The law indeed take force immediatly BUT:
- it has to be implemented at the moment with the existing Peraturan Pelaksanaan (ie: Peraturan Pemerintah nomor 32 tahun 1992 tentang visa, Izin Masuk dan Izin keimigrasian as corrected by it's two amendments & the Keputusan Menteri Nomor M.01-IZ.01.10 tahun 1995 as corrected by its 4 amendments)
- for cases where the the two above regulations don't allow an immediate implementation, applicants will have to wait the enactment of the new set of Peraturan pelaksanaan which MUST be enacted in a delay of 12 months starting from the promulgation of the new law.
At the moment, it is gonna be fairly easy for those holding a KITAS sponsored by their Indonesian wife to upgrade to a KITAP: the PP 32/1994 is clear enough for any immigration officer to deal with. I've obtained my KITAP some time ago, pursuant to the "old" law and following the procedure stipulated in the PP 32/1994. It took me 26 days and costed me IDR 3.055.000 in total cost (of course I did not deal with any agent).
For those who hold a KITAS sponsored by a company, they will first have to do a ahli sponsor. This is not so easy. I've helped a friend to deal with a procedure of change of sponsor and we had a few headaches due to the fact that this procedure is unpopular among immigration officer who are not used to deal with it. Alternatively, if the procedure is too much of an headache, an applicant can do an EPO (terminaison of the KITAS), then a visa run to get a VITAS sponsored by an Indonesian wife, then convert it to a KITAP. That's way longer than for those who already have a KITAS sponsored by their wife, but there are no other alternatives untill a new set of regs matching the new law are passed.
The KITAP procedure involves a 5 steps circuit:
1. application to the local KanIm. It may be the only "difficult" part. Many immigration officer have little knowledge on how to deal with a KITAP. For mine, I had to bring them and litterally explain them all the relevant article of laws + the procedure. They were unaware of any amendments made posterior to the original regulations. Even though I've spent time to explain them, the letter of recommendation they signed a week after had no less than 6 errors, the first one being a typo in my first name and the second being in my date of birth!
2. Verification by the KanWil.
3. Authorization by the DitJenIm. If step 1 and 2 have been passed, there are no way that the DitJenIm block the file.
4. Instruction from the KanWil to the KanIm
5. Issuance of the KITAP by the KanIm after payment.
For those legally marriedto an Indonesian spouse for more than two years, this procedure could easily be done without the help of an agent. A bit time consuming maybe, but no risk of a refusal as long as all documents have been provided. I've helped quite a few friends in the past to get a KITAP and none was extorted by Imigrasi. They all have paid the legal price, though we had sometimes to raise a bit the voice. Imigrasi do not like to issue KITAP for 3 millions when they are used to illegally charge ten times this amount.
