PORT-AU-PRINCE — The price of a Haitian passport has doubled in the 10 days since the United States opened applications for its parole process to Haitians. Applicants and passport business owners say prices have jumped from about 15,000 gourdes to 30,000 gourdes, about $100 to $200.
“Right now, it’s really difficult to buy passport stamps at the DGI [Direction Générale des Impôts] and accompany a client to the immigration service,” said Mosenie Toussaint, owner of Mose Multi-Services. “Today, people are sleeping in front of immigration [office], since many of them are coming from the provinces.”
Since the parole process announcement, thousands of Haitians have rushed to the country’s migration offices, filled with unprecedented euphoria, to apply for a passport. Haiti’s immigration and revenue agencies – the Direction de l’Immigration et de l’Emigration (DIE) or the Direction Générale des Impôts (DGI) – have not provided information about the surge in passport requests, and accompanying stamp and tax registration currently in high demand.
However, the DGI stayed open over the weekend of Jan. 14 to serve applicants.
