Expert: Andy Mendyk - 7/24/2009

Question
My wife and I took our first trip to Aruba in May and fell in love.  We would like to buy a place and spend half our time in Aruba when we retire.  What is the process we need to go through to make this happen?

Answer
Hi John! The big difference here is you state you want to spend half your time there, rather than living there permanently. One is entirely different from the other!
All you need is to purchase a dwelling there. As a 'visitor", you are allowed 3 months, but for 6 months all you need to do is go to DINA (Dept.of Immigration Aruba) to legally extend your yearly visit to 6 months. You may also visit a few times per year also, staying 30 days and not worry about the extended permit. You may elect to rent your home out when you are not there also, for added income. A lot os people from the U.S. own a home there and vacation/spend time there.
Living there permanently requires a lot of leg work for residency permits.

Next trip down, just contact any real estate firm, and you can go from there!