Aruba
Aruba One Happy Workation (tourist stay): health insurance requirements
Yes: health insurance is required
Aruba has no digital nomad visa. The widely promoted "One Happy Workation" is a tourism package of work-friendly hotel deals, not a permit: you enter as an ordinary visitor and stay within the tourist limit. Insurance is where Aruba's own sources disagree. The Kingdom of the Netherlands' travel portal and the Aruba Tourism Authority both publish a US$15,000 medical-cover entry condition that applies to visa-free travellers, while other pages on the same tourism domain call cover merely recommended.
The requirements at a glance
| Local-licensed insurer required | No: compliant international IPMI is accepted |
|---|---|
| Accepted proof | Published entry conditions list medical or travel insurance of at least US$15,000 covering hospital care, emergency treatment and repatriation, stated to apply to visa-free travellers. Enforcement at the border appears inconsistent. Extending beyond 30 days is unambiguous: DIMAS requires travel insurance covering medical and liability costs for the whole extended period. |
Standard admission is up to 30 days, extendable on request to a maximum of 180 days per calendar year (US nationals commonly admitted up to 90 days at the outset). Everyone must complete the online ED-card within seven days before arrival, pay the US$20 sustainability fee for air arrivals, and show an onward ticket, proof of funds and accommodation. Remote work for foreign clients only; Aruban-source income needs a work permit.
Two official Aruban and Dutch government sources publish a US$15,000 medical-cover entry condition covering visa-free travellers, while the tourism authority's own workation page calls insurance a recommendation. The condition is published; the enforcement is not consistent.
Our take
There is no nomad-visa insurance box to tick here, which makes it easy to assume cover is optional. It is, right up until you extend past 30 days, at which point Aruban immigration requires travel insurance with both medical and liability cover for the whole extension, so anyone planning a longer stay should buy a policy that runs the full duration.
No minimum sum is officially published and you are not tied to a local insurer, so the spec is yours to set. On a one-hospital island where serious cases are evacuated abroad at the patient's expense, the line that counts is the medical evacuation limit, not the entry paperwork.
What happens if you get it wrong
Assuming the "One Happy Workation" is a visa with its own insurance rule. It is a marketing program, not a permit, so the only enforceable insurance requirement is the one attached to extending a tourist stay beyond 30 days.
Buying a policy that ends before your extended stay does. The extension requirement is for cover valid for the full extended period, and foreign insurers are often not billed directly on-island, so you may also need to pay providers upfront and claim back.
Interactive
Verified pricesWhat would it cost in Aruba without insurance?
You pay, out of pocket
$300–$800
A night admitted; intensive or specialist care runs far higher.
Bars to scale. A flight home is in another league.
That is the bill you carry alone. Insurance exists for exactly this.
See what cover costsTypical private-care estimates for illustration, not a quote. Actual bills vary by hospital, city and severity.
FAQ
No. One Happy Workation is a tourism marketing package of hotel deals, not a permit. There is no separate application, no fee and no extra documentation; you enter as a visitor and work for clients outside Aruba.
Officially yes, though enforcement is patchy. The Kingdom's travel portal and the Aruba Tourism Authority both publish a US$15,000 minimum in medical or travel cover, including hospital treatment, emergency care and repatriation, for visa-free travellers. Other pages on the same tourism domain describe it as a recommendation.
Then it is not ambiguous. Anyone applying to extend beyond 30 days must hold travel insurance covering medical and liability costs for the full extended period, along with sufficient funds. The standard admission is 30 days, extendable to a maximum of 180 days per calendar year.
Because the island's care has a ceiling. Critically ill patients needing services Aruba cannot provide are transferred to neighbouring countries such as Colombia at the patient's expense, and an ICU-equipped air ambulance to Curacao is the standard route for serious cases.
What policy actually satisfies this visa
Aruba does not publish a minimum figure, which sounds permissive and is not. It means you are judged against somebody's unwritten idea of adequate, and the safe reading of adequate is enough to cover a serious hospital admission in Aruba, not the cheapest policy that technically exists.
A compliant international policy is accepted, so you are not forced into a local insurer. That matters more than it sounds: it means one policy can follow you when you leave, instead of expiring at the border.
Repatriation is not named as a condition, though it is the benefit you would most want to have if the worst happened, and it costs very little to add.
And the dates. The policy has to run for the whole permit, which a standard travel policy cannot do because it stops at around 90 days. An officer comparing your policy period with your permit period does not have to look hard to see it expire in the middle.
Ask your insurer for a certificate of cover that states your full name as it appears on your passport, the exact policy period, the territory covered, and the benefit amounts. That is a normal request and any decent insurer issues it without fuss. The insurance being real and the paperwork still failing is a more common way to lose an application than being uninsured.
The visa tells you the minimum. It does not tell you what to actually carry. Those are different questions, and the paperwork minimum is nearly always the smaller of the two answers.
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