Informative afternoon on the new guidelines in the immigration policy

On Thursday, June 29, there was an informative afternoon organised by the Curaçao Trade and Industry Association, otherwise known as the Vereniging Bedrijfsleven Curaçao (VBC), the association representing the island’s commercial sector, in order to discuss the new guidelines in the immigration policy. The afternoon was held at the Chamber of Commerce and was hosted by Mr. John Jacobs, managing director of the Chamber. The speakers were Mr. H. Coffie (Head Legal Affairs of Justice), Mrs. E. Cheri (Head Cabinet of the Authorities) and Mrs. M. van de Biggelaar (external adviser). After a brief introduction by Mr. Jacobs, Mr. Coffie started by saying that the aforementioned guidelines were not to be seen as official regulations, but for the time being should be considered ‘internal instructions’ for the civil servants that have to do with these issues daily. Nevertheless, Mr. Coffie adds that these guidelines will be introduced as of July 1, 2006 with a grace period of one month. The most important items mentioned in the guidelines are: -         The Minister of Justice wants to see an adjustment of the immigration policy, in which only those aliens, that make a positive contribution to the economy (highly educated people, investors and entrepreneurs), would be permitted; -         Family reunion and forming, in which only marriage is treated as a legal institution.   This as opposed to the actual situation, in which a partnership contract is also treated as such; -         The alien’s disposition of enough financial means in order to be permitted; -         The alien’s residence right, in which the alien should await the outcome of his petition abroad; -         Supervision and sanctions: all expenses (voyage, accommodation, medical expenses) that are made by the government regarding the alien will be recovered from the guarantor; -         Medical insurance, in which the alien should produce an insurance that is valid for at least 1 year when presenting his residence permit. Only those insurers that offer a package that fulfils the conditions (similar to the one offered by the National Insurance Institute of the Netherlands Antilles, or SVB) are recognized by the government. The discussions that arose were mostly about the difficulties that entrepreneurs, especially those in the International Financial Services sector, faced when requesting a permit for importing highly educated employees and the time-consuming procedures that are involved. The speakers declared, though, that considerable progress is being made internally concerning the handling of the permit petitions and of the permit extensions. It is expected that this progress will keep growing in the future and that as a result, petitions will be handled more efficiently.   Source: CIFA, 30 June 2006

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