Becoming an Indonesian Citizen

I became an Indonesian recently, one of the few Expats who are male married to Indonesians who have done this. One reason for being one of the few, who actually took this big step, is due to the horrendously difficult process to become one. It took three and a half years and there were many times I nearly gave up and if it wasn’t for my wife’s support and pushing I’m sure I would have failed.

I started living in Indonesia nearly 16 years ago but became engaged to my wife 18 years ago, so I’ve had a long association with my adopted country. After getting married I used to come on social Budaya visas, which I didn’t mind that much back then before having kids, as it gave me an excuse to either return to my home town of Perth, or go to places like Singapore to get a new one. After about three years of doing this on one of my attempts to get another months extension (the one that goes to Kanwil) I was given 3 days to leave the country and being given a lovely big stamp stating I was being deported, (Ditolak) so it was time to find another type of visa. By the way I used to extend and apply for these visas on my own and never once gave a bribe and only paid the official 10,000Rp fee, so I think I annoyed quite a few people in immigration.

So it was time to look for another type of visa and the way to do this was to form a C.V. company, which would sponsor me to come on a business visa and later a KITAS (Semi permanent resident visa).

So, there I was for quite a few years on a resident’s visa that didn’t even give me the right to work in my own hotel, which was my prime business here but allowed me to be a quality controller with my export business that went broke after five years. KITAS business visas are not cheap, what with having to pay an agent about 4 million every year to extend, or make a new one and also you are up for $1,200.00US tax placed on all foreign workers on top of your regular income tax.

My two children now aged 11 and 7 who were born in Indonesia, to an Indonesian mother, also had to apply for visa’s to live here and we used the KITAS visa for them using their mother to sponsor them. In fact my first child had to apply for her visa outside of the country, as at that time it was illegal to do so inside Indonesia. When your children our born here as foreigners, you must report their births within 48 hours I think and then the officials come round to the hospital to finger and foot print your newly born children. You then must report to immigration (which in my case was a two and a half hour drive) within I think 1 month of their birth with their birth certificate.

Of course both children ended up on KITAS’s (nad then on KITAPS) that needed to be renewed at different times, as well as mine, so you had the nightmare of always checking your calendar for times when they needed renewing, or extending, plus all of us had to report to the local police station at different times throughout the year. Welcome to being an Expat living in Indonesia.

So, I had good reason to try and improve this horror of visas and reporting. I also felt that I wanted to be Indonesian having made this my permanent home for the last 12 years at the time of applying and having no intention of ever living anywhere else. Now Indonesia has a law that says if you live in the country for a continual period of five years, which is impossible on a KITAS, as you are forced to leave every three years to get a new one, or if you live in Indonesia off and on for a period of ten years, you can apply to become an Indonesian citizen.

So with my Lawyer friend come agent (I had learned my lesson by now not to try and do things on my own but be sensible and use agents) we went down to immigration and see what we could do. Well the first answer we got was I could not do it because my KITAS was basically not a good one and after each one had expired after 3 years my number on the next one went back to zero. On a good KITAS the number does not go back to zero but goes on up one notch each year and when you have number 5 you can apply for a KITAP, this is a permanent residence visas for 5 years, thus allowing you to apply under the regulation that you have lived in the country for a continuous period of 5 years. I then nagged my agent to enquire more about living on and off for more than 10 years but the immigration guys were not interested in that way of applying to become an Indonesian. Eventually after a few visits the second in command thought that there might be a possibility to change my KITAS into a KITAP, seeing I had been here so long. Luckily I had kept all my old passports with these records. He of course …………. before he would start anything, promising to return this if it was knocked back initially by immigration in JKT. My intuition told me I could trust this guy and luckily it turned out correct. We were told we would get this news back within a month, I think it took 4 months for the good news that I could apply for a KITAP.

So we went ahead and made the complicated application for the KITAP. It took over a year and a half to finally get it, thus meaning I had to make new KITASs in the meantime. After getting your KITAP you then apply for a SKIM from immigration, which is basically a form from them saying you have lived continually in Indonesia for 5 years, even though I had only just got my KITAP and can apply through your local regency for citizenship. Now initially I was elated to get this KITAP and thought I was home and hosed but that was far from the truth. It took many more trips down to immigration to try and get this form, which was non existent in Denapsar. Finally they managed to get one and told me not to lose it as it was very hard for them to get. So it was filled in and then of course had to be accompanied by many documents photos etc and sent off to JKT. Was told that it would come back in about a month but it took maybe 5 months. In the meantime we were advised to start the process with the local regency because when you do get this SKIM it only lasts for 3 months. So we started the complicated process you have to go through with your local bureaucracy in your regency. The main office being the Kantor Pengadilan (the local court house) where after getting all the various police, medical reports and many other various things, they would finally give me a test to see if I was worthy of becoming an Indonesian.

Finally this SKIM came through from JKT and I was again elated and again thinking I was home and hosed but how far from the truth this was. I of course got this very important document photocopied many times and put away in a very safe place. With this SKIM I could then go through the final hurdle, the big test at Pengadilan. Now this is Indonesia and the bureaucrat who was in charge of people wanting to become Indonesian at Pengadilan who had become my ‘friend’ ….……… helped me with the questions a week before the test.

I was then tested by the head of Pengadilan and of course it wasn’t too hard until he asked me to sing the national anthem. Well I’d learnt it off by heart but I can’t sing for nuts, so there I was making a complete fool of myself in front of the head judge of my regency. I honestly think he got me to do it for a laugh.

After passing the test this man in Pengadilan sent off all the documents supporting my application to the Presidents office in Jakarta for final approval from there. Was told the maximum time period would be 4 months.

Got the biggest shock of my life about two months later when they said the most important document my SKIM was not sent and the bureaucrat here in Singaraja was claiming we had never given it to him. My agent was bloody stupid, as well as myself for not getting a receipt for all original documents handed over and the only point we could make was that the bureaucrat in Singaraja had a check list and would not have sent the documents without the most important thing. During this application he had moved to an upstairs office and I reckoned he had lost it the move. However, he was never going to admit he had, or the Jakarta office had lost it. I was now in a very bad position because I had let various things slip………… and it would be hard to get another SKIM, plus the original guy in immigration had moved and the immigration office for myself had also moved to Singaraja. It started looking like all was lost and once my KITAP ran out I would be back to square one.

We eventually persuaded this bureaucrat to go to Jakarta and see what he could do. He then in a few months time said that it was being processed in Jakarta and never mentioned the SKIM document, so I guessed it appeared in his office, or had been sent in the first place.

The months kept going on with no news, so my wife decided we needed some help from above, so the next few months it was off to many temples in Bali praying for divine help. After praying hard myself one time in my wife’s home town temple in Kintamani I got a very good feeling that all was going to be ok and sure enough about one week later we got the news that there were fifteen applications up before the President, who was in her last 20 days of office. My agent happened to be in Jakarta on other business and had visited this office just incase there was some news. Well out of the fifteen people only seven were approved. Compare that to Australia where on the last Australia day there were 12,000 people approved for Australian citizenship in just one day. While my agent was settling up the last little payment in the office there was a person of Ambonese decent who was getting very irate about his application being knocked back. He was demanding to see the President in person. I can’t blame him as I’m sure all those who had got their applications this far would have expected it to be approved and would have gone through the murderous process just like I had. I found out from my agent that this guy actually got the decision changed the next day, so I guess there were 8 of us in the end who got it.

So there was only one small hurdle left, well that’s what I thought and that was to renounce my Australian nationality. Well I guess bureaucrats are the same all over the world and this lady in Canberra decided to make it as hard as she could and it took another 2 months to get that final piece of paper believe it or not. They also wanted a ridiculous amount of money from us for this little letter.

So, a day was organized for the swearing in ceremony, where it was required of me to wear a suit and tie and bring a priest along to whiteness my swearing on the bible. Being October it was rather hot and humid but I would put up with anything to go through this last step. The head judge was also dressed up in his entire refinery and all I had to do was repeat after him the swearing of allegiance to The Republic of Indonesia.

Of course a large party was had to celebrate this where I very proudly got up and did a small speech in Indonesian.
 

matsaleh

Super Moderator
May 26, 2004
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Legian, Bali
Geez, Richard, what a complicated and expensive process. Thanks for sharing your experience and I applaud your persistence.
 

Sergio

Member
Dec 6, 2004
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Ottawa, Canada
Thank you Richard!

I really appreciate the time it took you to share all this with us and I can not think of a better place to do it!

There are many very informative posts here but this one is just super!

Thanks again for sharing all this with us!
 

pooochie

Member
Aug 8, 2005
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UK
Thank you for sharing your story.

I am sure this knowledge will benefit others.

Selamat to you and your family.
 

Tommy

Member
May 11, 2005
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First i want to say WOW! :shock: and secondly a BIG Congratulations to you and your family! :wink:
 

tintin

Well-Known Member
Sep 13, 2005
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Boston, MA, USA
As I was progressing into your story, it sounded more and more like "the road to Calvary" than anything else, and each time I got to the end of a paragraph, I expecting something like "...and Richard fell for the nth time." :lol:
 

Roy

Active Member
Nov 5, 2002
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Ubud, Bali
Richard, whew, what a story and as others have expressed, many thanks for taking the time to share it with full details.

A quick question. You write that when you took the oath of allegiance to the Republic of Indonesia you swore on a bible. Was that a figure of speech, or were you serious? Is the bible used for swearing oaths to testify truthfully in Indonesian courts of law? Reading that struck me as very odd, for obvious reasons, so this is just a curiousity question. Was the priest you were required to bring along as a witness a Hindu priest or Christain?

Selamat on taking that big step, and hanging in there all along that rocky road.
 
Roy, the priest was a Christian priest as I am classified a Christian, although I am much more active I guess in my worship in Hindu places but have not converted and thus due to Indonesian Law I had to swear my oath of allegiance according to my stated religion. I am actually quite neutral when it comes to religion. I was brought up an Anglican but feel comfortable in most places of worship.