Moving to a free port: the container, the car and the hurricane season

Whoever knows the Curaçao stories expects a customs file here too: exemption forms, ownership requirements, bans on selling. That file doesn't exist on Sint Maarten. The island is a free port — no import duties are levied, customs is an enforcement service and not a till. This article is about what does determine your planning and your budget then.

The container: the clock of your planning

The household goods go by sea container from Rotterdam to Philipsburg — weeks on the water, and with that the clock of your whole process. The choice is the same as at every overseas destination: your own 20- or 40-footer, a part load per cubic metre, or selling and starting afresh there. That last option is more expensive on an import island than it sounds: furniture comes by boat and is priced accordingly.

Ask for three quotes for the same inventory and watch what is not included — the insurance (around two per cent of the value of the goods) and the local handling are the items the bill overruns on. You make an inventory list with values while packing: not for an exemption, that isn't needed here, but for your insurer and a smooth clearance.

The car: no ownership requirement, but a vanished residual BPM

On Curaçao the twelve-month requirement decides whether your car can come along; on Sint Maarten that requirement doesn't exist, because there is no exemption to earn — there is no import duty. Taking it costs the freight (cheapest in the household container), the clearance, the inspection and the plates.

Two things do belong in the sum. The residual BPM you lose: a refund on export applies only within the EU/EEA, so a young car invisibly leaves thousands of euros of residual value behind. Better take a written-off car — or buy one on the lively local market, where just as at home the steering wheel is on the left and you drive on the right. And the annual plate cycle: you pay the motor vehicle tax there by buying new number plates every year, with valid insurance and an inspection card as a condition on collection.

As a resident you exchange your driving licence for a Sint Maarten one — the exchange relationship with the Netherlands works both ways, so without a new test. Renew your Dutch driving licence before departure if at all possible: then you have years of leeway for that step.

The hurricane season: the calendar that has a say

From June to November it is hurricane season, and Irma showed in 2017 what that means in the worst case. For the move itself the lesson is practical: don't plan your arrival and your container in the middle of the seasonal peak of August to October if it can be done otherwise — a port that closes or a roof waiting for repair is no beginning.

For living there afterwards the lesson is financial: buildings and contents insurance have separate hurricane modules with their own excesses, and the build quality of your rented home is a real question, not estate-agent talk. Ask at every home when the roof was last renewed — on this island that's a normal question.

Rent first, then put down roots

Book furnished accommodation for the first weeks: your container is still sailing, and a neighbourhood — and a side of the island, because the north side is France — you choose on the spot. Buy nothing in the first year. What you learn in that year about neighbourhoods, electricity bills, hurricane-resistant construction and the island rhythm is exactly what you can no longer undo with a purchase.