Thread: volunteering and school

hi
i am fantasizing about bringing my 3 kids over next year for 3 months.. Want to live in ubud. I have been in touch with bumi sehat (birthing clinic), and i want to volunteer for a while, hang around birthing. Anyway i have heard that you need a kitas to do volunteer work... ?? How do people get around this if they want to do some humanitariun work? Also I have been in touch with Pelangi Steiner school just out of ubud.. My 8 yr old homeschooled kid is keen to attend for a while.. Has anyone had any thing to do with the school. or could coment on it??? they seem pretty good on the net... and by email thanks in anticipation Redgirl :)

Hi Redgirl and welcome

From what I have read on here is that you cannot get around visa requirements at all in Bali/Indonesia. I have been told they also check up on people with social visa and retirement visas to make sure they are not working.

Maybe someone else has some other information on this. Sorry can't help with the school

Tina

Hi everyone,

so if it's not possible do volunteer work on a social and/or retirement visa, which visa does one need to do volunteer work? I was considering it myself, and intend to go on a business visa, would/should that be ok? cheers, Sybille

you probably would need to talk to the organisation for whom you are volunteering to work out visa arrangements. If they have had overseas volunteers in the past they should know which class of visa, and the type of sponorship letter and other formalities needed.
You might find you still need a working visa - which is quite expensive (around USD1200 + about that much again to set it up). They spring for the visa, and you donate your time for free.

From my understanding, it's like this:

If you want to 'work' here, paid or unpaid, you have to have a 'work' visa, which usually means a KITAS.
To get a KITAS entails finding somebody with a registered business or some organisation that is prepared to take you on.
If someone is going to be here for only three months, I doubt that it's possible.

So-called 'business visas' do not allow a person to work here. It's a popular misconception.

I occasionally get paranoid when I play with Indonesian bands - Am I 'working' when I do that? Probably.

The 'reasoning' behind all of this is that even if foreigners are prepared to 'work' for free, they might be taking away some non-existent job from an Indonesian.

I haven't met many Indonesians in the last 34 years who are prepared to work for nothing. Has any body?

:cry:

I didn't say there weren't any...just not many.

The more the better and all power to Dewi.

Can I play guitar with Lolot (for free), and not risk getting arrested?
Sing-ken-ken.

:arrow: