Household effects to Bali

[Gaby]

Hello!
I´m new here in your forum and I really enjoy it very much. :D

We`re a german couple and want to move to Bali in 2010.
First we want to rent a little house or an apartment for one month or so, so we can look for a finally place to stay unhurriedly.
Now my question: can I bring some household effects and personal things to Bali and is it depending on a special visa?
My second question is: can I get the most medicines (drugs) in Bali ?

Thanks a lot!
Bye, Tschüss, groetjes.
Gaby

[DorisDazed]

Hello Gaby and welcome here

My answers to your questions:

...can I bring some household effects and personal things to Bali and is it depending on a special visa?

No problem. Mainly depends on your airline's baggage allowance, (nothing to do with your visa).

...can I get the most medicines (drugs) in Bali ?

Yes, most medication is available here.
There are two main types:

"Generic" - (the cheapest)
"Non-generic" - imported medication from known pharmaceutical companies (cost more)

:D

[Gaby]

Hello Doris,
thanks a lot for your answer!

For the household goods we need an additional cargo or container by sea. By flight it would be too expensive. Some people wrote (not here) that they had a lot of trouble to get the cargo through the customs without KITA...
We don`t want to carry the whole damn house with us, but some personal things would be nice :lol:

Greetings,
Gaby

[Jimbo]

Gaby

Bring nothing until you are sure you want to stay in Bali and second you will need a visa to stay and you mention nothing of that. You need a KiTAS visa which will depend if you are retiring, working or setting up a business.

Once you have the visa you can bring in household goods. I think Doris was thinking a few small items in your suitcase rather than a container full :D

Suggest you do a lot more research before coming.

[DorisDazed]

Yes - bringing in a container full of stuff puts a different complexion on things.

You'd be wise to sort out what kind of visa you'll have before shipping loads of goods to here. Even with appropriate visas, you still might have some interesting conversations with customs' officials when the big box of goodies arrives.

Pelan-pelan...("slow, but sure")

:|

[Gaby]

Thanks Doris and Jimbo!
Of course we`ve sorted out the different kinds of visa: my husband will get a retirement visa, for myself I´ve to look if I also get one additional (because we´re married) or a social visa.
I was in the last 20 years different times in Bali for working, but each time only a few weeks.
In that time my employer managed all these things (visa etc.), now I`ve to manage self.
It`s just like Doris said... "slow, but sure"

Greetings,
Gaby

[wepro]

Hallo Gaby
Ich hab eine PM an dich geschickt zu diesem Thema- hast du sie bekommen oder ist sie im Spam - Ordner gelandet?

Regards

Werner

[ronb]

It's going on 3 years since we did this but the sequence was:
:arrow: Sep 2006 - we visited Bali on a tourist visa and on this trip worked with a migration agent so that when we returned in Jan 2007 we would have a Social Visa
:arrow: in Jan 2007 when we were returning we wanted to bring our household effects which ended up being 40 cartons weighing 2000 Kg which was air freighted (about Aust $1/Kg at that time)
:arrow: we went to Indo Consulate in Sydney with an inventory of what was in the shipment, explained we were coming to stay using Social visa for 6 months, then retirement visa. We did this at the same time as collecting our Social visas - so we got back visas and the iventory with every page stamped at the Consulate. This inventory then went to the shipping agents
:arrow: the shipment arrived in Denpasar a few days after us, and we used a local agent to help us get it through. It was easy - no cartons were opened.

So harking back to the discussion above, you do need to do some paperwork before you ship it so that it will be treated as household effects rather than imported goods for re-selling. And in our experience you do not need to have a KITAS - but just the intention and plan to stay.

Hope that helps.

[DorisDazed]

ronb's experience 3 years ago with shipping stuff to Bali brought back some memories for me.

Twelve or 13 years ago, (I forget), the retirement KITAS didn't even exist. Like ronb, I'd airfreighted about 40 cartons of personal effects, (couple of computers, two mountain bikes, hi-fi equipment, (two amplifiers, cassette decks, three pairs of speakers), three guitars, some clothing, assorted kitchen utensils, CDs/DVDs and some VHS video cassette tapes, and so on.)

I was on either a tourist visa or a sosial budaya at the time, (again, I forget exactly). I had a complete inventory of my goods from Australia. Everything arrived at the airport quickly - I just had to go an pick everything up. A "simple" project, one might think.

Not so, in my case. The people at the airport warehouse opened every carton, all 40 of them. There was no "problem" they could find until they spotted my VHS tapes, (remember them?).

The tapes were children's TV programmes, (like Sesame Street), and a rather stern official told me they'd have to be "reviewed" in case they were in violation of Indonesian censorship laws. By this time I'd been at the warehouse for several hours and was definitely not in the mood to sit through various episodes of Mr Bean, Sesame Street, The Mickey Mouse Club, etc. Yes - it was really as silly as that!

I told them that I"d had enough, they could keep the bloody kiddies tapes, just let me out of there with my other goods. In the end, they let me take the tapes, (without checking them at all). Even my Balinese father-in-law at the time was pissed off.

Moving on to the present time, I hope that attempts to get money for nothing are on the decline. Personally, I doubt it.
However, you can be lucky.

(Just saw a dreadful motorbike accident on our street. The locals did all the wrong things, as far as I could tell. Picked up the main victim, a young female, and carried her to a nearby house. No thought about maybe she was in shock, no blankets to be seen, no one had helmets, and what's a potential spinal injury got to do with anything? Lots of people standing around with handphones everywhere, of course.
An "ambulance"...what's that?)

:D :shock:

[tom]

Hello, I am American and my wife is Indonesian. We have a 2 year old son. We live in the USA. We are planning on moving to Lombok in 3 years. We have land in Kuta Lombok and my wife and child will go there soon to open a cafe, then return here while the business is being run by some trusted souls. My point is: she will eventually open rooms and rentals at our place. At that time, when we all move permantly I want to send a container with several surfboards which are a collection. I use all them myself. Also some rental boards and a few kayaks for personal use and for rental. Also some equipment for the cafe and rooms. Some things we can get second hand here for very cheap. I'm thinking it will be difficult to get all this through customs. Negotiation and payments of fees to the right people. Should we get a broker? Should I buy the kayaks from China and have them shipped from there instead. Am I wise to have my wife as the only person conducting business so I can get a regular Kitas visa? Any other issues you can think of?