How much does the Aruba ED Card cost, and do you need a visa?

For tourism, US citizens need no visa and can stay up to 90 days. You do need a passport valid for the length of your stay, and immigration may ask for a return or onward ticket and proof of where you are staying.

The part that catches people out is the ED Card. It replaced the old paper immigration card and is now a digital form that every air traveler must complete before departure, regardless of nationality or age, children and infants included. Airlines check it at the gate, and you cannot fill it in at the airport, so this is a before-you-leave-home job rather than a formality on the day.

This distinction matters, because it is exactly what the copycat sites blur. The ED Card form is free. What you pay is a separate 20 dollar per-person sustainability fee, introduced in 2024, collected through the same portal by card as you complete the form. It funds island infrastructure and environmental work.

Three exemptions are worth knowing because they save real money. The fee is charged once per calendar year, not per trip, so a second visit inside the same year should not be charged again; recognition works from your passport number, so use the same details and keep your confirmation. Children under 8 are exempt, though they still need their own ED Card. And it applies to air arrivals only, so cruise passengers do not pay it. A family of two adults and two children over 8 therefore pays 80 dollars in total, for the year.

A small industry has grown up around this form. These sites look official, buy search ads, and frequently appear above the government portal in results. They file the identical form and offer nothing extra: no faster processing, no priority, no advantage of any kind. Reported charges run from roughly 35 to 100 dollars per person, against an official cost of 20. Do the arithmetic on a family of four with two children over 8 and the gap is stark: about 80 dollars officially, against 400 dollars or more through a middleman.

The defense is one habit and it takes a second. Type edcardaruba.aw into the address bar rather than clicking a search result, and be especially wary of anything marked as an ad. Check the domain before you enter passport details or card numbers, since .aw is Aruba's own country code and a middleman will be on something else. If a site quotes you more than 20 dollars a person, you are not on the government portal. This is the same pattern as paid ETA and visa reseller sites worldwide, and the same rule applies: a free government form has no legitimate middleman.

Complete the form in the window before arrival that the portal specifies, generally within a few days of departure rather than weeks ahead, and not at the airport. Have your passport, flight numbers, dates, and the name and address of your hotel or rental to hand. File one form per traveler, including children, and pay the fee for everyone aged 8 and over.

Then save the confirmation and its QR code, as a screenshot and ideally a printout, because you show it at airline check-in and again at Aruban border control, and airport wifi is not something to rely on. Keep it after the trip too: it is your evidence of having paid the fee if you return the same calendar year. For the rest of the money side of your trip, including the resort fees and levies that get added to the room rate, see the Aruba hotel taxes and fees guide and the Aruba money guide.

Common questions

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