US Citizens equal to Dutch nationals in Aruba

Recently, the Court of First Instance in Aruba ruled that US Citizens are to be treated equally as people with Dutch nationality not born in Aruba.

In 2006 the Aruba government changed the Immigration Law in order to limit the inflow of foreign employees due to the small capacity and infrastructure of the Island as well as to limit the possibility of foreigners to apply for the Dutch nationality.

The new provision in the Immigration law limits foreign workers of non-Dutch nationality to a succesive residency of three years. Only in extraordinary cases a fourth year of residency will be allowed. After the maximum period have been reached, the foreign worker could return to Aruba after three years. Foreigners are entitled to apply for the Dutch nationality after 5 years of legal residency in a country of the Dutch Kingdom (the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles and/or Aruba).

After the department in charge of Immigration Affairs in Aruba, denied a US Citizen a residency permit for the fourht year, the citizen filed an objection against that decision and sought an injunctive measure to suspend the effect of the denial at aforementioned Court, acting as Administrative Judge.
The Court ruled that, taking into consideration the so-called Friendship Treaty between the USA and the Dutch Kingdom, US Citizens are to be treated equally as Dutch nationals, not born in Aruba. The limitation of residency doesn't apply to Dutch citizens, therefore aforementioned measure cannot be applied to US Citizens.

In the same order, all provisions in law and/or policy that favor Dutch Citizens, must be applied to US Citizens, for instance, the possibility of family reunion and the acquisition of business and director's license to operate a business in Aruba.