Change from Retirement KITAS to Spouse KITAS

Tezza71

Looking for s Some advise and guidance guys. I currently have a retirement kitas and want to change it to a spouse kitas. Contemplating doing it without using an agent. My wife seems confident she can deal with immigration. Any guidance and advise would be gratefully received.

spicyayam

It probably sounds obvious, but I would suggest your wife to go to immigration and ask them for a list of documents you need to provide. You need to buy the forms to fill in and that's about all really. They may visit your house for an interview. Hopefully, your wife has a Bali KTP and the process should be fairly straightforward.

Mark

Tezza71 wrote Looking for s Some advise and guidance guys. I currently have a retirement kitas and want to change it to a spouse kitas. Contemplating doing it without using an agent. My wife seems confident she can deal with immigration. Any guidance and advise would be gratefully received.

Going through the diy spouse kitas process is a piece of cake, provided you have all the correct documents. As spicy recommended, you should visit the kantor imigrasi, explain what you want to do and ask them for a list of documents they require. However spicy is mistaken about having to buy forms. All the forms are free. The only fees involved are the published ones for the Kitas itself and MERP (multiple entry/re-entry permit). Putting the docs together is the main work from your perspective, and you have to do this whether you use an agent or not. Also, in Bali these days the home visit only applies to Kitap, not Kitas, probably due to staff constraints. Also, a Bali KTP for the Indonesian spouse is generally only required for Kitap, not Kitas (and even then, I've heard of exceptions). My wife and I processed my spouse Kitas (as well as subsequent Kitap), without an agent and had no problems whatever. In fact, using an agent would have been a total waste of money and saved us very little time. The people at imigrasi in Renon were polite, professional and efficient. Your situation is a bit different to mine, given you are currently on a retirement kitas, but imigrasi can explain to you and your wife everything you need to do. My advice is to go for it:)

Tezza71

Mark wrote Going through the diy spouse kitas process is a piece of cake, provided you have all the correct documents. As spicy recommended, you should visit the kantor imigrasi, explain what you want to do and ask them for a list of documents they require. However spicy is mistaken about having to buy forms. All the forms are free. The only fees involved are the published ones for the Kitas itself and MERP (multiple entry/re-entry permit). Putting the docs together is the main work from your perspective, and you have to do this whether you use an agent or not. Also, in Bali these days the home visit only applies to Kitap, not Kitas, probably due to staff constraints. Also, a Bali KTP for the Indonesian spouse is generally only required for Kitap, not Kitas (and even then, I've heard of exceptions). My wife and I processed my spouse Kitas (as well as subsequent Kitap), without an agent and had no problems whatever. In fact, using an agent would have been a total waste of money and saved us very little time. The people at imigrasi in Renon were polite, professional and efficient. Your situation is a bit different to mine, given you are currently on a retirement kitas, but imigrasi can explain to you and your wife everything you need to do. My advice is to go for it:)

Thanks very much for this Mark. I'm a relatively new boy on the Bali expat front. Met my wife three years ago and retired up here a bit over 12 months ago. The Indonesian bureaucracy gives me real cause for concern. What I do know for sure is that anything you do through an agent they charge like wounded bulls. I've been quoted Rp16 million to get my retirement kitas converted to a spouse kitas.

Mark

Tezza71 wrote Thanks very much for this Mark. I'm a relatively new boy on the Bali expat front. Met my wife three years ago and retired up here a bit over 12 months ago. The Indonesian bureaucracy gives me real cause for concern. What I do know for sure is that anything you do through an agent they charge like wounded bulls. I've been quoted Rp16 million to get my retirement kitas converted to a spouse kitas.

No worries. I think you will find the Indonesian bureaucracy fine to deal with. I've done Kitas and Kitap with imigrasi, SKTT and KTP-OA ID cards with the regional government, a house building permit - IMB (also with the regional government - different office) and my SIM A and C driving licenses with the police (both the theory and practical exams). I've never used an agent or 'facilitator' and all experiences have been positive, some even humorous at times. Save yourself the Rp 16 million and DIY. It'll be a good financial decision and also help you integrate into the local culture as you will better understand how things work here (in a good way). The bureaucrats actually like to see people DIY and often go out of their way to be helpful, especially to foreigners. Cheers

SamD

I used an agent for my spouse kitas. 10million total price. My experiences with Indonesian bureaucracy convinced me that the less involvement I have, the better. I subjected myself to the nightmare of getting the BPKB for my car and swore 'never again'. I would pay any amount to avoid an experience like that again. If you don't mind being shuffled around multiple offices and filling in a seemingly endless number of forms and wasting valuable drinking time, then DIY is for you. Otherwise use an agent. I forgot to add, nothing, and I mean NOTHING (unless you have bribed someone or have other contacts) gets completed in a single visit to an Indonesian government department. My BPKB saga was at least 12. So be prepared to spend a lot of your remaining hours on this earth working your daily schedule around their requirements. Good luck with that.