For variety and so we’re not talking about stay permits all the time, my question today how have people reacted when they know you’re an “ex”?
Mostly referring to situations when it’s unavoidable to show documents that reveal you’re an “ex”.
For me, I’ve received the following reactions:
-Unfazed. People at the immigration office, people at AHU’s citizenship and my agent fall in this category. Office HR and RT/RW/Kelurahan (when they’ve become used to me and my various admin/immigration issues). They’ve gotten to a point where it’s not a shock anymore.
-Judgmental/hostile/unfriendly. Thankfully a very small minority has given me this reaction but it doesn’t make it any less unpleasant. Immigration passport stampers at the airport have been my only source of less than pleasant reactions. Have never made it through international departure or arrival without a judgmental look.
-The people who think you live a glamorous life. “You must really have an interesting life”, said a bank teller to me once.
-The people who have family members who have become WNA. This turned out to be the reason why the guy at the Catatan Sipil that processed my wedding certificate was so pleasant towards me and ended up keeping me an extra 30 mins to share his brother’s experiences overseas.
-The majority undoubtedly belong to the “struggle to process” it category. I have no doubt it has something to do with the fact that here I am speaking Indonesian but I have a foreigner’s documents. This normally manifests itself in taking longer than usual to read your documents.
Sometimes they have to keep things moving (check in counters and when boardingn at airports) and don’t have the time to react.
Sometimes they will become cautious and consult with superiors (bank tellers) to make sure that they will do the right thing when handling a WNA.
Sometimes they will try to improvise such as my RT years ago, who without any reference to anyone, said that it’s perfectly ok for a WNA to have an E-KTP (it’s not). With these types, you must repeat over and over the following question “I am a WNA, are you sure that what you’re telling me is okay for me to do?”
How have your experiences been?
Mostly referring to situations when it’s unavoidable to show documents that reveal you’re an “ex”.
For me, I’ve received the following reactions:
-Unfazed. People at the immigration office, people at AHU’s citizenship and my agent fall in this category. Office HR and RT/RW/Kelurahan (when they’ve become used to me and my various admin/immigration issues). They’ve gotten to a point where it’s not a shock anymore.
-Judgmental/hostile/unfriendly. Thankfully a very small minority has given me this reaction but it doesn’t make it any less unpleasant. Immigration passport stampers at the airport have been my only source of less than pleasant reactions. Have never made it through international departure or arrival without a judgmental look.
-The people who think you live a glamorous life. “You must really have an interesting life”, said a bank teller to me once.
-The people who have family members who have become WNA. This turned out to be the reason why the guy at the Catatan Sipil that processed my wedding certificate was so pleasant towards me and ended up keeping me an extra 30 mins to share his brother’s experiences overseas.
-The majority undoubtedly belong to the “struggle to process” it category. I have no doubt it has something to do with the fact that here I am speaking Indonesian but I have a foreigner’s documents. This normally manifests itself in taking longer than usual to read your documents.
Sometimes they have to keep things moving (check in counters and when boardingn at airports) and don’t have the time to react.
Sometimes they will become cautious and consult with superiors (bank tellers) to make sure that they will do the right thing when handling a WNA.
Sometimes they will try to improvise such as my RT years ago, who without any reference to anyone, said that it’s perfectly ok for a WNA to have an E-KTP (it’s not). With these types, you must repeat over and over the following question “I am a WNA, are you sure that what you’re telling me is okay for me to do?”
How have your experiences been?