Overstay beyond 60 days to take care of ill mother

[cwatt1]

Hello,

As the title to the thread indicates, a friend of mine has overstayed -- she has been in Jakarta about 3 1/2 months to take care of her mother who has breast cancer. Her mother has recovered and she is scheduled to leave at 6AM Wednesday morning, October 18. She is aware of the overstay and plans to go to immigration and customs on Monday. Would it be advantageous for her to bring her mother (an Indonesian citizen) with her when she sees immigration and customs?

 

[Davita]

Hi cwatt1 and welcome to the forum.
Your friend only needs to simply agree about the overstaying and pay the fine for every day overstayed.
I understand your thinking about the reason for the extension of your friends visa but Imigrasi don't frigging care.....It happens almost daily and they have heard all the excuses.

 

[cwatt1]

Thanks Davita, but I thought an overstay of 60 days or greater resulted in deportation and blacklisting. (She has virtually no money left; she brought it all with her when she came to indonesia. In fact I have had to wire her some funds). I hope if she goes to immigration Monday with a Wednesday ticket for a flight out they at least let her stay that long.

 

[Davita]

Re: post # #
I cannot answer... I didn't even look at the time overstaying but If you knew that why didn't alert your friend?
Indonesia, like all other countries, have rules about immigration policy. You cannot blame the country.
I have sympathy for your friends dilemma but the reality is...everyone needs to take personal care of visas....wherever.

 

[dafluff]

Hello,

As the title to the thread indicates, a friend of mine has overstayed -- she has been in Jakarta about 3 1/2 months to take care of her mother who has breast cancer. Her mother has recovered and she is scheduled to leave at 6AM Wednesday morning, October 18. She is aware of the overstay and plans to go to immigration and customs on Monday. Would it be advantageous for her to bring her mother (an Indonesian citizen) with her when she sees immigration and customs?

I don't see much of an advantage to bring the Mom, she is sick after all. I would rather bring copies of hospital documentation. These help support the reason for the overstay and would quicken the process.

Unfortunately the law is specific on this: beyond 60 days you will get deported and blacklisted. I am not aware of any exemptions due to family members being sick.

What she should have done is get her visa extended due to humanitarian reasons, before it expired.

 

[cwatt1]

I appreciate the response once again. I was not aware of these restrictions until yesterday or I certainly would have advised her. I found out yesterday that the flight agent told her about this when she purchased her ticket home a few days ago and told her she had apparently overstayed and needed to talk to immigration.

 

[Davita]

I appreciate the response once again. I was not aware of these restrictions until yesterday or I certainly would have advised her. I found out yesterday that the flight agent told her about this when she purchased her ticket home a few days ago and told her she had apparently overstayed and needed to talk to immigration.

I'm sure you, as a third party, is trying your best to deal with a situation over which you have little control and, believe me, we can commiserate, because we've all been there.
I can write a book on how irresponsible some people are when travelling. It can be infuriating because it creates difficulties for other responsible travellers.
Therefore, there is no point to berate your friend except to say, IMO, she has to go 'cap in hand', as it were, and plead for mercy, even to the point of showing pictures of her bereavement that will, as dafluff implies, hopefully get some emotional response. Immigration officers the world over are, after all, human, and not yet robots.....but that's another subject
I suggest your friend takes all documents and evidence and pleads guilty, pays her fine and hope they will be understanding.

 

[cwatt1]

I think she has pretty much exhausted her funds since she stayed longer than she planned, so she will probably need to accept being deported and blacklisted at this point. I doubt very much if she can afford to pay a fine. But since she overstayed more than 60 days, the deportment and blacklist would occur anyway, as I understand it.

 

[El_Goretto]

Moderation Note: Sexist remark edited out of post #7. Please keep it classy.
Note that any response to this moderation note in this thread will be deleted as off-topic. Thank you.

 

[atlantis]

I think she has pretty much exhausted her funds since she stayed longer than she planned, so she will probably need to accept being deported and blacklisted at this point. I doubt very much if she can afford to pay a fine. But since she overstayed more than 60 days, the deportment and blacklist would occur anyway, as I understand it.

Hi cwatt1,
Theoretically she should indeed been deported AND blacklisted if she doesn't pay the overstay fine. However, I have seen quite a few cases settled amicably with no blacklisting even when STRICTLY no money had changed hands. As it has correctly said, immigration officers are humans.
However, I think it would be MUCH wiser to dress modestly when approaching immigration. Though the intent was humor, the advise given by Davita in his last sentence (now edited out) may be counter productive if a person meets with a rather conservative person. The risk is, imho, too great to be taken. Though showing a cleavage might appeal to a few immigration officers, it may infuriate others. Dressing modestly would infuriate no-one. Remember, some immigration offices (the one in my city has) have warnings requesting applicants to dress appropriately, explicitly forbidding sandals, short pants, singlets...etc

 

[El_Goretto]

@cwatt1, I am deeply sorry for the troubles your friend has gotten herself into, especially considering her difficult circumstances.

You seem to understand the consequences of the overstay but just in case, have you read this article:

Overstayed your visa in Indonesia?

Unless the immigration staff is somewhat compassionate, it seems that she will have to deal with the blacklisting. She will be barred from entering Indonesia for at least 6 months. The following article will come in handy to help your friend cancel the blacklisting after the first 6 months:

Blacklisted from Indonesia? How to return legally

 

[cwatt1]

Well, I found out this morning that she went to immigration, who assessed a fine of about $3,700 U.S. Seems excessive to me. Overstaying by 85 days or so would result in a fine of around $2,000 at the most (300,000 rp X 86 days). Would a call to the US Embassy help?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm in the middle here. All I can do is try and advise her as best I can since she is in Jakarta and I'm in the U.S.

 

[atlantis]

Well, I found out this morning that she went to immigration, who assessed a fine of about $3,700 U.S. Seems excessive to me. Overstaying by 85 days or so would result in a fine of around $2,000 at the most. Would a call to the US Embassy help?

Embassies has no way nor interest in interfering with Indonesian administration. At best they will give the contact detail of a lawyer.

The place to report any immigration law violation is the Kantor Wilayah.

Here is a copy of a post I wrote long ago.

Kantor Wilayah are what we call an Instansi Vertikal of the Minister of Justice and Human Rights. They are the administrative division in charge for the control, centralization and supervision of the work of all administrative division of the Minister of Justice and Human Rights at the province level.

Their activities by definition are very wide and includes, on top of the activities defined in the above paragraph, the coaching and socialization of law and Human Rights, including their protection, promotion, compliance, enforcement and respect. They also deal with intellectual property rights. Last but not least, they supervise all the KanIms in their area of authority (ie: the province) and the RuDenIm (Rumah Detensi Imigrasi).

In each Kantor Wilayah, there is a Kepala Divisi keimigrasian who is the real big boss for Immigration matter at the provincial level. He is seconded by a Kepala Bidang lalu Lintas, Izin Tinggal than Status keimigrasian and a Kepala Bidang Intellijen, Penindakan & Sistem Informasi Keimigrasian.

If you have a MAJOR problem with a seksi/bidang Lalu Lintas or a seksi/bidang Statuskim explain it to the Kepala Bidang lalu Lintas, Izin Tinggal dan Status keimigrasian of the Kantor Wilayah and if you have a major problem involving the Inforsakim or the wasdakim seksi/bidang, then contact the Kepala Bidang Intellijen, Penindakan & Sistem Informasi Keimigrasian of the kantor Wilayah. Alternatively write directly to the big boss. But do NOT contact any of them for petty problems that you can solve at the Immigration Office by writing to the relevant kasi or kakanim.

However, prior to contacting the Kanwil it is important that your friend wonder what her goal in the future is. If she contacts the KanWil she will get the law applied but this also means that she will be deported AND blacklisted since the law clearly stipulate that there is no fine for any overstay beyond 60 days and that it is sanctioned by an automatic blacklisting.

 

[atlantis]

Moderation Note: An off topic has been deleted earlier by a moderator. The Moderation Team kindly remembers user to keep informative channels free from off topic rants.

 

[Davita]

Well, I found out this morning that she went to immigration, who assessed a fine of about $3,700 U.S. Seems excessive to me. Overstaying by 85 days or so would result in a fine of around $2,000 at the most (300,000 rp X 86 days). Would a call to the US Embassy help?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm in the middle here. All I can do is try and advise her as best I can since she is in Jakarta and I'm in the U.S.

Indeed you are (but I'm in the middle here)....and what I stated and commiserated with you in my post #7.... first sentence.
I have no idea if the fine is excessive or not but, as no-one else has offered any positive advice it may be that mine, since deleted (censored), could have been a useful and practical solution....but now we will never know.
Perhaps you can request 'crowdfunding' to pay her bill...that has a lot of traction on forums these days.

 

[dafluff]

Well, I found out this morning that she went to immigration, who assessed a fine of about $3,700 U.S. Seems excessive to me. Overstaying by 85 days or so would result in a fine of around $2,000 at the most (300,000 rp X 86 days). Would a call to the US Embassy help?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm in the middle here. All I can do is try and advise her as best I can since she is in Jakarta and I'm in the U.S.

The law does not recognize a fine beyond 60 days. After 60 days, the law requires deportation and blacklisting. What they are assessing is a bribe.

Now even with paying this bribe, there is no guarantee that she will not be blacklisted anyway.

I would follow Atlantis suggestion and follow up with a higher level office, or alternatively go to the airport and insist that there is no money to pay for the "fine".

 

[snpark]

I think in laymans terms you pay the overstay penalty of about $35 a day up to the 60days overstay, and can just leave OR if you were e.g overstay 61 days, there is no penalty but you get deported and blacklisted, the cut off is apparantly 60days I believe? Again, depends on if she is planning to come back ever again and how far she wants to push it when she is blatantly guilty of a crime here. And lawyers are not cheap!

 

[dafluff]

I have no idea if the fine is excessive or not...

Then why not educate yourself on the subject matter, after all we have the resources right here:

https://www.expatindo.org/overstaying-your-visa-in-indonesia/

...as no-one else has offered any positive advice it may be that mine, since deleted (censored), could have been a useful and practical solution....but now we will never know.

All,

Davita's "useful and practical solution" that was removed from view is quoted verbatim below

BTW if she's pretty, and can show a little cleavage, it night be beneficial...

It was initially contained in post #7. We have decided to repost it here so that everyone may judge for themselves.

We have removed it for several reasons that are probably clear to many readers. However, posters with Cage privileges desiring to know more about moderator's reasoning and/or to comment themselves can continue the discussion here: LINK TO CAGE POST

Absolutely no further comments along this avenue will be tolerated in this thread.