read mentions either. We cannot say from what we read whether the requirement is enforced; we can say it is in the text and that we found nothing repealing it.
Country-level policy
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.
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.
Haiti's official journal, Le Moniteur, is still publishing - its Special No. 47 of 17 September 2026 is in these records - but it has no reachable archive of its own, and the Secrétariat Général du Conseil des Ministres, which hosts the government's collection of laws, did not answer a single request from here. The consequence is specific rather than general. Four instruments between them decide most of what a person moving to Haiti needs to know, and none of them could be read. The decree-law of 26 December 1978 on immigration and emigration is the one the immigration directorate itself cites by article number for the residence permit, and the one the law of 2002 names as imposing that permit at its article 30. The decree of 6 November 1984 on Haitian nationality is where the Constitution has pointed since 2011 for the conditions of naturalisation. The Code Fiscal enacted by decree of 20 January 2023 brings the whole tax code together and is published by the Ministry of Economy and Finance as a 244-page image whose only machine-readable text is a watermark reading "ne pas reproduire". And the decree of 13 March 1963 defines which new undertakings give a foreign shareholder an exemption from the work permit.
Exceptions by origin
United States citizens: named in the statute, thirty days on a card instead of a consular visa
Haiti's immigration law names American tourists by nationality. Article 16, as the law of 8 December 1959 rewrote it, says that exceptionally tourists of American and Canadian nationality, together with nationals of countries that have concluded agreements with Haiti waiving passport or visa formalities, are authorised to enter Haitian territory and stay thirty days on a simple card rather than on a consular visa. That is the only nationality-based concession anywhere in the immigration law we read. It is also sixty days shorter than the ninety-day courtesy stay Haiti's missions describe today, and nothing we read bridges the two. The United States embassy in Port-au-Prince, describing the same system from the other side, says that anybody over twenty-one travelling on a non-Haitian document who intends to stay more than three months must obtain a residence permit.
- A passport
- The visitor's card on arrival, in the terms of article 16
- A residence permit from the Direction de l'Immigration et de l'Émigration for a stay beyond the courtesy period
Canadian citizens: thirty days in the statute, ninety from Haiti's own embassy in Ottawa
Canadians are the other nationality article 16 names, and the gap between the law and the counter is at its clearest here because both statements come from Haiti. The immigration law gives a Canadian tourist thirty days on a simple card. Haiti's embassy in Canada says in bold that no prior visa is required of Canadian citizens wishing to stay less than ninety days in Haiti, and that entry authorisation is settled on the spot, on arrival, by the Haitian immigration authorities at any international airport or any land border post. The same page then sets out the residence permit procedure that begins once the ninety-day courtesy stay runs out. Where a visa is needed - which is to say, for a non-Canadian applying through the Ottawa mission - it costs CAD 40 for a single entry and CAD 50 for multiple entries.
- A passport valid for at least six months both outward and on return
- Nothing more, for a Canadian citizen staying under ninety days, on the mission's own statement
- Contact with the Direction de l'Immigration et de l'Émigration before the ninetieth day for a longer stay
What the law says
«Article 16.—Quand l’étranger désire voyager en Haïti comme touriste ou visiteur, l’Agent DiplomatiQUE ou le Consul lui délivrera un visa contre paiement d’une taxe de DIX GOURDES (G.10.00). Exceptionnellement les touristes de nationalité américaine et canadienne ainsi que les ressortissants des pays ayant conclu des Accords avec la République d’Haïti dispensant des formalités de passeport ou de visa, sont autorisés à entrer sur le territoire haïtien et à y séjourner trente jours moyennant une simple carte qui sera fournie contre paiement d'une taxe de DIX GOURDES (G.10.00). Cette carte est valable pour deux années consécutives.»Our translation - not official
Where a foreigner wishes to travel in Haiti as a tourist or visitor, the Diplomatic Agent or the Consul shall issue him a visa against payment of a tax of TEN GOURDES (G.10.00). Exceptionally, tourists of American and Canadian nationality, together with nationals of countries having concluded Agreements with the Republic of Haiti waiving passport or visa formalities, are authorised to enter Haitian territory and to stay there thirty days on a simple card which shall be supplied against payment of a tax of TEN GOURDES (G.10.00). This card is valid for two consecutive years.
This article is the text of the immigration law as the 1959 law rewrote it, not a free-standing provision of the 1959 law. The reading is a recognition of a printed offprint and carries its mistakes, including "DiplomatiQUE".
«Article 43.—Tout étranger astreint à la formalité du Visa d'entrée qui a séjourné plus de 72 heures en Haïti ne pourra laisser le territoire s'il n'a obtenu un visa de sortie du Département de l'Intérieur.
Ce visa ne sera valable que pour un seul voyage et sera annulé s'il n'est utilisé dans le délai d'un mois.»Our translation - not official
Any foreigner subject to the entry visa formality who has stayed more than 72 hours in Haiti may not leave the territory unless he has obtained an exit visa from the Department of the Interior. This visa shall be valid for one journey only and shall be void if not used within one month.
An exit requirement, not an entry one. We found nothing repealing it and nothing on a mission page mentioning it.
«Les conditions d'admission et de séjour des étrangers dans
> le pays sont établies par la loi.»Our translation - not official
The conditions of admission and residence of foreigners in the country are established by law.
The constitutional text delegates the whole subject to legislation and settles nothing itself. The quotation carries the blockquote markers of the page it was captured from.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Jean-Pierre Maury's constitutional library at the University of Perpignan, which publishes the French text of the Constitution of Haiti of 29 March 1987 in its version amended on 9 May 2011, with every abrogated article struck through in place. It is used here because no Haitian state host we could reach serves the amended Constitution: the Government's own copy is the 1987 original.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: An academic transcription, not a gazette. It is not the authentic text, it carries no date of consolidation, and the strike-through marking of abrogated articles is the editor's apparatus rather than the legislator's. Quotations taken from it carry the blockquote markers and the strike-through tildes of the capture. It must be replaced the moment a Haitian state copy of the amended Constitution becomes reachable. Its reading of the amendments was cross-checked here against the Comparative Constitutions Project's annotated edition and the two agree on which articles were abrogated.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
Practical notes
This record rests on the whole of the Loi du 8 décembre 1959 sur l'immigration et l'émigration as reprinted from Le Moniteur No. 128, on the visa page of Haiti's embassy in Canada, on the United States embassy's residence-permit page, and on Title IV of the Constitution. None of them is a list of which nationalities need a visa, and no such list is published here, because we did not find one issued by Haiti.
The 1959 law is an amending law. The article numbers quoted are those of the immigration law it amends, and the 1959 text supplies their current wording. Later instruments exist that we could not read, above all the decree-law of 26 December 1978, so no claim here can be read as a statement that nothing has changed since 1959.
The security situation is not background to the entry question. A decree instituting a state of emergency over the Ouest, the Artibonite and the Centre departments for three months was published in Le Moniteur on 17 September 2026, and the Ouest department contains Port-au-Prince and the office where residence permits are issued.
The Government's own copy of the Constitution that we could reach is the 1987 original as printed in Le Moniteur No. 36 of 28 April 1987. It is a scan whose text layer is a machine recognition and prints, among other things, "distinbtion" for distinction, "H~i tüme" for Haïtiens and "candi tians" for conditions. Quotations from it are left exactly as the layer has them, and the amended text of 2011 is quoted from a separate source because this one predates the amendments.
- administersVisas - Section consulaire, Ambassade d'Haïti au Canada
Ambassade d'Haïti au Canada
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
- reportsLoi du 8 décembre 1959 sur l'immigration et l'émigration, extrait du Moniteur No. 128 du 10 décembre 1959
HaitiDocs (facsimile of the Imprimerie de l'État offprint)
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
- reportsInformation on Obtaining a Permis De Sejour
U.S. Embassy in Haiti
About this source
The United States mission in Port-au-Prince, whose citizen-services page sets out the Direction de l'Immigration et de l'Émigration's residence permit procedure in English, with the fee table - 5,000 gourdes first issue, 2,500 renewal, 1,250 student - and an English version of article 1 of the Haitian law of 12 August 2002 on Haitians of origin.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: A foreign mission describing another state's procedure, and it says so itself: it believes the information accurate at the date of printing and warns that Haitian immigration requirements and procedures are often subject to variation without notice. It carries no date. Its fee figures trace to no instrument. It disagrees with Haiti's own mission on who needs the permit - three months and an age threshold of 21, against ninety days and no age threshold. And its English of article 1(g) of the 2002 law renders "3 ha 87, soit l'équivalent de trois (3) carreaux de terre" as "three (3) acres", about a ninth of the area, so it must not be cited for the content of a Haitian instrument.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- reportsConstitution du 29 mars 1987, version amendée le 9 mai 2011
Digithèque MJP, Université de Perpignan
About this source
Jean-Pierre Maury's constitutional library at the University of Perpignan, which publishes the French text of the Constitution of Haiti of 29 March 1987 in its version amended on 9 May 2011, with every abrogated article struck through in place. It is used here because no Haitian state host we could reach serves the amended Constitution: the Government's own copy is the 1987 original.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: An academic transcription, not a gazette. It is not the authentic text, it carries no date of consolidation, and the strike-through marking of abrogated articles is the editor's apparatus rather than the legislator's. Quotations taken from it carry the blockquote markers and the strike-through tildes of the capture. It must be replaced the moment a Haitian state copy of the amended Constitution becomes reachable. Its reading of the amendments was cross-checked here against the Comparative Constitutions Project's annotated edition and the two agree on which articles were abrogated.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- issuesConstitution de la République d'Haïti du 29 mars 1987, Le Moniteur No. 36 du 28 avril 1987
Ministère de l'Économie et des Finances d'Haïti - portail budget
About this source
The Haitian finance ministry's budget portal, which also hosts gazette issues. It serves the Constitution of 29 March 1987 as printed in Le Moniteur No. 36 of 28 April 1987, which is the only copy of the Constitution on a Haitian state host that we could reach.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: The constitutional text it serves is the 1987 original and does not carry the amendments made by the constitutional law of 9 May 2011, published 19 June 2012 - which abrogated five articles of Title II, including the prohibition on dual nationality and the five-year naturalisation rule. It must never be cited for the Constitution as it now stands. It is also a scan whose text layer is a machine recognition: it prints "distinbtion" for distinction, "H~i tüme" for Haïtiens and "candi tians" for conditions, and quotations from it carry those mistakes.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source