Congrats! If you are reading this, then hopefully it means you are on your way to Indonesia. I promised myself that along with treating this blog as a journal for myself, family, and friends I would also try to make it a useful blog for other travelers. With that in mind I'm sitting down to force myself to write a blog on the headache that obtaining a Indonesian year-long visa has been. It is my hope that this post will help you (the reader) have less of a headache. Throughout the process I felt like my list of documents needed was completely unorganized, and that it was totally unclear about what my portion of applying for a visa was. I was getting different lists from different people, and none of them seemed complete. I will try to procure a list and step by step directions of how to obtain your 1 year temporary stay visa. I should note that I am an America citizen and I'm moving to Jakarta to teach at an international school. Visa requirements may be different if you are from another country, or if you are going for a different purpose. I recommend you stay in close contact with whoever is helping you get the visa an/or the consulate office nearest to you.
Step 1: Getting your Authorization Letter
Items you will need:
copy of you diploma*
copy of your official transcripts*
copy of your teaching license
a signed statement saying you agree to abide by the laws of the Indonesian government (given by my employer)
HIV/AIDS free test*
Drugs free test*
Copy of your complete passport, all pages (they ask for random pages, but it is easier to just have the whole thing scanned)
10 passport photos with a red background (4x6cm)
10 passport photos with a white background(4x6cm)
CV form filled out and translated to Indonesian (given by my employer)
*these will need to be certified copies, which if you are in the United States means you will need to get them notarized and apostilled. You should check your secretary of states website for how to do this. It should be no more than 2-3 months before you leave. Originally, you will not need the apostille to get the authorization letter from the government, and can send scanned copies. I was told once I arrive in Indonesia they will need the certified copies.
**Not everyone needs to get this done. They randomly choose people. If you are insured or it will not cost you a lot of money, you may want to do it just to have it done. Where I was located both tests cost me about 60USD. I simply went to the doctor and told them what I needed. They ran full blood work and a urine test and gave me my results the following day.
Some of these items needed to be translated to Indonesian. The HR rep of my school agreed to do this for me there and then take the charge out of my first paycheck. Once I gave the HR rep in Indonesia all of these items she submitted them to the appropriate places to go through the following process:
1) Approval for your employment issued by the Manpower Ministry
2) Recommendation Letter issued by the Education Ministry to obtain work permit from the Manpower Ministry.
3) Approval to obtain residence permit from the Immigration Directorate General Office
Your sponsor in Indonesia will contact you once the authorization letter is done. And then it is time for the Visa pick-up process
Items needed for Visa pick-up
1. 2 passport photos, size 2inches x 2inches
2. copy of ticket or itinerary for flight
3. 2 copies of the visa application
a. You can leave the return flight details blank if you are staying for a year
b. if you need more space for adresses or names you can write outside the boxes
c. for time you are staying the most you can put is 1 year since you have to reapply after a year
4. 2 copies of the Authorization Letter of your working visa (you will receive this from your school when it is ready
5. Passport
6. Money order or cashiers check for the appropriate amount (check consular website under visas)
Congrats! Once you have all of these items together you are ready to process your visa for pick-up. There are a few ways to do this.
1) Take all the items to the consular office. Be sure to check the hour of operation as there are usually only 3 hours a day you are allowed to apply for a visa. Then after 3 business days you can go back and pick up your visa. Once again there are only 3 hours a day to pick up a visa.
2) Mail the above items using a postal service with tracking available. FedEx or UPS are good options. include one more item: a pre-paid return trackable envelope with your name and address on it. They will send it back to you with your passport and receipt once it is processed.
If you are still confused about anything call the consulate nearest to you. They are super helpful. I was in a very big hurry, and tracked my item. Once it arrived I called and asked them to begin processing it right away. I received it back the next day (I paid for one day shipping on my return package.)
I just received the Visa yesterday and I head to Indonesia soon. I will update this if I discover any other necessary requirements for the visa process.
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