Reciprocity: What Reciprocity?
Reciprocity: What Reciprocity?
For a family of four Belgians as mine, the tourist visa will
cost US$200 to visit Indonesia for 30 days (compared to a free
visa for 60 days before). And we will need to go twice to the
Indonesian Embassy of BrusseIs to process it. Under such
conditions, many tourists may favor other destinations such as
Thailand and new destinations such as Vietnam and Laos. That will
result in a severe loss for the Indonesian families living from
the tourism industry.
The government is carrying out this new policy, reportedly, on
grounds of reciprocity that exist only -- now -- for the tourist
visa. One should know that if that principle is acceptable, it
should be applied to all types of visa. However, from the
immigrations law point of view, it is much easier and cheaper for
an expatriate married to a Belgian citizen to settle in Belgium
than for an expatriate married to an Indonesian wishing to settle
in Indonesia.
In addition, these foreign spouses are allowed to work here. I
was never legally allowed to work to be able to feed my family in
Indonesia since my family business was in the informal sector.
The only expats who are out of troubles from the immigration
point of view are the real tourists and the (fewer and fewer)
expatriates having a contract with a multinational, an
international organizations (most of them) or a local company
(very few).
But what about the self-employed expatriates married to an
Indonesian lady? You should know that most of us have worked
legally in Indonesia and, at the end of our contract, we decided
to give it a try on our own in Indonesia at the request of our
Indonesian wife. Most of us can stand the immigration situation
from two to four years and after that you are really a hero if
you can survive (even if you have many friends in immigration
offices).
I mean how many expats are living more than 20 years in
Indonesia? How many were able to become Indonesian nationals
(WNI) and how much did they pay for that "privilege"? It would be
interesting to get such information from the immigration
headquarters in Jakarta and from WNI expatriates.
YVAN MAGAIN
Tubize, Belgium