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Hiring foreigners and starting a business in Curaçao

If you are an employer, you apply for a foreign worker's work permit, and employing someone without it is fined. If you want your own business, there is a residence permit for that. Here are both routes, the closed occupations and what applies to you if someone at your company registered for Rib'e Lugá.

Procedures

• Employer's work permit (Tewerkstellingsvergunning): how to hire a foreign worker
• Residence permit to start or run your own business (sole proprietorship / director) from XCG 635
• Residence Permit for Work (Employee of a Company) from XCG 655

Articles

• Guide for employers: how to legally hire a foreigner in CuraçaoThe real process, in order, so your company can hire a foreign worker without risking the permit being rejected.
• What happens to a company that hires without a work permit in Curaçao (LAV, articles 19 and 20)The foreign labour law punishes the employer, not the worker: up to 3 months' detention or a 100,000-guilder fine per infraction, plus a legal presumption of 6 months of…
• Which professions CAN apply for a work permit in Curaçao?There's no official list of approved professions — the system works the other way around. And the restriction list changed in June 2025: this is what's in force TODAY.
• Rib'e Lugá for employers: what to sign and what to payIf someone who works for you registers with Rib'e Lugá for work, your declaration, your guarantee, your Chamber of Commerce extract and your CRIB are included in their…
• Your rights as a worker in Curaçao: minimum wage, holidays, overtime and dismissalYour permit depends on your employer, but labour law protects you exactly like a local worker. The 2026 minimum wage by age, holidays, overtime pay, when a dismissal is…

General information, not legal advice. Every procedure page cites its official source and says when it was reviewed.