Your first weeks on Aruba: Censo, cedula and the 30-day window

The first weeks on Aruba are a chain in which every link wants to see the previous one: the DIMAS decision opens Censo, Censo opens the cedula and the AZV, and the cedula opens the bank and the employer. Whoever knows the order and has the papers complete is sorted in a month.

Censo: only once you're there, and with fresh papers

Registering in the population register is only possible at the moment you are actually on Aruba — and as a Dutch citizen born in the European part of the Kingdom it can be done via the digital portal. What Censo wants to see: your passport, the DIMAS decision, your rental or purchase contract, the proof of deregistration from the Netherlands and a birth certificate no more than a year old (marriage certificates likewise recent). Apostilles are not needed within the Kingdom — freshness is the requirement here, not legalisation. Processing can take three weeks. Then immediately collect the declaration of registration in triplicate: customs wants to see it for your container exemption and so does the driving licence office.

The cedula, and the thirty-day window

With the registration processed you collect the cedula — the Aruban identity document, mandatory from age twelve, Afl. 50, issued on the spot. And then the most important clock of your first month: register with the AZV within thirty days of your Censo registration. If you make that window, the health insurance covers you retroactively from your registration date; if you miss it, cover only starts on your application date and everything in between is at your own expense. Registration is online and your card is digital — the digiZorgPas in the AZV app. From that moment the bridging insurance you took out for the journey can be cancelled.

The driving licence: invalid as soon as you're a resident

The rule almost nobody knows, and which is different on Curaçao: as soon as you live on Aruba, your Dutch driving licence is no longer valid there — registering is not enough, converting is required. Fortunately without an exam: the Bureau Examen Rijbewijzen converts your Dutch licence on presentation of a certificate of authenticity from the RDW (no more than six months old — so apply for it before you leave; from the Netherlands it goes much faster), your declaration of registration and your permit. Plan the appointment in your first weeks, not as a job for later: every drive until then is formally one without a valid licence.

And then: the bank, and the rhythm

With the cedula and Censo extract you open a local account (banks also want to see payslips or a contract), you arrange your personal number with the tax department for the first payslip, and then the chain is complete. The florin is pegged to the dollar, the supermarket is more expensive than at home, and the pace is slower — the last of these is what you get used to fastest of all.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 4 of 5 of the journey: the same steps, but applied to your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines monitored. See the whole journey to Aruba.