I’ve been living on the island of Curacao for well over a year now, and I’d be lying if I said getting here was easy sailing. Any time an international move involves different cultures, languages, and customs, there are bound to be hiccups – and we had our fair share of hiccups. But take it from me – it’s all worth it! Here I have 10 tips that will come in handy as you’re planning your move to Curacao. These are all tips we’ve used for our move with some candid anecdotes about what we wish we’d done differently.
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Do Your Research
The first step is always to do your research – that’s why you’re here reading this blog, right? In my case, Curacao was one of several Caribbean destinations I was considering. I wrote down on a notepad the things that my partner and I were looking for in a new country to be happy. For us, this included:
- Warm weather
- No hurricanes
- Friendly people
- Good healthcare
- Same dog food brand
- High quality vet
- Access to groceries (and imported treats)
- Fun things to do
- Beautiful beaches
- Most importantly: a digital nomad visa program or pathway to residency
Along with Curacao, we were considering Barbados, Antigua, Costa Rica, and Portugal. These are all countries that have digital nomad programs or a way to achieve residency as a US citizen. We started watching YouTube videos and reading blogs about living in all of these countries, and something about Curacao stood out to us. We decided to take the next step and actually visit the island in person.
Visit the Island (Multiple Times)
There are many reasons why I recommend visiting the island multiple times before deciding to move to Curacao. The first is because you’ll need to make sure you can handle the weather at different times of the year. From October through January the island has a mild rainy season with cool trade winds blowing throughout the day. From around February through September the island gradually becomes hotter and drier with direct blazing sun and little cloud cover. The hottest the island can get is around 100 degrees F and that’s not everyone’s cup of tea, so make sure it’s yours!
Visiting here multiple times also means you become familiar with the culture and customs of the country. Something important to note is that most businesses close between 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM for a lunch break, and they’re almost always closed on holidays. Most grocery stores will often take a while to restock your favorite items as the island is dependent on the health of the shipping lanes. Even local items like eggs can suffer a shortage because of production issues. We’re never surprised when our typical cottage cheese is out of stock at the supermarkets we frequent.
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I highly recommend hiring a private guide to take you around Curacao on your first visit. That’s exactly what we did and he took us to Banda Abou (the northern nature side of the island), the beautiful beaches dotting the western side, through downtown Willemstad, and then finally the southern side near Jan Thiel. We sampled local food and found it to our liking. Our guide told us about Flow internet vs. Digicel internet and the general cost, the difference between buying a new vs. used car on the island, and so much more. We stopped by a couple of supermarkets and looked at the prices of eggs, milk, bread, and a few of our must-haves (cottage cheese, almond milk, greek yogurt, etc.) and compared it to what we were paying in Boston. This step was crucial in deciding whether it was realistic to consider living here – and it was!
Digital Nomad Visa or Residency?
In Curacao, you have the option of applying for a temporary digital nomad visa (valid for six months, eligible for one renewal for a total of 1 year on the island) or a residency permit. If you’re a US citizen, you’re in luck as the US has a treaty with the Netherlands allowing Americans to easily apply for residency in a Dutch country. The process is called “Indefinite Admission by Right“. The information isn’t always clear cut online so we hired a residency expert to help us with the process.
We used Dos Mundos who specialize in assisting with the residency process in Curacao. The process involved a lot of paperwork and several visits to different offices. We were so glad to have Dos Mundos to help us with the forms and tell us where to go. To get an idea of what you will need to do, here’s everything we went through (we started the process before we moved):
- Scanned copies of passport page
- A filled out and signed form: aANVRAAGFORMULIER VERKLARING VAN RECHTSWEGE TOELATING ARTIKEL 3, ONDER F LTU
- Completed Power of Attorney Forms
- A new copy of our birth certificates which needed an apostille (this took forever)
- Official proof of good behavior, not older than three months (we contacted our local police department for this)
- Proof of sustainable income (regular monthly income min. NAF 2500 /USD$1,388.41 or original bank statements from the last twelve months showing a min. of US $14,000 in the account every month)
- After submitting all of the paperwork, we waited around 4 months until Dos Mundos received an appointment to actually process the paperwork
- The first appointment was a quick meeting in Willemstad to process the paperwork, get stamps, and submit our passports (we got our passports back the next week)
- The second appointment was a timed appointment to visit the Kranshi (government affairs building) to get our actual residency IDs
- We paid around $2,500 USD total for the mediation fees and paperwork
We initially started the process in September 2022 and received our actual residency cards in May 2023. While they say that the process takes 4-5 months, the reality is a bit longer so I recommend starting early if you’d like to pursue that path. What’s the benefit of having a residency card? Access to national healthcare (nice for basic check ups), local rates at parks and other locations, a resident bank account, ability to receive a loan/mortgage, going through the resident line at the airport, and you can get your import taxes reimbursed if you ship a container with household goods. To us, this was totally worth it as we knew we would be making this place our home for a long time.
Buying or Renting a House?
If you decide to apply for residency, that doesn’t mean you have to buy a house. In fact, I highly recommend you rent first to get a feel for the different neighborhoods around the island. While you’re renting, you can take your time to explore different areas and decide which one feels more comfortable for your lifestyle. For example, the northern Banda Abou area has the most gorgeous beaches but not a lot of grocery stores. If you lived up there, the houses are more affordable but you’d be driving 40 minutes to get to Willemstad for a nice date night.
How do you start the process of looking for a place to rent? There is no one database like Zillow that can show you everything available. Homes for rent are usually posted by real estate companies, so you would need to go on their websites to see what’s available. Sometimes their Facebook pages are more up to date than their websites. Some of the credible real estate agencies on the island include: Sotheby’s (for high value homes), Re/Max, Century 21, New Winds, NH Real Estate, Empire Real Estate, Landmark, Sun Life, and more. Often resorts like Blue Bay and Coral Estate have their own in-house real estate office on property.
I suggest making a list of things you’re looking for in a house and neighborhood. We love the Jan Thiel area because it’s one of the only areas where we see people jogging outside and walking their dogs. We have several supermarkets near us plus Jan Thiel Beach is just a few minutes drive away. The downside, which we were totally fine with, is that traffic on the main road can get pretty bad at certain times of the day. Write down your wishlist and start looking at properties online to get an idea of the price range of what you’re looking for.
Be Thoughtful About What You’re Bringing
On a digital nomad visa, you definitely don’t need to bring much. In fact, clothes and toiletries can easily be purchased on the island. If you plan on becoming a resident, it’s in your best interest to bring a container of household goods as you’ll receive the import tax back. Buying furniture on the island will be 20-40% more expensive than buying in the US. If you order furniture online and ship it to the island, you’ll need to pay import duties of up to 20% when it arrives on the island.
We shipped a container from Boston to Curacao and are glad we went that route. The container took about 3 months to get to us (we could actually track where our freight ship was in real-time) and was easy to arrange. We used Sterling Moving Company, and they made the process as smooth as possible. The cost you’ll pay is based on how large of a container you need, but expect to drop at least $10k to ship a basic container to the island. You also have to attest that your items in the container are not new, as the import duties will be applied to any brand new items. We decided not to ship our car because it doubled our shipping costs and we were told the customs clearance process would be significantly longer with a car. I wish we did bring our car though as used cars on the island are super expensive and not great condition anyway!
The process of applying for our import duties refund is a whole other story. In short, the process took 7 months from the receipt of our residency cards to finally get the refund. We took countless trips to the Douane (Customs Office) in town, and several to the World Trade Center in Piscadera. The final delay in the process was due to a clerk “forgetting to process the paperwork” so our papers were just sitting there for days. Just island things!
Open a local bank account
You’ll want to open a local bank account once you arrive. This way it’s easy to pay your utilities which usually take only Maestro cards or bank transfers. You can also only buy gas with cash or Maestro. In fact, since Venmo isn’t a thing on the island, many vendors will accept bank transfers on the spot. Having a local bank account means less fees to take out cash at the ATMs. Taking out cash with my American debit card incurs a $10 fee from MCB’s ATMs. Crazy!
Initially, you’ll likely open a non-resident account changing to a resident account when you receive your card. Keep in mind that the banks on island don’t have technologically advanced apps like in the US. Some of the popular banks to check out for an account include: Maduro & Curiel’s Bank (MCB), Royal Bank of Curacao (RBC), Orco Bank, Vidanova, and CIBC Bank.
Rent a Car
It’s definitely a great idea to rent a car for the first few months in Curacao while you shop for your permanent car. Getting around the island with the public transportation is spotty and unreliable. Taxis are incredibly expensive, and Uber/Lyft doesn’t exist here. There are plenty of car rental places on the island, and many offering affordable long term rates.
We rented a car for our first few months. It was a junky Nissan Altima that had every light showing on the dash, but it still got us from A to B for a good price. Buying a car can take a long time and some sleuthing, and you’ll be so busy with other aspects of trying to settle in that your car should be low on the list.
Eventually you may want to buy a car, and the general consensus on the island is to buy a new car if you can. Many of the used cars have been previously damaged or totalled in the US and then shipped to the island to be restored posing a potential safety risk. You can find used car dealerships searching on Google and cars parked on the side of popular streets with a “For Sale” sign. The best way to buy a used car it is to find someone on Facebook selling their car which they bought new on the island. Otherwise, head to a new car dealership to look at the cars or bring your own car to the island.
Join Expat Groups
One of the best resources that helped in my process of moving to the island is Facebook. Specifically, Curacao expat groups on Facebook. They’re easy to find by typing in the search bar “Curacao expat” and navigating to Groups. You can ask any question in the groups and use the search function to see if your question has already been answered. The groups have been helpful in many instances by answering our questions and pointing us in the correct directions.
You can also sign up for the US Consulate’s email list to get invited to public events and from there network with other American expats on Curacao. If you have kids, you’ll likely meet a lot of parents as part of your school network. If you want to volunteer to clean up the island with Kunuku Man or help dogs at Curacao Animal Rescue Foundation (one of the few no-kill shelters on the island), you’ll also meet people there. The island is a small tight-knit community and once you meet people you can always ask them questions about living in Curacao.
Use Aeropost for Mail
There are several ways to receive mail on the island, and some take longer than others. Trust me, I’ve tested most methods of receiving mail including waiting 45 minutes at the CPost office in Punda to pick up a small package. The best way to receive mail to the island is by using Aeropost. Keep in mind that all packages arriving onto the island are subject to import taxes which are different depending on the item category.
Aeropost has a forwarding warehouse address in Miami that you can use by signing up for a free account on their website. When you order anything, you can use this Miami address for shipping and when received they’ll send you an email. You’ll need to go on the website and upload a copy of the invoice and declare the value of the package before they calculate the shipping costs. You’ll pay the shipping online and then 2-3 days later you’ll receive a text that your package is ready for pick up at the Aeropost office where you’ll need to pay the import tax (Visa and Mastercard are accepted here!). You can also request and pay for delivery to your house, but I never do that because the office is close to my favorite bubble tea shop.
The Aeropost team goes above and beyond to get my packages delivered. One time, we ordered a PC to the island and since the value was over $2,500 we needed to provide the Tax ID of the company we purchased it from. The company refused to provide their Tax ID for whatever reason and long story short the Aeropost team came up with a couple of creative workarounds, though ultimately their team got the Tax ID. I can always get a live agent quickly via chat and they’re responsive by phone as well. I will say the website and tracking isn’t very user-friendly or technologically advanced, but they’re better than any other company.
The alternative options include CPost (the main post office chain of the island) and other shipping services such as FedEx, UPS, and DHL. Receiving mail via CPost is cheaper but takes much longer, and tracking doesn’t exist once your package leaves the US. The only way I find out I have a package via CPost is by a form showing up in the mail telling me to go to the office within a week or pay a storage fee. The CPost office is in Punda by the bus station and to get a package you need to take a number, wait for your number to be called, and walk up to the window to collect your package. Customs is less strict with items coming in through CPost, in my experience, but you’ll still need to pay duties (Maestro card or cash only). UPS is the only company I know that delivers mail to your house automatically (I didn’t need to pay a fee… but maybe because it was only documents?), and I’ve had to pick up packages at FedEx and DHL.
Be Patient (Everything Moves Slowly)
My top tip for a life on Curacao is to be patient. Let go of any notion of urgency that you’re used to in the US. Life moves slowly here and that’s okay. People make mistakes all the time and then shrug it off (like the clerk not processing our tax refund paperwork). I’ve had instances where I’ve gone to an office to pick up paperwork only to find out my papers were accidentally taken to a different office. I can no longer count the number of times I’ve been out running errands to find a shop I needed was randomly closed. I see at least 3 car accidents a week slowing down traffic on our one lane roads. There are so many things that can annoy people and affect their quality of life if they don’t learn to let go.
When you do let go, you’ll realize that the people living on Curacao are the friendliest you’ll ever meet. The beautiful beaches a short drive away and the amazing food are worth moving here for. The overall wholesome atmosphere away from the societal pressures and political discourse I’m used to in the US make moving here the best decision I’ve ever made. I hope you feel the same!
If you have any questions about living in Curacao, feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll reply!
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