Flag of St. Maarten
On St. Maarten, you will automatically receive permanent resident status once you have completed ten years of living on the island. Until then, you must obtain temporary resident status by sending an application to the Lieutenant Governor’s Office, which is in Philipsburg.
There are two types of residency available:
A) Working resident, which allows you to derive income on the island.
B) Non-working resident, which allows you to reside on St. Maarten, but it is not legal to hold a job. With this type of residency you must show the government your ability to derive income from abroad to support yourself and or family.
You may also wonder how long you can stay on St. Maarten if you own property but are neither a resident nor citizen? You are allowed to stay 3 months on a tourist visa at which time you must leave the island for at least one day.
Before an applicant submits his or her request for naturalisation he or she must first be interviewed by the Dutch Citizenship Committee that has been established by the Lt. Governor. The sole purpose of the interview is to determine if the applicant has sufficient knowledge of the St. Maarten,Antillean and Dutch constitutions and that he or she has sufficiently integrated himself or herself within the St. Maarten community.
The interviews will be conducted in the English language and the applicant should be able to conduct a conversation in this language. A negative outcome can be the result when the applicant is not versed in the English language and lacks sufficient knowledge of the general and constitutional affairs of St. Maarten, the Netherlands Antilles and the Dutch Kingdom. Apparently there is a possibility for the interview to be conducted in Dutch,but it seems that English is still a requirement.
