Bali Expat Forum - Bali Travel Forum

[Adam]

Hi everyone,

Can anyone fill me in on the legalities of a traveller to reside in a place other than hotel/losmen etc? To fill u in with the whole story i have just returned from Bali a fortnight ago but the bug keeps biting so I have decided to jump on the big bird again and make use of the Easter holidays in 3 weeks and revisit my girlfriend. The plan at this stage is for me to stay in my girlfriends rented room rather than a hotel or losmen (to save money and for privacy, it aint exactly the hilton but i'm not scared of mandi's or squatters ). I am curious as to whether this is legal or not however, I have a gut feeling I read somewhere that tourists must be in a 'formal' accomodation, and for the purposes of staying clean (I'm the worlds biggest scaredy cat when it comes to dealing with police) I would rather just get a cheap losmen somewhere, even if i dont actually stay in it. I've stayed in many of my friends villages for many many days and never thought about it, but Kuta is a whole different kettle of fish. Any info would be great.

Cheers
Adz

[Person]

You can stay wherever you want. Some kos (rooms for rent) don't allow bules.

[Lee]

You will need to register with the local police, if you aren’t going to stay in a hotel.

[Person]

Yes , the local police, I forgot about that. I read somewhere that you should register with the local banjar too.

[balimudder]

You didn't say if your girlfriend is Indonesian or not. If she is, then I think she can go to the local police for the registration. She will need a copy of your passport identity page and the page with the entry visa stamp.

If she is not Indonesian, I think the landlord has to do the registering.

[rakini]

I stayed with my Indonesian husband in his room over Christmas/New Year. You will need register with the police, and this can be done by your girlfriend or the landlord of her room. The cost from memory was about 10 000rp and they needed a copy of my passport and my husband's ID.

[Roy]

Rakini has it right. It is up to the owner of the property where you are staying to register foreign guests....not the guest. There is no need or requirement for the guest to present themselves to the police.

[Sanurian]

Hello Adam

I think you're getting some mixed advice here and as balimudder said, it's not clear if your girlfriend is Indonesian. And if she is, whether she's Balinese or from some other part of Indonesia. For example, you can get arrested in Moslem parts of Indonesia if you stay anywhere together without being married. It doesn't happen all that much, as far as I know, but it does sometimes.

Most places that offer accommodation, be they expensive hotels, bungalows or losmen, will get your details, usually upon arrival. They "register" your presence to the police, etc. In the case of you staying in your girlfriend's "rented room", it's up to the owner of those premises to "register" you. The trouble with that is that many owners of small premises are reluctant to have any dealings with the police, if they can help it.

If your girlfriend is from outside of Bali, there are other issues such as does she have a proper KTP to be in Bali in the first place? Very few Indonesians, in my experience, are willing to front-up to a police station to report themselves, let alone a foreign boyfriend (or anything, for that matter). I'll give you a small example here: wild horses couldn't get the Balinese owner of the house I've been renting here for several years to register me/us with the police. I do it myself.

So, flippant statements above like "you can stay wherever you want", blah blah, should be taken with a grain of salt.

And while Roy's:

...It is up to the owner of the property where you are staying to register foreign guests....not the guest...

...is all well and good, in theory, and even true (legally), I'm not sure it's overly helpful for your situation.

I suggest that you talk this over carefully with your girlfriend in case she's illegally in Bali, and take it from there. After all, you did say that there's no way you want to fall foul of the law. Again, most of the time (in Bali), there's no problem. But you never know.

[rakini]

I would agree with everything Sanurian has said regarding registering to stay with your girlfriend.

In my situation I am legally married (in Indonesia) to my husband. He is Javanese, muslim, and has lived in Bali for many years. He had the correct ID as a non-Balinese resident to provide to the police, and the place he stays at regularly has foreign guests.

Make sure you clarify everything with your girlfriend first, and if she is not in a position to register you as a foreign guest, don't risk it.

[Person]

Sanurian

Adam's girlfriend is renting a room. If there is a problem with the owner's ktp or whatever then presumably they will bar him from staying there.

And yes my flippant comment should be taken with a grain of salt just like some of the other ridiculuous visa conditions as you well know.

[UMISERGE]

Yessss ! that's true and VERY IMPORTANT ! ! ! YOU OR YOUR GIRL FRIEND MUST REPORTED TO THE POLICE according to the Law and PERATURAN PEMERINTAH every foreinger{ married or not } must report to the police because,wehave experience from it.Last year we went to my wife vilage to celebrate our wedding party but than my wife just make report to local goverment than next day police coming and give us 3 option,"GO TO JAIL for 1 year, paid penalty for 5 million OR ACCEPT "hisway" like always........ than we must pay 1.5 million rupiah.


so better way is report to police if want to stay in local people.

[Roy]

Phil, good points about some of the more strict areas of Islamic Indonesia, but unless I am mistaken, Adam’s post was about his return visit to Bali.

Regarding umiserge’s post, I have NEVER heard of a story even remotely like this. If you know the law, then you know the law for registering guests does not apply to the guest, but only applies to the owner of the property in which the guest is to reside. This registration, should be made at the nearest police station within 24 hours. This law does not apply to the guest! I have never heard of a guest being fined, threatened with jail time, or threatened to be deported for the failure of their resident host to register them with the local police.

Umiserge, whatever it was that happened to you, clearly you were the victim of a con.

Even expats who live here year after year must be registered again, upon their return, if they leave the country.

[balimudder]

We had 3 guys, supposedly from the police detectives, come to our house. The house is in my Balinese wife's name. I didn't have the correct papers for staying in our house. So the choice was either give them 500.000 rupiah or go to jail or pay 3 million rupiah fine. They had the copy of the law with them. We paid the 500,000 and now Komang goes to the police every 2 months when I return. Costs only 20,000 rupiah but they offered to do it for 300,000 every time I came back. We politley declined the generous offer by them. By the way, they never returned to check if we had the right paperwork.

[balimudder]

To finish my story. I am still not sure if these guys were even with the police department. One was from Papua, one from East Timor and one local. They had name cards but they can be printed anywhere.
My point is that there is a law about foreigners staying in any residence. The hotels take care of their guests which is why they ask so many questions when you register. Whether they take this information everyday to the local police is anyone's guess.
If you want to be completely legal, register with the police.

[Adam]

Hi again, and as always thanks for the great advice. To further clarify what I should have included in the first instance is she is indonesian (Javanese but has lived in bali for many years now) and on a legitimate KTP.

I had a talk with her last nite and she had also been doing some checking up and seemed to think it was a reasonably simple process, she said her and I just have to take my passport to the cop shop and pay a 50,000 Rp. fee. Her landlord has no problems with me being there but she didn't indicate that it would have to be the landlord that did the registering, she seemed confident that we could do it by ourselves no worries. What about as far as the Banjar is concerned? I know they hit her up for a fee to live/work in Kuta, is there any obligations/fees to them?

That info about locking up non married couples in muslim areas was a bit shocking. If I did just simply check into a losmen but stayed at her place would I still be pushing the limits of the law? Last trip I stayed there heaps without any problems, but may have inadvertantly been up to no good.

Regards
Adz

[rakini]

That info about locking up non married couples in muslim areas was a bit shocking. If I did just simply check into a losmen but stayed at her place would I still be pushing the limits of the law? Last trip I stayed there heaps without any problems, but may have inadvertantly been up to no good.

Regards
Adz

From what I understand from my husband, if you stay more than a night at her place you need to register as a guest. We only registered with the police and not the local banjar, and my husband was the one who visited the police station, not his landlord.