Letter: Suggestion for immigration

Tue, 06/24/2008 10:01 AM  |  Reader's Forum

In this forever changing and hopefully improving world, Indonesia is going down the avenue of trying to create a healthy and attractive business climate and a friendly tourist environment.

There are many things that can be done to improve and achieve both, one of those being a helpful and cordial immigration experience that for sure will welcome all visitors.

First impressions are often important, but what about the renewal of social visas internally and the procedures necessary to obtain this.

Before I make suggestions, I would like to say that it is appreciated that many people in this country are operating illegally or doing illegal business, and that Indonesia has a difficult job (like many other countries) in controlling this.

That said why not classify certain well-known people who are here on a regular social visa as being of little interest to immigration and thus dealt with in a different way.

At the moment the form-filling exercise is not only repetitive it is also time consuming, both of which could be avoided with a little thought. The forms and information required need to be submitted every month for four months, of which two of those months all forms and information need to be duplicated.

Surely there is a better way of doing this? Not only that, those four months warrant a stamp in the passport and the stamp, which is not very large, is often, if not always put on a separate passport page every month.

There is ample room for two stamps on one page, and when you consider that a new British passport cost nearly Rp 3 million (US$323), why not help us out on this one?

Better still, why not have one large stamp that will cover the four months with enough space for the chief immigration officer to sign four times?

In my 15 years of experience in this country, I have found 99 percent of Indonesians to be friendly and indeed helpful, and so maybe that natural attribute should become the first priority of immigration, which of course would be in line with the national image-building exercise that is currently being projected.

DAVID WALLIS
Medan, North Jakarta

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Tolakvoa (not verified) — Mon, 07/21/2008 - 1:50am

I hate it when I got whole page stamped for Visa on arival. Why can't they use one box to get in and one box to get out. Also Visa on arrival is not working for Tourist. Tourist would love to stay in Indonesia but the Transportation in Indonesia is very poor why because the infrastructural is also poor. So traveling around Indonesia take longer than one month plus who wants to travel in Indonesia within one month. VOA is way of previous cabinet to corrupt.

Stephan R (not verified) — Fri, 07/04/2008 - 2:31am

Sorry about indonesian people not beeing alowed in to my country ,but atleast when u get here u dont have to worry about ever leaving again :) and when u leave there will be no questions asked .. like why did u over stay ect ect , if i stay one day to long in indo i have to pay 20 us , and if i would just stay and get cought later ill go to jail ??? what is that about , could i ask for wni then ?

David K. (not verified) — Thu, 06/26/2008 - 10:01am

I'm curious to wonder why you are complaining, as you don't know what it is like to fly as an Indonesian to any other country?

Is this the same help and courtesy you are requesting for foriegners coming to Indonesia as when Indonesian go abroad and are treated like subhumans, often being hassled in every non ASEAN airport. I have been asked questions from, "what is the purpose of your visit to my country? How long will you be staying? Do you have relatives here?"" (if you actually read the immigration form I have filled out it would say holiday, business, length of time, and what does having relatives have to do with me coming to your country etc etc) Or retarded pop quizzes about birthdate, Place of birth, and location of Indonesia. This has not only happened to myself but to others that I know whom hold Indonesia Passports.

This is beyond the fact if the Indonesian passport holder has all the proper documentation such as confirmed roundtrip ticket, hotel booked, the proper visa's (lets not get into the grueling process of obtaining a visa for say England, US or any country which includes multi paged forms, large fees, retarded interviews that denial or approval is dictated on how good or bad the morning was for some low level consulates/embassy representatives) we will still be hassled, at every turn.

All in all, the process at immigration provided to people who fly into Indonesia is not to tedious and from my observation they don't give to much of a hassle. It will take a matter of minutes for a foriegn national from US, EU, or England to be stamped (once you purchase your visa on arrival, if you already have a visa then faster).

There is always the saying of "scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" so far in Immigration between countries there is little evidence that Indonesia and Indonesians are treated extremely poorly, while other foriegn nationals request increasingly more and more from us. Also I have not begun to discuss the aspect if an Indonesian were to go to one of your countries (work or vacation) wearing islamic attire.

I'm assuming from reading my response you will deem myself the 1% of Indonesia that is unfriendly and unhelpful. I would like to know that when we bend over backwards to accomidate the foriegners coming to our country they will show some courtesy in assisting us Indonesians in coming to thier country. I think you may want to call it common respect.

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