Immigration Assistance
Unless you arrive on St. Maarten’s Princess Juliana International Airport and your documents state that you were born on Dutch St. Maarten or are only in transit, you will have to fill out the Immigration Card. Whether you are travelling with your kids, your parents or grandparents, everyone fills out the Card separately; one form does not cover the entire family.
The card, designed in 1992, in English, French, Spanish and Dutch, has never been changed. Although most of the spaces are self-explanatory, for many people there are still questions which are addressed here chronologically.
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• First of all forget that your handwriting sucks since you only work on keyboards nowadays and try to clearly print the information requested:
1) Fill in the name of the airline you’re flying in on. If you know the airline’s international abbreviation, like AA (American Airlines), DL(Delta Airlines) you may use that. If not, write out the complete name and don’t worry about staying within the allotted spaces. If you flew in on a private charter or private plane use the plane’s call letters or ask your pilot.
2) Fill in your flight number as is stated on your ticket or boarding pass.
3) Now fill in the airport or city from where you departed If you know the airport’s international code (MIA is Miami, FLL is Fort Lauderdale, ATL is Atlanta etc.) you may use that.
4) Okay, next line you should know. Fill in your first name,
5) followed by your middle name if you have one, or else leave this space blank.
6) Line number 3 asks for your last name as it is stated in your travel documents,
7) followed by your gender. It is actually funny that they ask you to fill in sex, rather than gender, but the Caribbean interpretation of the English language, carries a lot of humor, as you will find out on this tropical trip.
Next your date and place of birth. Don’t be confused by the abbreviations under the line. First is the day, than the month and than the year. Afterall this is the European Caribbean. If you need to know, the D / J is Day/Dia/Dag respectively in English, Spanish and Dutch and the J is for French Jour=Day. The year of your birth explains the Y, while Année and Anno are for French and Spanish and the J stands for the Dutch word Jaar. Just a little detour/puzzle.
9) Now for Place of Birth, don’t fill in your country, but rather the city, town or village where you first witnessed daylight. The country of your birth comes later in the form.
10) Fill in the house number and street where you live,
11) followed by the City/Town or Village that street is located in,
12) followed by the State or Province or Protectorate your City/Town or Village is part of,
13) followed by the Country in which it is located.
14) If you have a Zip Code or Postal Code corresponding to the address you completed; with a complete address you may receive some Island Goodies one day compliments of the Friendly Island, you never know.
15) Here you are to reveal your Occupation, which in today’s world is sometimes a little confusing. So just fill in how you make a living and leave it at that.
16) Next line is where you indicate your marital status. As you can see there is not a lot of choice: you’re either married or single. Fill in whichever feels best and again, leave it at that. After all Las Vegas claims: “What happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas”.
17) Now on the next line indicate why you decided to come and honor us with your stay. Pretty much self-explanatory. Now don’t check “other” because you will be asked what and if there is a mention of work, you’ll have to show a stack of paperwork with official stamps on them. What they really want to know is if you’re here for a well-deserved vacation, business, to enjoy sailing our waters, attend a conference or seminar or to get married. The island just wants to get an insight on what attracts visitors to the Friendly Island.
18) Here you are asked if you are a returning visitor or if this is your first time to the island. Plain and simple. Afterall we would like to know where to spend our advertising dollars.
19) Intended length of stay is expressed in nights, NOT days. That way they can figure out room nights and maybe one day figure out an average stay on the island. Mind you, don’t fill out more than 90 nights as you will be asked to explain.
20) Next question seems innocent, but you best know where you’re staying, else you might be asked to leave your passport and go afind out. Oh yes, you may enter the island, but if you want your passport back, you best come with a verified address or hotel name. Now technically if you carry a French passport, you need not an address as French citizens coming in on the Dutch side at the Int’l airport are allowed to enter for passage to the French side. We know, loopholes are common on a dual nation island, so we hope you don’t abuse the system.
21) Okay the next line is a little redundant or it’s a trick question, or it could be that we’re just slightly lazy in our tourism information gathering. Let’s face it. If you truthfully fill out your local address in the previous line, we already know whether you stay in a hotel, a timeshare, a villa, on a boat. So we suggest you just checkmark what it is and go on to the next question.
22) Here you are asked to fill in your nationality,
23) and passport number. No help needed there we hope.
24) and 25) Date and place of issue of your passport should be clear in itself, just remember first the date, than the month and than the year.
26) Sign the form and
27) go below the perforated line to fill out your last name
28) and your birthdate once again, as this portion will be torn off by the immigration officer and returned to you to hand in when you depart after a hopefully enjoyable stay with us. Now don’t panic if you should loose that little stub - it happens, whether you lost it at a party night or at the beach. In 15 years we have not yet heard of one person who was asked to return this stub upon departure.
We hope this information, courtesy of ZebraBOT, will be of help to you when filling out your Immigration Card.
Welcome to the Friendly Island.
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