7 Comments on “Unhappy Families”

1. sparky says:
   April 10th, 2012 at 6:36 am

   Iam a USA resident.My wife is indonesian and is now pregnant with out first child.i wanted to stay in Indonesia for a year to be with my wife and soon to be child.My wife said they said i could not work,And since i could not work,She said i must show i have $2000.00 dollars in the bank to show before they will give me a 1 year visa.My money will be coming in monthly i do not know if i will have 2000.00 dollars in my bank account at any time at one time.Can any tell me if this is true?

2. berlian biru says:
   April 10th, 2012 at 9:58 am

   If you are married legitimately, ie you have a state-issued marriage certificate, your wife can sponsor you under the old rules. Even if you don’t you can still enter on a sixty day tourist visa issued through an Indonesian embassy, you renew that every couple of months by taking a day trip to Singapore (use a visa agent so you can do it in a day).

   I survived like that quite happily for almost five years.

3. Chris says:
   April 11th, 2012 at 12:24 pm

   Hi Sparky and BB,

   I think Berlian Biru is referring to the 60-day Social-Cultural Visa (Visa Sosial Budaya), which technically is not a tourist visa.

   Also, it can be extended up to six months – 30 days at a time – by going to your local immigration office and bringing the following:

   - 3 forms (you can buy them in advance for Rp8000), one needs the sponsor to sign on a materai/stamp duty for Rp6000
   - A passport photo
   - A letter from your sponsor (presumably your wife) signed with a materai/stamp duty for Rp6000
   - A copy of your sponsor’s KTP/ID card
   - Rp250 000

   It takes 5 working days to process. For example, if you submitted it on a Wednesday you could pick up the following Tuesday afternoon.

   In the fifth and sixth month of the visa, there are additional requirements and you may need to visit another immigration office between submission and collection. However, it still works out to be cheaper overall than multiple trips to Singapore.

   By contrast, the tourist visa (a.k.a. visa on arrival) is normally valid 30 days, but can be extended to 60 days.

   However, you must have a ticket to leave Indonesia within the first 30 days, even if you plan to get the visa extended. The easiest way around this is to book and print a Jakarta to Singapore ticket on one of the following airlines – Batavia Air, Lion Air, Sriwijaya Air – but not pay for it. You write the details of this flight on the arrival/departure card.

4. berlian biru says:
   April 11th, 2012 at 4:03 pm

   What I was referring to was the tourist visa that you apply for at the embassy which is valid for sixty days rather than the thirty day VOA at the airport.

   It’s a little loophole I used to avail of; fly Adam Air to Singapore in the morning meet the agent in Orchard Road, hand over the fee and the photos and collect the visa in the afternoon after a bit of shopping and a substantial buffet lunch and free flow wine at the Marriott, pick up some duty free on the way home.

   I wouldn’t call it convenient but every two months a day trip to Singapore was no great hardship.

5. Chris says:
   April 11th, 2012 at 4:38 pm

   Hi BB,

   I wouldn’t call it convenient but every two months a day trip to Singapore was no great hardship.

   True, but getting up at 4am or earlier (to catch the early morning flight to Singapore) sucks, no matter how often you need to do it.

6. timdog says:
   April 11th, 2012 at 7:19 pm

   By the way, Chris and BB, the 60-day “tourist” visa that BB refers to is now extendable, just like the sos-bud visa, four times, 30 days a time, up to a six-month total.

   In fact the “tourist visa” actually is now the same thing as a sos-bud, only you don’t need an initial sponsor to apply for it.

   This was all a result of a simplification of the visa codings about four years back, in which business, social and “tourist” visas were all brought under a single code “B211″.
   This has created a loophole – if you apply for a visa and tick “social” you need to provide a sponsor’s letter, and the name of the sponsor will be printed on the visa. If, however, you tick “tourist”, you get exactly the same thing without a sponsor’s letter, and without a named sponsor marked on the visa…

   Once you’re in the country immigration will treat it exactly the same way as a social for extensions, but you are not tied to the original sponsor as you would be with a social visa. This means you can make your initial extension anywhere in the country, with any random as your sponsor…

   Anyway, the point being that if you return to that situation, BB, you’ll no longer need to make the trip to Orchard Road every two months, but only once every six months…

   In Singapore they do ask for a ticket out of Indonesia as the only requirement for a “tourist” b211 visa, but in my experience any old ticket, including one booked for months beyond the initial 60-day expiry date, will satisfy them…

7. Chris says:
   September 21st, 2012 at 3:06 pm

   Here is another source of useful and up to date information about the 2011 Immigration Law:

   Mixed Marriages – Indonesians and Expatriates

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