Looking for expats for 1 day filming next weekend in Bali - PAYING GIG

[atlantis]

1. A couple of years ago two foreigners, one a missionary and another a tourist were deported from Aceh because they had become speakers in a workshop. The article can be found here: http://www.waspada.co.id/index.php?o...aceh&Itemid=26

What are your thoughts on this considering it was not repeated and it was exceptional (a workshop is a once off event).

I have quickly read the article and looked for more information concerning Dennis Keith & Donna Marie. Unfortunately, I couldn't find much. Therefore, we will have to try to form an informed opinion with very little clues.

1. I see nowhere that it is said that it was not repeated and it was exceptional. And indeed quite a few things make me think that it was repeated.

2. I see nowhere that the misionaris was only an odd guest (as I am for example in any seminar) in the workshop. From what I read and understand he was here more to teach to the indonesian teachers. That is a HUGE difference with the examples I was highlighting. A sentence is really having me leaning toward this: "Riky menjelaskan, Dennis Keith merupakan rohaniawan (pastur) yang mengajar workshop bahasa Inggris kepada para guru bahasa Inggris di Banda Aceh, sedangkan Donna Marie memakai visa tinggal yaitu tidak diperbolehkan melakukan kegiatan apa pun." Note that Riky is not an immigration officer but possibly associated to the sponsor of the two WNA.

3. It is said that Dennis is a pastur. We can therefore assume that it is the "job" for which an Izin Tinggal has been approved. It is a pretty special category of foreigner, whatever the religion is. It is one of the very rare category normally exempted of the DPKK (the USD 1200 tax/worker) and therefore if they are caught repetitively performing tasks different than just their duty in their church/temple/masjid, a state loss will be considered and will widely open the door for a deportation. It would make a very fine motive for deportation. A pastur is supposed to conduct an Ibadah and other various stuff but he is definitively not supposed to conduct workshop for english teachers in a public school.

4. I don't believe one minute that Imigrasi officer were there "by luck", just passing by in the street and seeing a couple of foreigner, stop by to ask for informations about their kegiatan. They have obviously been tipped off and have prepared their raid, which requires a few administrative documents and authorization. It means that they were acting very certainly on a formal complaint from Masyarakat. May be parents of school children, may be other teachers...etc. It is what make me think that the two foreigners were definitively not just odd guests in the assistance but were active participants scheduled to speak or, which is what I believe, organizers of the workshop with the help of the local church.

5. The article doesn't say two very important things:
- since when did they arrive in Bandah Aceh and what is their personal history?
- did the church or the pastur themselves have been warned before.
I have a quite similar case which happened in my city. We have a french catholic LSM which is used to send volunteer in Manado. All foreigners were having a work contract with the french LSM and were staying on a visa sosial budaya sponsored by our local keuskupan. Some were guru in a catholic university, others were working on an agricultural project. They are always 4 to 5 and this for the past 15 years or so. For long time, Imigrasi hasn't bothered to look for trouble with them. However 4 or 5 years ago, Imigrasi has decided (and they were legally right) that the sosbud was not the most appropriate visa the for any of the volunteer and that an agreement from the dinas sosial and an IMTA were necessary for any foreign social worker. They warned the keuskupan, which was the sponsor of all of them, that any volunteer caught without an IMTA would be immediately deported without further warning and whatever the activity would be. For the past four years, all foreigners sponsored by Keuskupan Manado have complied to the warning given by imigrasi. However, if any would be caught now without the proper document, he/she would be indeed immediately deported. No doubt about it. A warning has been given and it is enough ground for Immigration to justify and obtain the agreement of Jakarta for a deportation.

The article doesn't say if the keuskupan Bandah Aceh has been warned in the past, but you won't have me believe that the church has not been given CLEAR and REPEATED warnings concerning the activities of its sponsorees in BANDAH ACEH. You have to keep in mind that:
1. They are catholic (pastur)
2. They are in Aceh.
The above two point have a LOT of importance in the decision taken. Islam is not very tolerant with those who come to preach on what they consider a muslim soil. But this is another debate.

I hope that the above gives you some clues to understand why the situation described in the article have very little things in common with the OP or the examples I was giving in my posts. Religion has a LOT to do in the outcome. I am sorry to say that christian (or any other religion but Islam) missionaries are NOT welcome in Indonesia, even though the laws may say otherwise. But here, I think that very few of us would deny it... well apart Surya Dharma Ali and his cronies of course .

I'll have a look at your other question later. Time for a kopi.

[atlantis]

2. Also recently there was a fairly well known and respected expat who has spent over 10 years in Indonesia (including going to university here). Due to his single status for a period of time to continue to reside here while unemployed he was on a SosBud visa with the sponsor being his friend. He was often asked to deliver the Friday sermon in various Masjids around his area. He did not ask any money for this but of course was probably handed envelopes as is the tradition. The immigration officials refused to extend his SosBud for this reason unless he paid them an exorbitant fee/fine, saying that what he was doing was considered as 'work'.

I'm interested to get your opinions on the above cases only because I've heard and seen things like this happening a lot and am wondering whether the immigration officials involved are within the law (doing their job) or just finding ways to supplement their income.

In May 2011, when the new Immigration Act was passed, the Direktur Jenderal Imigrasi asked to immigartion officers to crack down on sosbud/business visa holders residing in Indonesia and renewing sosbud/izin usaha after sosbud/izin usaha. Izin Tinggal Kunjungan are by definition only valid for short stays and one should have a very valid reason to stay in Indonesia with it more than a couple of months. An extension is not a right and should be thoroughfully assessed.

The sponsoring by friends on the name of friendship is not a valid reason. You don't need to stay 6 months and renew it to visit (that's the meaning of kunjungan in Bahasa Indonesia) a friend. I don't know of any western country who would not raise an eyebrow and wonder how the person is financing his stay if o,e would be staying in the country without known sources of income.

A girl friend? Same. Girlfriend is not a legal status in Indonesian law and has no more value than a friend. After a couple of months, Imigrasi would (or at least should) start to raise concerns if they would be following the guidelines given to them by DitJenIm.

A wife would be a very different ground and possibly the only one allowing a perpetual extension of visa sosbud and izin perpenjangan.

I've been staying a few years with sosbud and got the "we suspect that what you are doing is illegal work" bit followed by various monetary requests. Many times I've been pressured and threatened not to have my extensions. I refused to pay and via my sponsor (who was my wife) told them that we were understanding that it was their right to check on me and to refuse an extension, but that if they would, then we would ask them to issue a surat penolakan as per the procedure, listing the reason why I was refused an extension. In most cases it was enough to have them rethink this illegal work accusation and extension refusal.

However, twice they have tried their luck. In both cases I complained to the Kanwil and got the things straight pretty quickly. The first time, a silly kepala seksi Pengawasan Orang Asing stamped my passport giving me three (or seven?) days to leave. It was the day my son born and I was refusing to pay him a kulkas or an ac has he subtly suggested. As soon as I got my passport back I went straight to see the kepala divisi keimigrasian in my kanwil, asked for an interview with him and exposed him the situation. I was very upset due to the fact that I had to waste some of my time while my wife was at the hospital having given birth in the early morning. I detailed the whole story without omitting to mention the subtle mention of the fridge and/or ac. It didn't take long for the Kadiv to understand and act. He asked me to go back home, to go to the immigration the day after and that everything would be clarified by then. The day after, when I entered the KanIm I could feel that a storm happened. Someone briefly show me the stairs to go up to the POA section. The kepala seksi pengawasan orang asing was there, waiting for me. He kept on apologizing and asking me what exactly I said to the Kadiv. He quicly canceled the stamp, ask me to go back home and that someone would bring my passport home with the requested extension. In the afternoon, it was done.

The second time, a kepala seksi statuskim, removed documents in my file. These documents were proving that I had enough money on my indonesian bank accounts to live for a period far longer than the extension I was applying for and were showing that my wife was the DirUt of her own company. Nevertheless, he wrote and signed a letter for the kanwil (it was my third extension, requiring the kanwil approval) stipulating that they had no clue on how I was living in Indonesia, that they were not aware of any job for my wife and that they were suspecting illegal working. It was smarter that the first attempt because by doing so, they were switching the responsibility of the refusal to the Kanwil. By reading the letter, the Kanwil would have without doubt issued a refusal. The surat penolakan issued by Imigrasi would have just mentioned "because KanWil refused", covering KanIm's ass. What was not smart was to make me the kurir for the letter in between KanIm and KanWil. When they gave me the letter in the envelop, I opened it on the way to the kanwil, read it and obviously understood that the kepala statuskim was trying to screw me. I went back home, opened my computer and answered point by point to the concerns raised in the letter. I put back the KanIm letter in its envelop, stapled it as it was initially and went to the Kanwil giving the two letters and asking for an interview with the kadiv. I explained him that I had in good authority that some documents were missing in my file, without telling him how I knew it, and that I therefore answered to possible concern Kanwil may have. He read both letters and check the documents I gave him. He didn't comment on it and asked me to go back home.
The day after Kanwil was issuing a positive letter of recommendation, leaving no choice to the kepala statuskim than to confirm my extension.
After this last episode, I never had any trouble to get my extensions and I have always monitored the content of any letter giving to me to bring to the Kanwil.

It is only years after that I understood why Imigrasi was acting like that nastily with me. They were encouraged by "someone with influence" who would have enjoyed to see me deported and made multiple reports over the years against me. The situation has since then been clarified and the people who was feeding them with false accusations have been publicly and legally exposed.

Many times you will have immigration officer telling you that they won't issue you an extension if you don't comply with the bribe culture. Sometimes they just try their luck but more often than you may think of, they act upon denunciation. Unfortunately it is not rare that an indonesian (or a fellow expat) comes to the KanIm to report any alleged wrongdoings by a foreigner. Sometimes it is true, sometimes it is baseless, but ALL THE TIME it is a really good ground for immigration to give you trouble.

UU 6/2011 has given them much more power to refuse an extension, but they still need to prove that you are breaching in a significant manner your permit. In the example you give, I am afraid that if the guy was delivering regularly the friday sermon, and no proofs of a regular legal income, they had a ground to suspect illegal work and refuse an extension, especially if the sponsor was just a friend and not an indonesian wife. If the sponsor would have been a yayasan or any religious entity then they would also have been totally right to refuse an extension (see my above post concerning the LSM in Manado).

But here again, to have the EXACT reason why it happened, it would require to know much more details than what you shared with us.

... and by the way, WELCOME BACK. There was some time you've not been around and it's always nice to see people being back posting.

[think_tank]

Dear Atlantis,

Thank you so much for your reply. Always great to learn from your experience here.

I've always been checking the forum every now and again but haven't had anything to contribute. I'm happy you noticed I've been a little quiet though

Kindest regards,

-T_T