Working in Curaçao as a French National: Permits, Minimum Wage, Contributions and Tax

In Curaçao, a foreigner’s access to employment goes through two successive authorisations. The first is the work permit (tewerkstellingsvergunning), which the employer requests, individual or company, from the Government permits counter. The second is the residence permit, which the foreign employee requests themselves from the Toelatingsorganisatie, only after a positive decision on the work permit.

The employer first reports the post to the employment centre (Sentro pa Trabou), at least five weeks before the application, by email and with the required form. It then demonstrates that it has actively looked for candidates in Curaçao for at least five weeks, then files its application for the permit. The fees are Cg 500 for a job of 0 to 6 months, Cg 1,000 for 6 to 12 months, Cg 2,000 for 12 to 24 months and Cg 3,000 for 24 to 36 months; the counter specifies that only applications for 0 to 6 and 6 to 12 months are currently processed. The employer undertakes to pay at least the applicable minimum wage to employees aged 18 and over and, for an employee housed by them, to provide safe and healthy housing.

For the work residence permit, the Toelatingsorganisatie asks in particular for a passport, a birth certificate extract less than a year old, a certificate of good conduct less than three months old, a copy of the work permit, the employer’s trade register extract and an employer’s guarantee statement. It has four months to rule, and a first application made from abroad waits for its decision outside the island. Since 1 April 2026, a permit can be requested for three years at most, the fees being due for each year requested, dependants following the length of the main applicant.

The hourly minimum wage is indexed each year on the CBS price index (Central Bureau of Statistics). A regulation published each year sets it in Caribbean guilders, per hour; the monthly minimum is calculated on the basis of a 40-hour week and of 4.33 weeks a month.

The CBS publishes the distribution of gross monthly incomes of employed people; the series used in the statement of purposes of the regulation is old: it gives an order of magnitude and not the levels by occupation, which the official sources consulted do not publish. The CBS also publishes the employed population and youth (15-24) unemployment.

The SVB table, revised each year, sets premiums as a percentage of income. Paid by the employee are the AOV (6% out of 15% in total), the AWW (0.5% out of 1%), the AVBZ (1.5% out of 2%) and the BVZ (4.3% out of 13.6%), that is 12.3% combined. Paid by the employer are 9% of AOV, 0.5% of AWW, 0.5% of AVBZ, 9.3% of BVZ, 1.9% of sickness-wage insurance (ZV) and 0.5% to 5% of accident insurance (OV) depending on the risk class, that is 21.2% excluding OV. The income ceilings are Cg 100,000 for the AOV and the AWW (an additional employee premium of 1% applies beyond that for the AOV), Cg 150,000 for the BVZ and Cg 606,247.08 for the AVBZ. The employer also pays a cessantia contribution of Cg 40 per employee per year.

Sickness-wage insurance (ZV) protects employees whose income is below the ceiling (Cg 7,146.10 a month, Cg 85,753.20 a year), who work five or six days a week: the allowance is 80% of the daily wage, for two years at most for the same cause of illness. The BVZ opens access to care for the resident; its cover is described in the page Curaçao’s healthcare system. An employee seconded by a French employer keeps, according to CLEISS (the French Centre for European and International Social Security Liaison), the French scheme for three years renewable once (six years at most), without being exempt from contributions in the country of activity; see seconded or expatriate.

The Belastingdienst (tax administration) distinguishes the resident taxpayer, taxed on their worldwide income (from Curaçao or abroad), from the non-resident, taxed only on Curaçao-source income. Employment income, business profits, capital income, property and annuities enter the calculation; AOV and AWW premiums withheld from salary, mortgage interest and certain exceptional expenses are deductible. The return is filed online: two months after a postal invitation, or within 36 months on the taxpayer’s own initiative. A delay may lead to an estimated assessment and a fine of 250 florins the first time, up to 2,500 florins the fifth; the tax is paid within two months of receiving the notice. The Belastingdienst pages consulted publish no progressive scale, to be confirmed directly with the administration.

On the French side, the impots.gouv.fr list of tax treaties has no entry for Curaçao; France and Curaçao signed in The Hague, on 10 September 2010, a tax information exchange agreement, in force since 1 August 2012 (BOFiP). In the absence of a listed treaty, the question of tax residence and any double taxation is settled with the non-resident individuals tax office, before departure.

A resident freelancer contributes to the BVZ at the rate of 13.6% of income, up to Cg 150,000, according to the SVB table. The Toelatingsorganisatie website offers a “Werken” permit whose title also mentions running a sole proprietorship (eenmanszaak), as well as an investor permit; a residence permit of indefinite duration can reward an investment of more than Cg 1,500,000. The CRIB number, the tax identifier, is needed and is requested online from the Belastingdienst. A sole-proprietor employer must, to employ a foreigner, show a taxable income of at least Cg 36,000 over the last two years.

A remote worker whose employer is abroad falls under the short-stay residence permit: six months at most, Cg 535 for a first application, with a passport valid for at least six months and proof of resources (employer statement, certified employment contract or activity statement if the applicant owns a company abroad). Each dependant files their own application. This temporary permit is distinct from residence; for health cover, see digital nomad insurance.

The currency is the Caribbean guilder (code XCG, written Cg), which succeeded the Netherlands Antillean guilder. The CBS describes tourism as one of the pillars of the island’s economy; the statement of purposes of the minimum wage regulation recalls that hotels and restaurants play an important role there and that the effects of wage cost rises are felt faster in services, such as hotels and restaurants and retail, than in export sectors. Indicators of growth, inflation, unemployment and GDP per capita appear in the “Economic indicators” block of this page.

For the outlook, the same regulation cites the projections of the Centrale Bank van Curaçao en Sint Maarten, from its economic bulletin: moderate real GDP growth and contained inflation. The CBS also publishes a labour force survey each year: the latest survey recorded counts more than 70,000 active people. The specific sectors and their weight in employment come from CBS publications and those of the Ministry of Social Development, Labour and Welfare; they are not detailed here for lack of a table read in the official sources.