Visa & Immigration Policies: Procedures for Changing the Home Address of Expats’ KITAS/KITAP
A foreigner who lives in Indonesia on a limited stay permit (KITAS) or a permanent stay permit (KITAP) must have his Indonesian home address registered at the local branch of Indonesia’s immigration office. However, it often happens that the foreigner moves to a different house or apartment before his/her KITAS or KITAP expires. It is important to notify the immigration office about this move. Based on Article 71 Act No. 6/2011 on Immigration, all changes in expatriates’ civil status, citizenship, occupation, guarantor, or address must be reported to the immigration office in an immediate period of time.
There are two options: (1) you can request someone to do it for you. For example, if you used an immigration services agency or business consultancy to arrange your KITAS or KITAP, then you can ask them to submit the mutation of your address (although they will probably ask a high fee). But considering such agencies usually have established a network within immigration they can arrange such matters rapidly.
In fact, these agencies can arrange immigration matters without complying with local regulations. For example, an expatriate actually needs to authorize an Indonesian individual through a legal document if the latter (usually the agency) will arrange immigration matters for the expat. However, in our experience, expats never make - and sign - a legal document to authorize an Indonesian individual to arrange immigration matters. It makes us wonder whether the agency in this case simply falsifies the document, including the expat’s autograph (which would make the whole process invalid and means that the agency is breaking the law), or, whether relations between immigration and the agencies are good enough that such document is not required.
(2) The second, and more challenging, option is to do it by yourself. In this article we focus on the second option. But be aware that when you undertake this process by yourself it is likely to become a time-consuming and frustrating process. Thus, those expats who have a full-time job in Indonesia will not be able to arrange the mutation of their home address by themselves.
And it is also important to note that - based on stories that are available on the Internet – not all immigration offices in Indonesia have the same procedures when it comes to changing the home address of your KITAS/KITAP. Well, on paper procedures are probably the same but some immigration offices are more flexible than others in terms of sticking to procedures. Hence when doing research on Internet, we found several stories where expats simply walked into the immigration office with their passports and arranged the change of address in a few minutes without needing to show various documents.
Therefore, it is important to point out here that our experience is derived from the West Jakarta immigration office (in Indonesian: Kantor Imigrasi Kelas 1 Khusus Jakarta Barat) located near the Fatahillah square in the old part of Jakarta (known as Old Batavia or Kota Tua). The author of this column is a foreigner.
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This articles discusses:
• how to change the address of a KITAS/KITAP at immigration (including domicile letters from the kelurahan and RT/RW)
• tips for how to deal with Indonesian immigration matters and officers
Read the full article in the January 2019 edition of our monthly research report. You can purchase the report by sending an email to info@indonesia-investments.com or a WhatsApp message to the following number: +62(0)8788.410.6944
