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Working Remotely from Aruba: The Nomad Visa, Long Stays & When You Stop Leaving
Aruba has a remote-work program with a name only a tourism board could love, One Happy Workation, and it does what it says: lets you work your normal job from a terrace with a sea view for a few months. Plenty of people do it once. A surprising number come back the next winter, then start looking at listings. This is the guide for both versions of you.
By Jakob Jakubov, every winter on Aruba since 2021 · Updated September 2026 · 7 min read
The short version
- Yes, Aruba has a remote-work program – One Happy Workation, for eligible remote workers to stay up to 90 days while working for employers or clients outside Aruba. It is open to US passport holders only; everyone else stays under the normal tourist rules.
- Your foreign salary isn't taxed in Aruba under the program: you're a long-stay visitor, not a resident. Home-country tax doesn't change.
- The internet is good enough. Fibre or cable in most rentals in Noord and along the beaches, reliable mobile data, three coworking spaces in Oranjestad. The wind on video calls is a bigger problem than the bandwidth.
- It's not a cheap workation. Budget roughly $3,000–5,000/month in low season and $4,500–7,500 in winter for a comfortable stay with a decent rental and a car.
- This is the try-before-you-buy island. Ninety days is exactly long enough to find out whether you love it in week eleven as much as week one.
The program, in plain English
One Happy Workation is Aruba's take on the digital-nomad visa wave, and it's lighter-touch than most: not a visa at all but a tourist entry with a remote-work purpose ticked on the ED card. The broad shape, checked against the official program page in September 2026: still confirm before you book anything:
- Who: remote employees and self-employed people whose income comes from outside Aruba. It is for US passport holders; other nationalities are welcome as ordinary tourists under their normal stay limits.
- How long: from one week up to 90 days. You can extend on-island up to that 90-day total, but not beyond it.
- What you need: a valid passport, a return ticket, the ED card with "One Happy Workation" as your purpose, the US$20 sustainability fee, and an employer or business outside Aruba (no work for Aruban companies). Travel insurance is strongly recommended, not compulsory. No minimum-income threshold and no program fee, unlike Barbados or Antigua.
- Tax: you're not an Aruban tax resident, so foreign salary isn't taxed here. You stay fully taxable at home: ask your accountant, not us.
- Work restriction: you can't work for Aruban companies or the local market. The premise is that your economy is elsewhere.
No lawyer, no local bank account, no residence card. The trade-off is that it's temporary by design: a long visit, not a foothold. If you want the foothold, skip to "staying longer."
Internet, coworking and the reality of working here
Can you do a full-time job from Aruba without your colleagues noticing? Yes. Setar has been rolling out fibre across Noord and the north-west, and most rentals near the beaches have fibre or cable at 50–100+ Mbps, and the two carriers (Setar and Digicel) give you a solid backup on a local SIM. Outages are mostly power, not data, and short. We've run client calls from rentals in Noord, Eagle Beach and Savaneta and the connection was never the story.
The things that are the story:
The wind. Aruba's trade wind is constant and it will destroy the audio on any outdoor call. You'll take meetings indoors and learn which side of the house is the lee side within a day.
Time zone. Atlantic Standard, no daylight saving: an hour ahead of US Eastern in winter, level in summer. Close to invisible for a North American team.
Coworking. Three dedicated spaces, all in Oranjestad (Workspace Aruba, Aruba Business Center, Impact Hub), plus some laptop-friendly cafés; there is nothing on the Palm Beach strip, so plan on your rental's Wi-Fi. It's not Lisbon or Medellín: the nomad scene is small, more couples in their forties than twenty-somethings with a podcast. If you need a big remote-worker community, that's an honest point against Aruba. If you want to work quietly and be at the beach by five, it's a point for.
Power bills. Air-conditioning a home office all day is the hidden cost. Rentals that include utilities look better once you've seen an August bill. More in cost of living on Aruba.
What a remote-work stay costs
Aruba isn't a budget nomad destination and we won't pretend it is. It's a developed, imported, tourist-priced island, which is why it works so well and why it costs what it does. Rough monthly figures for one to three months, checked against current listings and carrier prices:
| Line item | Solo, modest | Couple, comfortable | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Furnished rental (1–2 bed) | $1,800–2,800 | $2,500–4,500 | Monthly beats nightly; winter is dearer |
| Utilities / AC if not included | $150–400 | $200–500 | The AC line is the swing |
| Car rental (monthly, local firms) | $600–900 | $600–900 | No Uber or Lyft; you'll want one |
| Groceries & eating out | $700–1,000 | $1,100–1,700 | Local food cheap, imports not |
| Mobile data / coworking | $60–150 | $100–250 | Local SIM ($30–60 per 30 days) + optional desk |
| Rough total / month | ~$3,000–5,000 | ~$4,500–7,500 | Before flights and insurance |
Typical ranges, re-checked every winter. A resident's budget, rather than a visitor's, is in the cost of living guide.
Run that for ninety days and you land around $10,000–20,000 for the season. Come back three winters and you've spent a serious down payment on somebody else's condo. Which brings us to the part the visa sites don't write.
Curious what that rental money would buy instead? The free Aruba Buyer's Guide PDF has the neighbourhood price map, ownership costs, and the rent-vs-buy math for people who keep coming back. → Send it to me
The arc: Nomad → snowbird → owner
We've watched this play out enough times to describe it like a recipe.
Year one is the workation. You come for the program's ninety days or a chunk of it, rent near the beach because that's what you know from holidays, work mornings, learn that the strip is loud and Noord is not. You leave a little sad.
Year two you come back differently. Longer if you can, as a plain visitor the cap is 180 days a calendar year (30 on arrival for most nationalities, 90 for US citizens, extendable through DIMAS), a whole northern winter with no program at all. You rent inland this time because a friend told you to. You start noticing "for sale" signs. You are, without deciding anything, a snowbird, and our snowbird guide has the winter-rental numbers and the rent-three-winters-then-buy math that goes with it.
Year three you run the math yourself, realise the rent would have covered a chunk of a mortgage, and start asking what a two-bed near Eagle Beach costs, or whether a condo that rents itself for nine months could pay for the three you're here.
None of this is inevitable. Plenty of people do one workation and go to Portugal next year. But the pattern is real, and it's why ninety days on Aruba is one of the best property-research tools there is: you find out whether the island is yours before you've committed anything but rent.
Ninety days is long enough to fall in love and long enough to fall out. Either answer is worth the trip.
Staying longer: The honest options
The program is temporary on purpose, so if you finish it wanting more, here's the ladder:
- Come back as a visitor. Most North Americans can spend up to 180 days a year in Aruba without residency. For a snowbird life that's usually enough, and it needs no permit.
- Buy a place. You don't need residency to own property here; foreigners buy under the same rules as locals. Owning doesn't grant residency either, the two are separate. But a home you own changes the psychology of "visiting" completely.
- Apply for residency. Year-round living means a residence permit through DIMAS, with income and insurance requirements and, for anyone working locally, a hard-to-get work permit. Remote work for foreign clients under residency sits in a grey-to-clear zone depending on your setup; get advice. The routes, AZV health insurance and paperwork are in our healthcare & residency guide.
Whichever rung you're on, the day-to-day (cars, wind, power bills, Papiamento on the radio) is the same, and the honest version is in moving to & living on Aruba.
Already suspecting you'll be back? Take the numbers with you. The free Aruba Buyer's Guide covers costs, taxes, freehold vs. land lease and where each budget lands on the map. → Send me the guide · Further along than that? Take the 60-second property match →
Common questions
Does Aruba have a digital nomad visa?
Yes: the One Happy Workation program lets eligible remote workers stay up to 90 days while working for employers or clients outside Aruba. It is open to US passport holders; other nationalities use the normal tourist rules.
How long can you stay in Aruba on the workation program?
Up to 90 days in total, extendable on-island up to that limit but not beyond. Confirm on the official program page before planning.
Do digital nomads pay tax in Aruba?
Not on foreign income under the program: you're a long-stay visitor, not a tax resident. You remain taxable at home as normal.
Is the internet in Aruba good enough for remote work?
Yes. Fibre or cable covers most rentals near the beaches and in Noord, and mobile data is reliable. Plan on indoor calls: the trade wind wrecks outdoor audio.
Can I work remotely from Aruba for more than 90 days?
As a plain visitor, most North Americans can stay up to 180 days a year (30 on arrival, 90 for US citizens, extendable through DIMAS). Longer means residency, a separate process with its own requirements.
Does buying property in Aruba give me residency?
No. Foreigners can buy freely, but ownership doesn't grant residency, that's applied for separately. See our healthcare & residency guide.
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