N. Jakarta (Indonesia) plans foreigner check

[jamesintheworld]

N. Jakarta (Indonesia) plans foreigner check
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailcity.asp?fileid=20070707.C05&irec=4

JAKARTA: North Jakarta’s civil registration office will start knocking on doors next week to check on the legal documents of foreign nationals living in the municipality.

“(Foreigners) will have to show complete legal documents for their stay here, including work permits if they are here as professionals,” the head of the North Jakarta civil registration office, Lukman Tahar, was quoted as saying by official city news site Beritajakarta.com on Friday.

The planned check had been prompted by indications that foreigners were living in the municipality without proper legal documents or with documents that had already expired, he said.

Lukman said officers would focus on settlement areas such as Pluit, Kelapa Gading, Penjaringan and Ancol.

“We will only check their documents and tell them to renew their expired papers,” he added.

However, foreigners found without any legal documents would be immediately taken into custody and held at the local immigration office.

The swoop will involve officers from the public order, social welfare and manpower sub-agencies, as well as from the local police. — JP

~James

[jamesintheworld]

However, foreigners found without any legal documents would be immediately taken into custody and held at the local immigration office.

Hahahahahahaahahaha!!!

Two weeks after this sweep starts Indonesian Immigration cops will suddenly start buying brand new cars

~JITW

[ROB]

So is there a practical way for a foreigner to legally live there without leaving once per month?

[jamesintheworld]

Indonesia is not like Thailand where you can just do a visa run every 3 months “no questions asked” and live there forever without residency

The longest visa on arrival in Indonesia is only for 30 days (you can get longer one in advance – but it is a pain) at 25 bucks a pop. It is pretty much impossible to have your visa extended and the other extended stay visas suck because they are not multiple entry and exit (you are stuck in Indo). You must leave the country to get a new visa, and unless you are an American, European or Australian they (immigration) may or may not let you in if they think that you are living in Indo illegally. And even then Immigration will get suspicious if you have 18 back to back visas into Indo on your passport – sooner or later you will have to deal with allot of BS.

And the fines for overstay are huge and can run into thousands of dollars just for a few days.

And you have to physically leave the country to get a new one, unlike Thailand you cant just take a bus over the border for 30 bucks – you have to take a plane ride to somewhere like Singapore and you should stay out at least a day if you are planning to do visa runs for an extended time (so it isn’t too obvious that you are living there illegally).

Basically all that means is – it is expensive to do visa runs, at least 200$ or 500$ bucks every time (airplane ticket, airport fee, hotel in Singapore, food, new visa when you arrive, taxis, ect).

So pretty much the only way to live in Indonesia without a residency visa is to spend 5K+ a year just on visa runs, so some people just stay illegally.

That is actually one of the main reasons why I chose Indonesia instead of another Southeast Asian country – Difficult and expensive to live there = Less hobo expats

@ROB wrote:

So is there a practical way for a foreigner to legally live there without leaving once per month?

A residency visa sponsored by the government, NGO or a company = not easy to get

Or – you know a high ranking person in Immigration that can “fix” things for you so you can stay as long as you want to

But pretty much you will have to do visa runs every month if you don’t have residency

~James Grey

[rickshaw92]

Indonesia is not like Thailand where you can just do a visa run every 3 months “no questions asked” and live there forever without residency

I dont think ya can do that anymore James. I was told on my 2nd visa run tahe I could do only one more and that was it for a year or 6 months.

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