Kitas at last but should I be worried?

[harryopal]

( I have posted this on the expat forum but as we are living in BALI thought it might be useful to post the thread here as well.)

After electing to have our Vitas application processed through to Jakarta by using Imigrasi rather than going ourselves to Jakarta I began to feel a bit anxious after two months and then into a third month without any advice from Jakarata. We went to the Jimbaran Imigrasi and found that the process had been completed in September. We then had photographs taken and were advised to come back in 4 days.

Went back today and the passport was ready. It has a 'Limited Stay Re entry" stamp but no Multiple Entry stamp. I queried this and said I understood we need the two stamps. Limited Entry and MERP. The Imigrasi officer insisted that the Limited Stay Re entry acted as a multiple entry stamp. I pressed him on this several times but he was insistent that the Limited Stay Re entry now acts as multiple entry.

There was no Kitas card and I was told we should have received an email for the Kitas card. On returning home I then found that an email had arrived 3 days ago and I had missed it glancing over it and taking it for a spam Indonesian email of which I receive quite a few these days. The document is headed "Izin Tinggal Terbatas Elektronik." So, I will get multiple copies of this printed out.. One to keep with the passport. One to keep in the car and one as an extra.

No suggestion that we had to go to Penang or Singapore to ratify the Kitas. And Davita had previously posted that as he understood it with converting from Sosbud to Kitas, it was not necessary to leave the country.

The Limited Stay Re-entry visa is for just under 9 months. The Kitas documents are one year. I am looking at returning to Australia early next month to finally pick up 40 kilos of hobby gear that I have left with a friend. (Flights for November are somewhat cheaper.)

Can I safely assume that I can go and return using the Limited Stay Re-entry stamp or should I be worried?

 

[davita]

I answered you there but, as it may interest others, I'm copying here....

Look again at the stamp harryopal.
The last Itas I have said Limited Stay & Re-Entry. Therefore, the Itas and the re-entry permit expire at the same time. This is a multi-entry permit until expiration. It should be overwritten in ink as AFHAA 63187..1.... if it's your first Itas.

They used to stamp twice with an Itas and Merp but, when they made the Merp mandatory a few years ago, that was corrected and they now use only one stamp.

I have no idea why it's only valid for 9 months. It should state the date issued and the date 'valid until'.....around 12 months later.

 

[harryopal]

Thank you Davita, That is reassuring as I was using a forum post November 2016 which said one should have two stamps.
1. The ITAS stamp which should show “Limited Stay Permit” with an expiration date of 1 year.

2. Your MERP (Multi Exit Return Permit) with an expiration of 1 year.

I am not particularly fussed about 9 months. Maybe they dated it from when the application was received. We intend to check about proceeding to a conversion to Kitap in April. I think we have to apply 3 months before the Kitas expiry. Is that correct?

Glad we didn't go to Jakarta and having to spend toing and froing to Penang or wherever. (My wife hasn't been to Penang so I guess we would have gone there.)

I will go ahead and make a booking for early November and just fret about Mt Agung. Will it or won't it?