Apply online

The Digital Immigration Card (DI Card) is mandatory for every tourist who wants to travel to Curacao. You need this DI Card to get through customs upon arrival at Hato Airport on Curacao. The DI Card is mandatory for everyone (regardless of age) who wants to travel to Curacao and who is not registered as a resident of Curacao. Whether or not born on Curacao makes no difference, it is about whether or not a resident of Curacao. Even when you emigrate to Curacao, you will still enter the country as a tourist, so you must fill in a DI Card. A Declaration of Law (VRW) that may already have been applied for or granted makes no difference in this respect.

The DI Card, also known as the Embarkation Card, is the modern online replacement of the piece of paper that you used to be handed out on the plane by the flight attendants to fill in when and why you would be in Curaçao and where you are staying. Nowadays we no longer do that note on the plane, this only goes online. But otherwise all information is still the same: personal info (from your passport), your flight details and your accommodation.

E-gates Curaçao

An advantage of the online DI Card is that you can use it to go through the E-gates upon arrival on Curaçao. You don’t have to queue to go past a customs officer, but you can go through the gates with the automated process. This usually goes much faster, so you can enjoy your first cocktail on Curaçao just a little earlier

Not for children

Unfortunately, the E-gates are not possible if you are traveling with children aged 17 or younger. Because children’s faces can quickly deviate from the photo in the passport, it is not possible for the computer to properly match children in this process. So if you are traveling with children, you will have to go through the ‘old-fashioned’ customs officer.

And to be clear: you have to arrange the DI Card anyway, even if you don’t want to go through the E-gates.

DI Card: where & when

You can apply for the DI Card online at dicardcuracao.com. You can apply for the DI Card from 7 days before departure, but because it obviously only makes sense to do this if you really go, my advice is to do this after you have checked in online, usually about 24 hours before departure. Then you have all the necessary information together and you can fill in everything quite easily. If you do this before, there is a chance that your flight will be changed and that you will have to adjust the DI Card again.