Choosing citizenship before 18?

[Archiebld]

Hey guys,

First of all I find information on here excellent.

Many thanks for all contributions.

My question is can I choose my child’s nationality before they turn 18?

There is no use for Indonesian citizenship as we will be gone soon.

Thanks.

 

[dafluff]

Hey guys,

First of all I find information on here excellent.

Many thanks for all contributions.

My question is can I choose my child’s nationality before they turn 18?

There is no use for Indonesian citizenship as we will be gone soon.

Thanks.

Welcome to the forum.

The procedure for choosing one citizenship for a dual citizen child has to be initiated by the dual national person (child), and that requires them to be at least 18 years of age or be married (this emancipates them by Indonesian law).

There is really no reason to initiate this process any sooner. It is fairly simple letter that needs to be mailed by them while they are abroad to the Indonesian consulate/embassy of their area.

Also, I believe it gets even simpler once they reach 21 years of age, as by that time if they reside abroad, the Indonesian citizenship must be terminated. Simply informing the Indonesian mission about this fact, and returning the passport should be sufficient.

 

[jstar]

Hi Archie. Interesting question. The thing that has been determined in the law is that the choice has to be made within three years after turning 18. But they don't say if it is feasible to do it sooner. (You could interpret it's only possible in that three year timeframe I guess...) https://www.bphn.go.id/data/documents/m.hh-19.ah.10.01-2011.doc

Now what is rather obvious in the text, is that it is a choice of the child him/herself so in fact it would not be possible for a parent to choose/select one of the citizenships.

That should explain why the child has to be minimally 18 years old (young adult), to be able to make up his/her own mind. But having said that, the age of consent is 15 here, they can get married at 21 (16 and 19 with parental approval) and voting and driving is possible at 17. Well.....

If your child has a foreign passport, you should have an affidavit after reporting, and this (with the RI passport if there is one) will be collected. Things are a bit different if the child is born before 2006.

NB: posting simultaneously but no major discrepancies...

 

[Archiebld]

Thank you for the feedback.