The presentation Friday by Jean Wilfrid Bertrand, Director of the National Archives, of the new security paper to serve as a safe medium for extracts of official acts issued by the National Archives of Haiti (birth, marriage, divorce, death, etc...) will have several effects.

Effective October 1, 2013, all new acts will therefore be issued on the new security paper, in accordance with the presidential decree of 17 July 2013, Article 6.

It will now be impossible for counterfeiters to falsify this new medium in European format, pre-printed and pre-numbered which includes several security including watermarks invisible to the human eye, which can be checked with special equipment by official institutions. This will end the trafficking of counterfeit document and help to give credibility to the Haitian government, both at the national and international level and put people out of reach of unscrupulous individuals.

All former extracts currently in the hands of the people, will remain valid until January 2, 2014, however, "from 3 January 2014, if you do not have an extract that is made on the new paper, it will be impossible for you to make your passport," declared the Director of the National Archives, who said that the tariff to obtain a new extract on security paper, will remain unchanged, or 700 gourdes.

SL/ HaitiLibre