Living in Bali income from Australia

Steve J

My Partner is Indonesian and she has a small villa in Bali. we both live and work in Australia. I am an OZ and UK citizen, she is an Indonesian citizen. My work in Bali would entail 12 hours a week on the telephone calling Australian clients in Australia, this would bring me about $AUD900 a week. I am presently a sole trader small self employed counsellor Questions 1. Can I live in Bali, while ALL my earnings as described above would be from Australia? 2. what category of visa is best for me? - it seems very complicated! 3. Is it easier if we were married? thank you kindly for your time regards Steve

spicyayam

1. Many people do this. You won't be alone here. 2. I would suggest social visa. Legally you cannot work on this, so work from home and don't tell anyone what you do. 3. No.

Steve J

thank you kindly, isn't a social visa temporary? regards steve

spicyayam

So you get 2 months initially. Then you can extend it every month for a maximum stay of 6 months. Fly to Singapore and get a new one. Rinse and repeat. Many people live like this for years. Agents can do the extensions or you can do it yourself. There are also agents in Singapore who can process it in one day. Some people do this in one day without staying overnight. Personally, I used to enjoy staying somewhere different for a few days.

Steve J

thank you Spicy much appreciated any pitfalls with this process please share steve

sakumabali

I might add that internet is expensive and unstable in most areas on bali. It will be frustrating to chat with clients in Australia and don't understand a word. Calling from a landline is expensive too :( If you would get married your future wife can be your sponsor for a family KITAS, then after 2 years, you can apply for a KITAP. That's nice...you will have an indonesian identity card AND you can contribute to feed your family without (!) a working permit. At least theoretically. As many things in Indonesia it's a bit a grey area

Steve J

yes that's my biggest problem I think hhmmmmm steve

harryopal

I have been using Skype to call Australian friends and contacts on a regular basis and generally the call quality is quite good. You are then paying the cost for a local call as you would in Australia. If I am calling someone and have go through a switchboard I always say I am calling from Indonesia and that prepares them for any quality issues and tends to make the telephone answering people put you through without too much delay.

spicyayam

sakumabali wroteI might add that internet is expensive and unstable in most areas on bali. It will be frustrating to chat with clients in Australia and don't understand a word. Calling from a landline is expensive too

I use Indihome fibre (20mbps) package and it works well for this kind of thing. Clients in Australia wouldn't even know you are in Bali. Of course there are the occasional power outages, but if you use a laptop and connect your modem to a UPS (around 500,000 rupiah) you can continue working for at least a couple of hours, which should give you enough time before the power comes back on or reschedule appointments. In my experience in the north, it might happen once in 6 months. Also doing things like connecting your laptop to the modem with a LAN cable can also improve your line quality.

spicyayam

If the clients are happy to talk on Skype then there will only be the cost of the internet. If you are calling to mobile, land lines then there is a cost, but quite reasonable and you can also get an unlimited package. If you do video chats, Skype is also fine. Zoom is another company which seems to be popular for video chat (not sure of the cost though). You can also set up Australian 03/02/1300/1800 numbers also and answer them on your mobile laptop.

harryopal wroteIf I am calling someone and have go through a switchboard I always say I am calling from Indonesia and that prepares them for any quality issues and tends to make the telephone answering people put you through without too much delay.

Yeah, I used to have to do that also as sometimes there was quite a delay, especially pre-fibre days. Quality has improved tremendously. The person you are speaking to in a call centre in Australia these days, could also be located anywhere in the world and they are also probably using an IP phone system. If you are doing this thing all the time, you can get a good/almost trouble free set up going.