Hi-can someone please clarify how long we can stay as "tourists" vs. residents? I know we must reapply every 14 days and then eventually the 90 day limit kicks in(along with the risk of a long departure)- but, instead, if we leave prior to the 90 days for a week or so occasionally does the 90 day cumulative limit start over again? I sure hope this makes sense-we are trying to avoid the worst possible case of ever having to spend a full 90 days off island-is it better to take a couple of weeks here and there and stay under the radar screen and stay legal of course? thanks!

Dennis,

If I recall correctly. if you are going to stay more than 2 weeks you have to report to "immigration" located across the street from Telbo (telephone company building). You may stay up to 90 days as a non resident, then have to leave the island for 24 hours. Then you can return again. From what I understand most people go to Aruba for the overnight then return.

Good luck!

Liz

Recently they have been giving some people trouble doing the 24 hours away off island every 90 days deal. This involved people staying virtually year round with just 24 hours between 90 day stays. I suspect people staying 4-5 months total during the course of a year would not run into the same problem.

Linda,

How long a stay off island is 'required' each 90 days for long-termers?? Is there an effort to get long-termers to change status??

Our annual trip is for 15-18 days. Last year the official at the airport crossed out the number of days that I had entered on the form and replaced it with "14". Ummmm....Okay

My guess is they are trying to switch the long-termers to residents. Unfortunately, I don't know what the official deal is since I'm already a resident for over 6 years now.

The official rule is 3 months which you can extend to 6 month for EU and US citizens ..... as I said, official .... it clearly is one of these Curacao things (the immigration is paid by the Central government)that they change their rules whenever they like and without informing anybody. We have quite regularly EU guests staying for 3 or 4 weeks ... sometimes they get the comment, that they have to show up at immigration after 14 days and sometimes not ... perhaps it depends on who is sitting there for immigration . They even tried it with Dutch guests, who have no limit at all .... they also tried to send people from Poland directly home, as they were not informed that Poland is part of the EU now.

Ok, well then-how about if we declare we are staying 90 days right at the start-what do you think would happen then?? Perhaps it annoys them to have to do all the paperwork to keep renewing those 14-day stays? I understand this is not happening on Curacao and it certainly does not happen on Aruba(I realize it is a different set of authorities).Your opinions?

Dennis, if you tried to make things more efficient you might deprive someone of a job. Can't do that :-)

You do have to declare that you'll be on island for as long as you're intending on staying when you arrive, and then will still need to go see immigration at 14 days (not that they inform everyone of this universally - I've been told if you're not staying a hotel but instead at a private residence that you own, they give you less grief), and show them your return ticket as well.

Jake

Thanks Jake,
We will be staying at a private residence - ours. Since we don't want to go all the way back to the US, can we show them a ticket to some other destination?
Can our "return ticket" be to Aruba, for example or another island?

Dennis

No idea. I would presume so, but I would also not base your plan on my presumption.

Jake

Just wanted to thank you all for the input-it always helps us see all sides of any issue-and Jake,we love your sense of humor! Decided to bite the bullet and do the residency thing instead of fussing with immigration on coming to and fro..Patti