Suspended Citizenship
Note of Addition (March 2008):
Since 2007, the Dominican central government has made it a policy to deny the legalization of the Dominican birth certificate of any individual with one or both parents of Haitian nationality, regardless of whether these birth certificates have been accepted and notarized in the past. Currently countless individuals are in a state of suspended citizenship - able to vote and hold a Dominican cédula, which many had been granted before the recent tightening of citizenship requirements - yet unable to solicit a new notarized birth certificate for purposes such as attending university, soliciting a passport, or filing for a marriage certificate. Many cases have been brought to the administrative council of the Central Electoral Board in order to be granted authorization to move forward with the document processing, yet the large majority of cases remain unattended, the number growing since June of 2007.
Since 2007, the Dominican central government has made it a policy to deny the legalization of the Dominican birth certificate of any individual with one or both parents of Haitian nationality, regardless of whether these birth certificates have been accepted and notarized in the past. Currently countless individuals are in a state of suspended citizenship - able to vote and hold a Dominican cédula, which many had been granted before the recent tightening of citizenship requirements - yet unable to solicit a new notarized birth certificate for purposes such as attending university, soliciting a passport, or filing for a marriage certificate. Many cases have been brought to the administrative council of the Central Electoral Board in order to be granted authorization to move forward with the document processing, yet the large majority of cases remain unattended, the number growing since June of 2007.