Immigration at airport

Immigration at airport

From Bisnis Indonesia

I am working as an officer in charge of welcoming and seeing off foreign guests. Two weeks ago, we had a guest from Hong Kong who arrived without a visa (which is permissible under prevailing laws).

The columns "pleasure and business" on the arrival form were crossed out and the officer asked him for his business visa. The officer then rebuked him for failing to produce one and threatened to deport him. After a while, another officer came up to him and advised him settle the matter with the payment of US$100. Our guest, who was really angry at this treatment, vowed to write about his experience in the Hong Kong daily.

In this letter, I would like to ask one question: "Do business people need business visas and do tourists have to tell lies?".

Another thing is about the number of days of visit. Each of our guests consisting of six housewives from Taiwan got a permit to stay for 60 days. But when they were about to leave the immigration area, two officers from a different counter said that two of them had overstayed for one day and had to pay $50 and $100 respectively. The others who coincidentally came to the same counter as they had when they entered the country had no difficulty at all.

It is obvious that they have made the regulations unclear to enable them to make money. This seems to be a trick played on visitors who stay for 60 days who check out at different counters.

HENRY D.N., Jakarta