Recently you ran several articles, stating that American citizens have the same rights as Dutch nationals and now can stay for 6 months instead of 3 months per calendar year, without a residence permit.

We are US citizens and spend the winter in Curaçao and carefully plan to stay within the 90 day window per year.
Last week, we spent a few days in Bonaire and came back on February 18th and put your and Curaçao Chronicle’s article to the test with the immigration officer at the Curaçao airport and showed below article on my phone.
The immigration officer was not amused and stated very clearly and pointedly that all these articles are wrong and the maximum amount of days American citizens can stay in Curaçao per calendar year, is 90 days and not a day more. If we want to stay longer, we need to apply for a residence status, etc., etc. She also added that Curaçao residents only can stay in the US for 90 days (though I believe it is 90 days per trip with a maximum of 180, but I’m not sure). I wanted to add that Curaçao needs the Americans more for their tourism than vice versa, but shut up as the officer was getting more worked up and I did not want to get in trouble with her.
We really would like to spend 3 to 5 months in the future without going through the slow and costly residence process and would like to know the real situation before we book another trip to Curaçao later this year (as this current trip will almost have used all 90 days).
As economist, I am wondering why the Curaçao Tourist organization spends all this money on attracting Americans to Curaçao and then when Americans come to Curacao (and consider investing in a vacation home) they are told to get out after 90 days? While we are in Curaçao, we spend quite a bit of money with rental properties, rental cars, grocery stores, shops, restaurants, dive clubs, gas, etc., which all assist the economy of Curaçao and create local jobs. Trust me, we spend more per day than a cruise tourist. Someone needs to make the Curaçao government understand that their strict immigration rules from US/CND/EU countries hurts the Curaçao tourist economy.
Dany Claeys
Charlotte, NC, USA