Reform of the Legalization Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Legalization Service is one of the five (5) services offered by the Directorate of Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Unlike other Ministries where legalization is handled by their General Directorate, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the legalization service falls under the Directorate of Legal Affairs. Under the terms of the decree of February 10, 1967, on the legalization of administrative and judicial documents, this service is ultimately responsible for legalizing public acts produced in Haiti that are to be used abroad, and those produced abroad that are likely to be used in Haiti. This directorate also provides Haitian nationals established abroad with the necessary documents to regularize their migratory status.

To benefit from this service, the taxpayer presents themselves at reception to submit the document for legalization, equipped with the corresponding stamp and accompanied by the cash receipt attesting to the payment of the appropriate tax to the General Directorate of Taxes (DGI). Then the legalization request is processed through the various sections of the service which, ultimately, submits the legalized document for signature. Once the document is ready, the taxpayer retrieves it from the delivery office within two (2) working days, starting from 9 AM.

From the first meeting the Minister had with the Technical Directors on November 28, 2024, he instructed the Director of Legal Affairs to take all necessary measures to deliver legalized documents within a period not exceeding 48 hours. In the hours following the meeting, the Directorate set to work to follow up on the Minister's instructions. Thus, immediately afterward, the legalization service was reformed, and starting from January 13, 2025, the results began to be felt, and the processing time for legalization files was considerably reduced in accordance with the Minister's wishes.

The reform of the legalization service was envisioned at two levels: firstly, to reduce the delivery time from about twenty days to two (2) working days, and secondly, to facilitate citizens' access to this service without the need to resort to an intermediary. To achieve this, it was necessary to reorganize the service by increasing the assigned personnel, making the necessary inputs available for rapid document processing and delivery, and discouraging acts of corruption, fraud, and professional negligence which, very often, systematically result in a loss of revenue for the public treasury.

Still within the framework of the reform of the document legalization service, the Ministry will very soon launch the pilot phase of the decentralization project for said service by opening an office in the Grand Nord region.

Free access to public service is the fundamental benchmark of the legalization service. All citizens have free access to it, subject to the payment of the related tax to the DG; it is provided on a non-discriminatory basis, meaning that all citizens have equal access to it. Similarly, the principle of continuity of public service, which implies that the service must be provided regularly and without inconvenient and penalizing discontinuity for the taxpayer, is at the heart of the new approach of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the provision of document legalization services.