Methodology: where each fact comes from
RutaCuracao is not a government website or a law firm. It summarises Curaçao's official immigration rules and checks every fact against its source. This page explains how.
Last revised:
Which source prevails
When two sources disagree, we follow this order:
- The law: the Landsverordening toelating en uitzetting (LTU), the Landsverordening arbeid vreemdelingen (LAV) and, for nationality, the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap.
- Official policies and instructions: the Toelatingsorganisatie policy in force since 1 April 2026, the Rib'e Lugá policy and the 2006 instruction (HIG), without the sections repealed in 2019.
- Official pages and forms of the Toelatingsorganisatie, Loket Digital, SVB, Kranshi and the Governor's Office.
- Court rulings, which show how a rule is applied but do not replace it.
- Local press, only to confirm dates and announcements.
A legal figure or deadline is always taken from the text of the law or the policy, never from the summary of a ruling. All sources, with their limits, are listed on Official sources.
How the 172 rulings were read
The rulings come from rechtspraak.nl: the Joint Court of Justice and the courts of first instance. Each was read in full, noting the topic, who appealed, who really won, the facts and the reasoning. Those not about immigration were set aside.
The Joint Court hears cases from Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and the Caribbean Netherlands, and each island has its own admission law. Of the 172 rulings, 73 are from Curaçao, 59 from Aruba, 28 from Sint Maarten and 12 from Bonaire. Throughout the site, every ruling that is not from Curaçao shows its island, and a case from another island is presented as an example, not as a Curaçao rule.
Success rates by topic are for cases that reached court, almost always because something went wrong. They are not the probability that a well-prepared application will be approved.
How it is kept up to date
Every week the Toelatingsorganisatie's official website is compared with the last saved copy to detect changes in requirements, fees or policies, and rechtspraak.nl is searched for new rulings. Immigration news found by the Radar is only published after the editor has reviewed and approved it.
Every page says when it was reviewed. Government rule changes are announced with a date on News, and errors on the site in the corrections log.
What is not confirmed
If an official source does not say something, we do not present it as fact: we say it is not confirmed and explain whom to ask. When two official sources contradict each other, like the two versions of the 2014 investor order, we say so and state which one we follow.
Legal review: pending
No lawyer has reviewed the site's content yet. Pages that analyse court rulings or explain how to defend yourself carry the label “Legal review: pending” until that happens. RutaCuracao is general information and does not replace a lawyer for a specific case: Curaçao's lawyers are listed in the official directory of the Orde van Advocaten.
Translations and artificial intelligence
The original is in Spanish. The English, Dutch and Papiamentu versions are translated with the help of artificial intelligence and checked against the same sources. If a translation does not match the original, the Spanish prevails: let us know so we can fix it.
The chat answers with an OpenAI language model that looks up the site's data: it does not invent costs or cite rulings from memory, and it does not replace a lawyer.
If you find an error
Write to rogerpillasagua95@gmail.com or on WhatsApp at +5999 692-5640. Every corrected error is recorded with a date in the corrections log.