My name is Morgan Lopuchovsky.
My application for the ‘Living with your Partner’ permit was submitted and paid for to Dimas on March 22, 2022 (16 weeks and 1 day- please see attached receipt).
When starting this process, I was told Aruba has a special agreement with the USA and that American’s process pretty quickly (4-6 weeks). On DIMAs website, it states that “DIMAS handles your request within a legal period of 12 weeks.If there are any complications in handling your request, we will send you a letter for an additional decision time of 12 weeks. Within this period DIMAS does not provide processing information to clients. We will do our best to handle application requests as quickly as possible.” (https://www.dimasaruba.aw/en/faq/). That has unfortunately not been the case with my permit. Since my process has started, DIMAs appointment maker has not worked once- see attached photos. DIMAs states that appointments are not needed, yet have you stand for 4 hours outside waiting to get in, sometimes turned away for a lunch break, because only so many people are allowed to be seen before lunch. The phone is never answered at DIMAs, and when told their appointment system does not allow scheduling, they let you know they are aware and it is being worked on (since March).
This message is to inform whoever needs informed that this process is living hell. This process and the excruciating stress it puts on a human, the lack of communication from DIMAs, and the constant state of paying money and not knowing when the process will be over is enough to make someone’s love for this island diminish quickly, which is very sad.
I fell in love with a native of Aruba, decided to stay, despite the huge increase in every single thing I would buy, including necessities and it has easily been one of the most stressful things I have ever done and I am hoping that someone is able to make it right for myself and all of the others to come after me.
My first complaint is that DIMAs is impossible to speak to, even after spending 4 hours waiting outside to speak to the desk assistant. The desk assistant writes notes on a sheet of paper, ensures that he will get it to the person needed and lets you know that you can come back the following week, and wait for another four hours during working hours.
People completing permits are expected to hire someone to complete the permit for them (which is pricey), buy insurance (also pricey and I am fully covered in the USA but this is not sufficient for the permit application), complete everything on timelines DIMAs has made and have every single paper necessary to move forward. When you buy insurance, everything is submitted for the permit- the applicant does not have access to the insurance they paid for and in my case, the insurance will be close to expired by the time I get the permit back. Traveling back and forth, each time I have had to buy the visitor insurance as well because my insurance information is with DIMAs, which is yet another added expense on top of the insurance I will not even be using. Then when it comes to DIMAs part, that same human submitting their permit is expected to wait, with little to no answers, for an unknown amount of time that can put that person at risk for going over their 6 months allotted to them a year. There is no status that the permit applicant is put in such as “pending permit”. Therefore, when the permit applicant comes back and forth to Aruba they are very frequently held up at the airport asking questions about why they are coming to Aruba so often. Which in my case “my boyfriend lives here” was not a sufficient answer. In which I was then asked many questions regarding if my boyfriend lived here why wasn’t I living with his family? Which was very unprofessional and not appropriate to be quizzed on. These situations at the airport have caused me stress and panic to the point of not wanting to travel to Aruba because I know that I will be stopped and questioned while traveling back and forth to and from my boyfriend and dog while waiting for my permit to be complete. Let me make clear, that I am very thankful that there is security in place, and very thankful for customs and TSA. I am a huge supporter of security and being safe. My fault is not placed on the airport, but placed on DIMAs for not providing the airport with sufficient information that I am waiting for my VTA and that DIMAs is behind. The applicant should not suffer based on DIMAs being behind on their work.
Secondly, it has been brought to my attention that many people stay here until their permit is complete, which means they cannot come and go freely because they will be over days allotted by DIMAs. While some people are able to do that, those that have commitments and other responsibilities in other countries (USA), and those that want to follow the law should not be punished for not being able to stay without leaving. I have a family, weddings, graduations, and holidays that keep me traveling back and forth. Being told that I should stay past my days to fix the problem of running out of days is ludicrous and impossible.
Thirdly and most importantly, this has and is consistently changing my view of the beautiful island that I fell in love with. What I once thought was a beautiful place and worth the extra money it cost to live here, quickly came crashing down with the harsh realization of paying all of this money to receive a permit to be with my partner and realizing that I am only a CRV number who seemed to fall through the cracks and will be tended to when it is convenient.
This is a sad issue that I believe Aruba needs to fix, which is why I am reaching out to all possible people who have the power and platform to change this experience for myself and future applicants.
Please reach out to me for any more info at:
Thank you for your time.
