Permis de Sejour- So Close

Permis De Sejour Part 1

Permis De Sejour Part 1 Continues

Permis De Sejour Part 2

Permis de Sejour Part 3

We'll we must have gotten all of our paperwork to Port au Prince in time, because about 2 weeks ago I was told that Nick and I had to go to Port to sign for our Permis de Sejour.  Last time we were in Haiti, we asked multiple times if we would have to go back for anything.  Multiple times we were assured that we would not have to come back, we just needed to mail down the last piece of paper and then we would be done with it.  Even with this constant reassural, I still wasn't that shocked when I was told that we had to make yet another trip to Port.

Luckily I was going down to Port anyways with one of our children for some adoption paperwork, so I was just able to do it then.  Nick tagged along as well.  After finishing up the stuff with one of our kids, we were sitting in the car on the side of the road when the guy who has been helping us with this process just walked up and handed us our Premis de Sejour.  They were done, we had them in hand, and we didn't even have to sign anything!  Nick was so excited that he took a picture of them, releived to be done.

But I still kept wondering why we both had to fly down to Port if all they were going to do was hand them over to us.  Couldn't they have handed them over to our guy and he could mail them to us, rather than paying for airfare to get them?

Then we were told that we had to go to the Police station to do some more paper work.  UGH.  We sat in an office at the police station for about 5 mins while some guy filled out random paperwork, and then he told us that we needed to come back in three days for a meeting to finish the rest of it.  Nick and I looked at each other.  The look that we gave each other said, really, do we have to fly back down here in 3 days, can't we just do it all today?  Ivange then asked the guy if he could just represent us since we are from Cap Haitien and the man told him that that would be no problem.   Phew, we don't have to spend several more hundred dollars to get back there.

So we got up, left the office, left the Permis de Sejours, unaware when we would see them again.  We were told that our appointment would be in 3 days and that they would be done after that!  But this is Haiti, so our hopes aren't to high.  Today is the day of our appointment, we'll wait and see if we get a call saying it's finished.

As we sat in the airport for 5.5 hours (we were scheduled for the last flight of the day and were all done with our appointments by 10:30 so we had to wait, and there were no seats available on earlier flights), we met a guy who has helped his friend get his Permis de Sejour, and he said that his was in the police station for several months!  So we'll see what happens.

They are only good for a year and then they expire, so we will have to go through this again soon.  Hopefully the renewal process isn't as difficult.  They issued Nicks in April apparently and mine in May.  That means Nicks is only good for another 10 months and mine for 11!

Got to love Haiti!!