Hongkong_expat
Hello, I hope someone can help me.
I live in Hong Kong with my Indonesian girlfirned. Soon her HK visa will expire and we plan to fly to Bali and stay there for a while before returning to Hong Kong. Her Indonesian passport has only 6 months to run, and perhaps while out there we should try and replace it.
Is there anyone out there, perhaps who has an Indonesian spouse who got a new passport/replaced an old passport. I just want to know how easy it is for an Indonesian girl to replace her passport in Bali. how much was it, how long to wait and will we be up against lots of corruption and paperwork?
If anyone can advise me, thanks a lot!
Bert Vierstra
Can't she get new Indonesian Passport in Hong Kong?
Hongkong_expat
Bert. Thanks for your 2 replies.
It should be as easy as that but it isn't!
Indonesians working in domestic employment here in HK have their passports witheld by their employment agencies. She won't get it back easily until she loses her job. Then she will have 2 weeks to leave HK. A replacement passport with the Indonesian consulate here takes 3 weeks. We would still try and get it done here quickly but the consulate here isn't known for being helpful so I'm not optimistic, and I need to know how easy it would be to do this in Bali if it came to that.
Bert Vierstra
I think it depends on where in Bali she would try to renew it...
I know that there are agents in Singapore who can get things done quickly with the consulate there, dunno if similar agents operate in Hong Kong.....
I think it will not hurt to contact Bali IDE about the passport renewel, maybe they can pull some strings, ask for Yani, and mention my name... But I don't promise they are able to this...
These employment agencies in Hong Kong don't sound to friendly to me....
I suppose you met your girlfriend in Hong Kong...
Hongkong_expat
I was hoping to be told that there is a helpful local passport issuing office in Denapasar for Indonesians wanting to travel. But so far it doesn't sound that way! Well if we were unable to do this in HK or Bali and had to do it in Indonesia, perhaps we should go to Surabaya or even Jakarta.
The employment agencies here in HK are only interested in squeezing what they can out of vulnerable Indonesian domestics here rather than helping and the Indonesian consulate doesn't care. I'd heard that Singapore is even worse, but for what it's worth we could try asking her agency here to do this for us. I fear that they will charge a lot of commission though.
Bert Vierstra
Like I said, contact Bali IDE.
