Marriage Certificate 'Legalisation' for KITAP

[David Mark Aldridge]

Morning

I'm married to a local and have a wife sponsored KITAS; the procedure was straightforward though time consuming. Our next step is for a KITAP application and we have all the documentation except . . . a 'legalised' marriage certificate from the UK.

Strap in for the adventure, which I am sure others may have experienced.

Preparation

Before our UK marriage seven years ago, we had asked about procedures at Sipil, Surabaya, the home city of my wife, and were told what we needed to do to 'legalise' our UK marriage . . . basically have our certificate translated into Bahasa Indonesia. They subsequently issued a PPLN from Sipil in Surabaya for our marriage, the final stage in the registration process . . . or so we thought

I am now told by Renon, Bali Immigration that this document should not have been issued without a UK 'legalised' marriage certificate.

Recent Events

Renon, Bali Immigration told me I would have to travel to the Indonesia Embassy in the UK to get my marriage certificate 'legalised'. That of course is a little crazy given the expense and I pushed for an alternative. They then admitted that previous applicants in a similar situation had visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jakarta and had the document 'legalised' there. They even showed me the paperwork.

Of course on contacting the Ministry, they say they cannot carry out this procedure, contradicting the advice from Renon, Bali Immigration. They quote the passage from https://www.kemlu.go.id/id/Pelayanan-Kekonsuleran/pages/Legalisasi-Dokumen.aspx" :

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs only accepts:

Domestic published documents to be used abroad after obtaining legalization from the Civil Directorate, Ministry of Law & Human Rights. Foreign documents are used for domestic use after obtaining legalization from Indonesian Representatives abroad or Foreign Country Representatives in Indonesia.

So, i contacted the UK Embassy in Jakarta, who are most unhelpful to be honest. I even tweeted the ambassador, Moazzam Malik, but he has twice not even responded to me. Their website - they won't enter into email dialogue with a mailer - simply do not legalise marriage certificates despite the fact the Indonesian authorities would accept that.

I then contacted the Indonesian Embassy in London. I received good help from their staff and even entered dialogue with the ambassador, Rizal Sukma, by twitter and email. Unfortunately, they have a website which allows those living in the UK - you need visa proof to confirm that - or those outside the UK (except Indonesia) - visa proof again required - to proceed with 'legalisation'. They appear otherwise inflexible to deal online.

Moving forward

I have now by chance found a link from the UK

Embassy https://assets.publishing.service.g...ile/729574/Legalising_a_signature_or_seal.pdf

that states the process to 'legalise' as follows:

1. Contact the legalisation Office in the UK - they offer an excellent online service (the process is known as apostille)
2. Take the document to the Indonesian Embassy
3. Take it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jakarta

My plan is to use the online service and have a family member based in the UK take the certificate to the Embassy before returning it to me. I will then take it to Jakarta. I have emailed them to confirm if a family member is able to do this.

My question is, has anyone done this and can confirm that this procedure is that which is required as no-one seems to be have the knowledge or authority to confirm it at all.

Thanks in advance for anyone who made it through my post.


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[jstar]

Hi David,

I have gone through a legalization of documents (not a marriage certificate) from my (EU) home country for use in Indonesia and it was somewhat different.

Of course it could be different depending on country, different rules, but the civil servants told me at the time an 'apostille' (let's say it is a stamp by a court) was not possible, since Indonesia is not in the list of countries who signed that convention.

So in fact my home countries' administration and the KBRI were not involved at all.

I had the official document translated by a sworn translator, then it went to the Ministry of Justice and and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to have it legalized. And my consulate in Jakarta certified it.

But but but, a friend has done it differently and it looks a lot like your procedure; he went with the certified copy for a sticker to the CDC (consular service center in my country), and then to the KBRI (Indonesian embassy). In that particular case he did not have to go to the Dutch court.

Sorry if I make it even more confusing but it seems there are multiple ways leading to eh...Rome.
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[David Mark Aldridge]

Hi David,

Of course it could be different depending on country, different rules, but the civil servants told me at the time an 'apostille' (let's say it is a stamp by a court) was not possible, since Indonesia is not in the list of countries who signed that convention.

I had the official document translated by a sworn translator, then it went to the Ministry of Justice and and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to have it legalized. And my consulate in Jakarta certified it.

But but but, a friend has done it differently and it looks a lot like your procedure; he went with the certified copy for a sticker to the CDC (consular service center in my country), and then to the KBRI (Indonesian embassy). In that particular case he did not have to go to the Dutch court.

Sorry if I make it even more confusing but it seems there are multiple ways leading to eh...Rome.
.

Your 'apostille' point is interesting and may save me a few quid.

Your second point ties in with what I'm more likely to do. Was really trying to avoid at all costs the need to travel overseas myself and the risk of sending original documents through the post.

To add to the fun, I have today had it reiterated to me at Immigration (Renon) that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jakarta can indeed 'legalise' my document, despite them saying they won't/can't, but it is not 'formal' and it maybe a case of getting 'lucky'.

As such my wife may try and get 'lucky' some time soon.

 

[DzulnSiti]

It just cross my mind if a person do not have children does it better to just remarried in Indonesia?

 

[jstar]

^
You can't just marry the same person again -much later- in another country. Can you imagine the im- and complications in case of a divorce (twice?)? Not to speak of the unlawfulness; the marriage laws in the west would see it as illegitimate and not consider the second marriage valid.

Having said that, I know of people here who did marry the same person twice. Obviously, if your first marriage was already abroad and you don't register the marriage in your home country, it will be possible to get another letter of non impediment by your consulate in the next country.

Getting a divorce first and re-marry would in fact be the way to go if you entertain such an idea. But it's a huge effort, and it could easily take 6 months to a year.

 

[David Mark Aldridge]

^
You can't just marry the same person again -much later- in another country. Can you imagine the im- and complications in case of a divorce (twice?)? Not to speak of the unlawfulness; the marriage laws in the west would see it as illegitimate and not consider the second marriage valid.

Having said that, I know of people here who did marry the same person twice. Obviously, if your first marriage was already abroad and you don't register the marriage in your home country, it will be possible to get another letter of non impediment by your consulate in the next country.

Getting a divorce first and re-marry would in fact be the way to go if you entertain such an idea. But it's a huge effort, and it could easily take 6 months to a year.

The mysteries we come across.

I married my wife both in Indonesia and in the UK. The former was for her relatives and the later for mine, including my daughter who was my best man. Some interesting points you raise and my wife chose to register our UK marriage in Indonesia and has always declared our Indonesian marriage was more of a religious ceremony. At that time we did not know in which country we would end up residing in as I had been working overseas a number of years but we had no plans to live in the UK. As it happens I ended up back in Indonesia and of course we lacked a pre-nup which has now been overcome with a post-nup enabling us to buy property here. It has been a messy ride and at one time we needed my local MP to help us obtain the UK visit visa: there is a chicken and egg situation that I quite cannot recall clearly, but is alog the lines of you not being able to confirm your marriage booking without your wife being present in the UK, yet cannot bring her into the country until that booking is confirmed.

 

[centurion]

PPLN and copy of your UK marriage certificate should be enough for your KITAP.

However, as you are not the only one with these problems, here what you can do that Catatan Sipil usually accepts:

Translate the Certificate from English to Bahasa by a sworn translator, and that sworn translation legalize in the Indonesian Ministry of Law, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UK embassy. By this way, you will have a UK stamp and Indonesian stamps on the Certificate translation.
That would be sufficient.

 

[jstar]

.

Translate the Certificate from English to Bahasa by a sworn translator, and that sworn translation legalize in the Indonesian Ministry of Law, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UK embassy. By this way, you will have a UK stamp and Indonesian stamps on the Certificate translation.
That would be sufficient.

Hmm, sounds familiar. Ah yes...

I had the official document translated by a sworn translator, then it went to the Ministry of Justice and and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to have it legalized. And my consulate in Jakarta certified it.

.

 

[David Mark Aldridge]

Ok, just to put this thread to bed. I sent the original UK marriage certificate to the UK legalisation office. They sent it to my UK based parents who took it to the Indonesian Embassy in the UK. They legalised it and my parents have now sent it back to Indonesia for me to start the KITAP procedure.

Both of these steps appear necessary BUT the Embassy will only do their bit . . . they are bound by law . . . if you are registered and have a 'lapor diri', a sort of registration for a visit to a foreign country for Indonesian citizens. We actually found the Embassy website procedure was not flexible for us - we were trying to register a trip and marriage from the past - but did it through the Ministry for Foreign affairs website and it very very straight forward. They mailed us the copy and sent it to the Embassy in the UK. Cost 50 pounds English for the two legalisations and about that again for postage.

Sorted quite easily in the end BUT repeated emailing and tweeting to ambassadors and embassy staff had been mixed and none of them appeared to appreciate our situation, offering incomplete support despite a willing attitude to assist.

Regards