Immigration On the Prowl for Villa Renters

[Markit]

Adam in my experience of Bali/Life/Humans people with your attitude are per-programed to fail here. Watch that space!

Would you with the really short attention spans kindly start your own thread on retirement places?

 

[Adam]

Adam in my experience of Bali/Life/Humans people with your attitude are per-programed to fail here. Watch that space!

Whatever.

It's called reality and if you can't grasp it that's your problem. If I was having the internal crisis that you seem to be having and with the money you've obviously sunk into the place I'd be wondering just how great my retirement decisions were. I don't believe you take anything more to Bali than what you can afford to lose. A place in the tropics with many positives it is, yes, but it is far, far from paradise or perfection like many foolishly believe.

 

[Markit]

Since I don't count you Adam under the positive or creative additions to this forum I'll leave it with the the statement that I've sunk a lot of money in a lot of places and through luck, karma or intelligence it's always bobbed up again.... bigger, but only if you do it where others fear to tread.

 

[davita]

I've sunk a lot of money in a lot of places and through luck, karma or intelligence it's always bobbed up again.... bigger, but only if you do it where others fear to tread.

Similar feelings here.

I left the RAF after 22 years and received a terminal benefit of UK£5,000. This was all the asset I had and yet...applying intelligent gut-feeling, luck and using similar risk/rewards markit mentions, in the next 16 years, my investments ballooned to more than UK£1M on retirement.

A well-known Scots poet said "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men...gang aft-agley". Today's meaning...no matter the plan.... 'poop' happens.

The only plan I now have is diversify, diversify, diversify!

 

[spicyayam]

The only plan I now have is diversify, diversify, diversify!

This blog is by an expat in Thailand, but an interesting read: AWOL Geordie: How I lost $250,000 with Centaur Litigation.
[MENTION=1532]Markit[/MENTION] Any update on your friend's situation?

 

[Markit]

We are all waiting to hear what the resulting clusterfeck will look like. My friend went into denial and started serious Arrack testing (at 9am in the morning) until I went round and started shouting at him. Self pity was understandable but not the solution to the problem.

He now has a lawyer from Denpasar that has some experience with the immi and is handling friends case with them. We'll see who ends up with the least money...

In the mean time I'm convinced that the entire play is to take advantage of an old, scared man who doesn't understand where he really is, so for those found in a similar situation I recommend balls of carbon steel, a video camera and a good Balinese adviser with connections.

 

[Braveheart_shaped_box]

My thoughts exactly. Also how easy is it to take someone's pictures and set up fake profile on FB. I know it happened to someone. Posts critical of Indonesia were then made on that profile in order to try and get them deported.

This is one hundred percent true as this is precisely what happened to a family member. The 'investigation' process included 'evidence' culled from this very forum and presented to the authorities by an 'important Bule businessman' from Bali.

Take care what you say here and elsewhere, bad enough when the 'men in tight shirts' are watching you, but it sucks big time when expats are dobbing each other in.

 

[davita]

This is one hundred percent true as this is precisely what happened to a family member. The 'investigation' process included 'evidence' culled from this very forum and presented to the authorities by an 'important Bule businessman' from Bali.

Take care what you say here and elsewhere, bad enough when the 'men in tight shirts' are watching you, but it sucks big time when expats are dobbing each other in.

IMO..That's very serious BSB...are you saying a forum member actually knew another forum member's name and status and reported to authorities about some knowledge gained from something said on this forum?

Was this information trivial or of a serious crime?

It would be useful if some of the events were described so current members were better informed of this possibility.

 

[davita]

If you want to know how they were caught just type your name and the word "Bali" in a google search box - because that's what the immi do now in every case of a Kitas renewal!

As my wife has a little bit flu I'm nurse davita.....and bored.

Therefore, I decided to take Markit's advice above (type name and Bali) to read all the interesting things about myself...I found nothing, nada, ziltch....the nearest person with a similar name was a choral singer from Ohio who'd won some prize for his rendition of 'Go with me ''Oh Lord"!'

Trust me guys...I have been bad. I cannot disclose 'coz someone may dob me in but....I sometimes get angry and I've been known to use 4 letter words and stamp my feet. How dare the internet not know me....I'm so depressed maybe I need to do something outrageous to be recognized. I know...I'll take a selfie of me finishing a 2 litre box of Hatten's Rosé in one night...that'll get me some recognition..:lemo:

 

[Gurkha]

Immi asked an expat friend of mine if he would work pro bono as a spy for them!

 

[Braveheart_shaped_box]

IMO..That's very serious BSB...are you saying a forum member actually knew another forum member's name and status and reported to authorities about some knowledge gained from something said on this forum?

Was this information trivial or of a serious crime?

It would be useful if some of the events were described so current members were better informed of this possibility.

The information passed on stated that a member of this forum was 'working as a journalist without a KITAS or Accreditation'
As the 'accused' person used their working name and made no secret of the general area where they lived, it did not take long for the men in tight shirts to put two and two together.
However, where the informer cocked up royally was, the 'accused' did indeed write several articles that were published in printed magazines, but they never took a fee for them. This still did not stop the MITS trying from to say that writing for a magazine or posting an online article is actually 'working' without a KITAS albeit unpaid, and it was then pointed out that therefore everyone who posts any text on any forum, and that includes FB and Twitter, must be guilty as well.

They went away to think about it and never came back.

 

[davita]

Thanks for the info #51^ BSB...frightening; but good point about any FB, twitter, forum, blog etc.

Many expats 'knowingly' work in RI without IMTA but, although I would never intervene, I've little sympathy when they get caught....as imo they only make the lives of those who obey the law more difficult.

However, Indonesia does need reform in this area. I read they deported many illegally working Chinese from a power plant being built in Bulelang...and now the plant constructors cannot find suitable workers to enable completion.

 

[Markit]

Just to round this all off I thought I'd just fill in the provisionally final moves in the story.

Friend finally did what he was told by those that were trying to look after his best interests (an uphill battle) and got the assistance of a Denpasar lawyer by the name of Pak Wayan Kejit (081237549007) who was extremely helpful and the right man at the right time in the right place. For the (paltry?) fee of only 3milli he was able to calm the seas of Singaraja immigration's ire.

Now I won't say money changed hands but I also won't say it didn't and I won't say it was more than 50 milli and I won't say it was less than 20.

Friend now has his newish Kitas and sadder and wiser has gone back to watching the bamboo grow and dragon flies fly (Arak training has taken back its more usual time of late afternoons).

My main concern is that this will only motivate some people in official stations to start really looking for ways to cause trouble for the rest of us upstanding, honest pillars of the expat community since in this case it worked so very well.

Moral of the story for my tuppence is: Don't try and resolve these issues yourself now day - there have been way too many YouTube movies of hapless Indo traffic police, customs agents and the like for any of the officials now to personally accept offers to mitigate a "situation" with money. The only way it works these days is through the cut-off of a lawyer that you trust and that will act on your behalf. Course this will also raise the final price but hell what's a little inflation if the skids are well greased?

 

[davita]

First class post Markit...good advice. Cannot say more as my Speedy is kaput and using smartphone to reply.

 

[Billt4SF]

I have not read the whole thread but I'm wondering if there is a segment of the Indo population / authorities that think that foreigners / expats are ruining Bali and therefore want to get 'em out, by whatever means.

- Bill

 

[Billt4SF]

On second thought....


“Then we carefully disguise the bribes as legal fees by changing the word ‘bribes’ to ‘legal fees.’ ”

From The New Yorker

 

[Braveheart_shaped_box]

I have not read the whole thread but I'm wondering if there is a segment of the Indo population / authorities that think that foreigners / expats are ruining Bali and therefore want to get 'em out, by whatever means.

- Bill

FYI Willy, the majority of Indo population/authorities consider all foreigners/expats as ATMs with no withdrawal limits, the last thing they want is their sacred cash cows to leave.

 

[Pan]

I am sorry for your old friends. But that's how it works here in Indonesia (you, as an öld"Balinese certainly know). You can not just ignore laws and then cry. Business visa are available for doing business. Retired means doing nothing but enjoying the polluted beaches, the crazy traffic etc.

 

[davita]

I am sorry for your old friends. But that's how it works here in Indonesia (you, as an öld"Balinese certainly know). You can not just ignore laws and then cry. Business visa are available for doing business. Retired means doing nothing but enjoying the polluted beaches, the crazy traffic etc.

Hi Pan and welcome to the forum.

I'll leave Markit to explain what his friend was charged with, but, from what his OP indicated, his friend on a Retirement Kitas or Kitap advertised his villa for rent when he wasn't using it. Apparently that would legally need a Pondok Wisata Permit.

A Business Visa is for those wishing to enter Indonesia to conduct business, initially for 60 days.

 

[Pan]

But if they were on KITAP (not KITAS) wouldn't they be allowed? KITAP allows you to work...