Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly said last week that the government was revising Government Regulation (PP) No. 2/2007 on mechanisms to obtain Indonesian citizenship and expected the changes to offer “solutions to problems faced by children of mixed marriages”, kompas.com reported. Yasonna also noted that regulators were discussing the potential extension of the deadline for such children’s citizenship decisions.

Indonesia does not recognize dual citizenship, except for in the case of children of one Indonesian and one non-Indonesian parent, who may hold their dual citizenship until the age of 18, after which they have three years to register their choice of nationality, according to the 2006 Citizenship Law.

The 2007 regulation in question, meanwhile, details the documents needed to register one’s choice of Indonesian citizenship by age 21 at the latest.

Indonesian Mixed-Marriage Society (Perca) chairwoman Analia Trisna said the group had been pushing the government to address the issue of children of mixed marriages, who, she said, were made to choose their nationality too soon.

Many children of mixed marriages, including those living in Indonesia, have lost their Indonesian citizenship after missing certain administrative deadlines, while young adults who study abroad often face the dilemma of whether to renounce their Indonesian citizenship halfway through their education.

“We hope that there is a solution to this situation, as 21 years old is still very young, as some children are still finishing up their education abroad,” Analia told The Jakarta Post on Saturday, adding that the group welcomed the planned revision to the regulation.

“We’re not just asking for the government’s help; we also want to contribute to the government. Our children are our resources [to help the country],” she said.

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Yasonna said in Bali on Wednesday that the government was still gathering opinions on the revision from stakeholders, including members of the Indonesian diaspora.

“There are some suggestions that the [nationality choice] deadline should be increased to 30 years old so that those who are studying abroad do not need to return [to Indonesia]. At the age of 21, they have yet to finish their studies," Yasona said, as quoted by kompas.com. "That's the request. We need to discuss it."

It remains unclear how and to what degree the government will be able to revise the regulation, as it is bound by the terms of the overarching 2006 Citizenship Law.

The ministry’s director general for legal administration, Cahyo Rahadian Muzhar, was not immediately available for comment.

Yasonna said that at the moment, the most the ministry could do was give children of mixed marriages a multiple-entry visa that lasted for five years while they decided which nationality to keep.

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Sally Wellesley of another society of mixed-nationality families, the Aliansi Pelangi Antar Bangsa (APAB), said children of mixed marriages grew up in dual cultures and that, therefore, forcing them to choose a single citizenship at any age was “inhumane” and no longer relevant amid increasing global mobility.

“We welcome the planned revision to the PP, but only as a temporary solution. The discussion should not end here; the solution for mixed-marriage families must be dual citizenship for all family members – children and parents,” Wellesley said on Saturday.

Under the single-citizenship policy, she said, foreign spouses in Indonesia had to hold either temporary stay permits (KITAS) or permanent stay permits (KITAP) to stay in the country, which, she said, were not equivalent to permanent residence status in other countries. Foreign spouses, she added, could not inherit property and would no longer be able to stay in the country if their Indonesian spouse died or if the couple divorced.

“Dual citizenship, on the other hand, would provide much-needed security and legal certainty for these families and enable them to contribute fully to Indonesian society,” Wellesley said.

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For years, the Indonesian diaspora and mixed marriage families have been campaigning for a revision to the 2006 Citizenship Law to allow dual citizenship, but some lawmakers claim they are worried about national security issues that may result.

A bill to revise the single citizenship rule was included in the House of Representatives National Legislation Program (Prolegnas) in 2015 and gained momentary traction when President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said he would back efforts to allow dual nationality. However, the bill has yet to make it to the program’s priority list, a necessary step to advance in the legislature.

Christina Aryani, a Golkar Party lawmaker who represents constituents abroad and in some parts of Jakarta, suspected that the ministry had found that children of mixed marriages faced significant challenges in choosing and formalizing their nationality.

“So I assume this is what the PP [revision] wants to rectify. Of course, we at the House of Representatives welcome this move,” said Christina, who is a member of House Commission I overseeing foreign affairs.

She noted that there had not been enough support from the executive or the House to revise the Citizenship Law to allow for dual nationality.