Do it yourself - inside immigration<\/p>\n
Recently I realized with some concern that my Indonesian visa
\nwas only valid four more days. Following the enlightened saying
\nthat there is a first time for everything in life, I tried to
\nlook forward to my first visit to the world-famous Indonesian
\nImmigration Service.<\/p>\n
My mission: to get my sosial budaya limited stay permit
\nextended for one month.<\/p>\n
My special intention: not to leave all the fun at Immigration
\nto some agent, who is already much too used to it all for really
\nenjoying it to the full.<\/p>\n
Day one<\/p>\n
Thus, equipped with my passport and a brand-new sponsorship
\nletter from the Post, I went there - and had an unexpectedly good
\nstart:<\/p>\n
One of the officers enjoying Jakarta's fresh air outside the
\nbuilding immediately answered my half-posed question about where
\nI was supposed to go: \"Second floor, counter seven.\"<\/p>\n
It turned out that this was wrong as I first had to fill in a
\ncouple of forms provided downstairs.<\/p>\n
These forms were easy to find, inexpensive and provided far
\ntoo little space to go into details concerning the requested
\ndeclarations. Thus, having proudly stated my address as not being
\nmuch more than just Jakarta and stuck the passport photograph
\nformerly attached to my work ID on the form, I confidently made
\nmy way upstairs again.<\/p>\n
But there, the officer behind counter five had a doubtful look
\non his watch before I even reached him. He politely let me know
\nthat the cashier counter for paying the fee was already closed.
\nNot without being equipped with a bright pink folder for all the
\ndocuments, I was sent back home.<\/p>\n
Even as day one at Immigration had thus come to an abrupt end,
\nI was optimistically looking forward to completing the procedures
\nin an instant the following day.<\/p>\n
Day two<\/p>\n
Arriving there one hour later than I had planned, due to
\ndoubtful short-cuts taken by my cab driver to avoid the traffic
\njams, I immediately made my way to counter five, second floor,
\nand was directly passed on to the cashier.<\/p>\n
A few minutes later and 200,000 rupiah poorer, I was back at
\nthe counter, handing over my pink folder and the newly acquired
\nreceipts. The officer made me sit down to wait.<\/p>\n
When after a while a voice loudly shouted out, \"Pak Mario!\",
\ninterrupting my day-dreaming, I felt confident that everything
\nwas going according to plan -- but far from it ...<\/p>\n
The summons was simply to inform me that the time had come to
\nhead downstairs again to receive some file number from Ibu Ira
\nand take it up to counter five. By applying a straightforward
\n\"shout-and-look\"-technique, I quickly managed both to find her
\nand to get what was required.<\/p>\n
But a real set-back awaited me upstairs: \"OK, Mr. Mario,
\nplease collect your passport tomorrow.\" I was determined that
\nthere was no way I was taking that trip again the next day, so I
\nsaid I was going to wait.<\/p>\n
Seemingly stunned by this unexpected reaction to his
\nannouncement, the officer agreed to bargain about the waiting
\ntime. Eventually we agreed on it being two hours, with him
\nremarkably boosting my confidence by offering to pledge his gold
\nImmigration-badge.<\/p>\n
I thought I'd might be better to decline that with thanks and
\nopt for a prolonged gado-gado (vegetable dish) in a nearby
\nrestaurant instead.<\/p>\n
Getting back to a seat in front of the familiar counter a few
\nminutes early, I first noticed what would definitely have vastly
\ndiminished my confidence if detected instantly: a sign above the
\ncounter showing colorful illustrations connected by numerous
\narrows and bearing the frightening title: \"Procedure for the
\ncompletion of applications for extensions of limited stay
\npermits\".<\/p>\n
I had just figured out which illustration I might have reached
\nwhen a female officer was waving at me with my updated passport.
\nBut still too early to celebrate as I was made to get all the
\ndocuments copied first.<\/p>\n
Neither the fact that this step was not displayed on the sign,
\nnor that just one of all the photocopiers in the building was
\nworking, was enough to discourage me.<\/p>\n
Soon after having spotted a hidden photocopier in a shed in
\nthe parking lot, I became the proud owner of another 30-day stay
\npermit in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
In retrospect, as it came to a total of only six hours of
\nprocessing on the part of Immigration, but at least 600 lost
\ncalories on my part, I would like to encourage all my fellow
\nforeigners to go to Immigration once in a while: It's quick and
\nit's healthy.<\/p>\n
-- Mario Koch<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/do-it-yourself-inside-immigration-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }