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Guide for employers: how to legally hire a foreigner in Curaçao

2026-09-06 · Employers Work

Who starts the process (and why it isn't the worker)

A common mistake: assuming the foreign worker can sort this out on their own. The law places the responsibility for starting the process on the company -- it's your business that applies for the work permit (tewerkstellingsvergunning, TWV) with the Ministry of Labor (SOAW), and only after that permit is approved does the worker's residence application get processed. If you hire before the permit is approved, both the company and the worker are exposed.

The real process, with exact timelines and amounts

1. Register the vacancy at least 5 weeks in advance with Centrum voor Arbeid / Sentro pa Labor, by email to vacaturemelding.soaw@gobiernu.cw -- you must be able to show you searched for candidates in Curaçao during that time before hiring a specific foreign worker.
2. Gather all the required documents (they're different from the worker's residence documents -- see the full list below).
3. Pay the TWV fee: XCG 500 for 0-6 months, XCG 1,000 for 6-12 months -- today those are the only two categories SOAW processes (fees for 12-24 and 24-36 months exist in the official table, but aren't currently being handled).
4. Submit the complete application (documents + proof of payment) at the Vergunningenloket, Afdeling Intake.
5. Only once the TWV is approved does the worker start their own residence permit process.

Every detail -- the complete document list, the 4 official downloadable forms, and notes on renewal -- is on the full page for this procedure.

The document your company must fill out: the Employer Declaration

This is on the worker's residence side (Ministerie van Justitie, separate from the TWV above), and confirms the real terms of the contract -- it's designed to catch contracts that don't reflect reality:

• It asks for contractual weekly hours AND actual weekly hours separately -- they must match. If they don't, it's a red flag that can complicate approval.
• Gross and net salary (excluding vacation bonus), monthly or weekly.
• Whether there's a trial period, and until when.
• It requires both a signature AND the company stamp -- without the physical stamp, it can be rejected as incomplete.

The Guarantee Declaration: your company takes on real liability

As the employer (or sponsor), you sign committing to cover any costs the State has to bear for the foreign worker during their stay -- legal OR illegal, including a possible deportation cost. This liability doesn't end just because you withdraw the guarantee in writing -- it stays in effect until the worker permanently leaves Curaçao or changes permit. Understand this before signing: it's not a symbolic formality.

The minimum wage applies equally to foreign workers

SOAW explicitly requires that you pay at least the full legal minimum wage for workers 18 and older (XCG 11.93/hour in 2026) -- there's no separate, higher floor specifically for hiring a foreign worker, but you also can't pay less.

Costs to budget for (two procedures, not one)

These are TWO procedures at TWO different ministries, each with its own fee: SOAW's TWV (XCG 500-1,000 depending on duration, see above) and the worker's first residence application with Immigration (XCG 655, plus XCG 10 stamps on the Employer Declaration and the Guarantee Declaration). See the full detail on the residence side on that procedure page.

Why it's worth doing right

A denied work permit automatically denies the residence permit too -- they're legally dependent on each other. And if your company already hired informally before having the permit, that can complicate approval when you do apply. Doing it in order, from the start, is what keeps you from losing the candidate you already chose.

The TWV process was verified by reading the official SOAW page (loketdigital.gobiernu.cw) directly and the 4 official documents it publishes, not from memory or third-party summaries. The rest of the factual content comes from this site's verified database (immigrationcur.org / Toelatingsorganisatie Curaçao).

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