Use of immigration agents in Indonesia abolished

[centurion]

Use of immigration agents in Indonesia is abolished effective from today and all agents licences are cancelled.

http://imigrasibengkulu.com/penertiban-layanan-keimigrasian/


Any comments or opinions? Is this good or bad?

 

[Puspawarna]

Hmm...your site is the Bengkulu kanim. Is it just them, or the entire nation?

ETA - looks like they are quoting a national regulation in the second paragraph, although I have never seen a law or regulation written quite like that before so I am still confused.

 

[centurion]

Some japanese/korean agency has a document on its website for the Dirjen`s decision

http://fpc-indonesia.co.id/wp-conte...PUTUSAN_DIRJEN_IMIGRASI_IMI_1933_PR_07_04.pdf

 

[Puspawarna]

Yup, that looks like the real thing. Live and learn - I have never before seen "IMI" as an identifier before; I'm used to UU, PP, Perpres, Keppres, etc.

Well, overall I would say that from the perspective of expats who are used to having someone else hold their hand through the process, this is at the least an inconvenience. But I can't speak to whether it might be a good thing in terms of corruption reduction. That is obviously far more important than the grumblings of a few expats.

 

[Davita]

Yup, that looks like the real thing. Live and learn - I have never before seen "IMI" as an identifier before; I'm used to UU, PP, Perpres, Keppres, etc.

Well, overall I would say that from the perspective of expats who are used to having someone else hold their hand through the process, this is at the least an inconvenience. But I can't speak to whether it might be a good thing in terms of corruption reduction. That is obviously far more important than the grumblings of a few expats.

I wonder how that will effect those applying for a retirement Kitas/Kitap who are mandated to use an agent.

There are going to be a lot of people losing their jobs and businesses. Nearly every street downtown Bali has an immigration agent's shingle dangling.

 

[fastpitch17]

I wonder how that will effect those applying for a retirement Kitas/Kitap who are mandated to use an agent.

There are going to be a lot of people losing their jobs and businesses. Nearly every street downtown Bali has an immigration agent's shingle dangling.

I doubt they will look at them as agents when I believe they look at them as required sponsors.

 

[fastpitch17]

I think all this will end up putting more people in the immigration offices. Especial Foreigner Services.

 

[Davita]

I doubt they will look at them as agents when I believe they look at them as required sponsors.

I doubt if my agent's business would be viable if only concerned with retirement visas.
My agent IS a retired Senior Immigration Officer...highly unlikely he'd want to return unless he's the boss.....:lol:

 

[Euc-]

What about companies employing foreigners? All those expats now would have to go through he entire bureaucracy nightmare themselves, quite a few without even able to speak a word of the language? (new arrivals etc)

What a way to encourage foreign investment..

 

[Euc-]

Edit.. So I just read point 3..

Permohonan layanan keimigrasian terhadap orang asing dapat dilakukan oleh penjamin atau penanggung jawab orang asing yang bersangkutan

"oleh penjamin atau penanggung jawab", so the guarantor/sponsor OR the responsible person/person in charge of that foreigner is still allowed to do things on behalf of. Guess companies now just put an agent on the payroll and everything continues as normal.

 

[Anglian]

Edit.. So I just read point 3..



"oleh penjamin atau penanggung jawab", so the guarantor/sponsor OR the responsible person/person in charge of that foreigner is still allowed to do things on behalf of. Guess companies now just put an agent on the payroll and everything continues as normal.

Bit of excitement there for a moment, but back to same o same o, what nut makes these rules

 

[nd_eric_77]

Edit.. So I just read point 3..



"oleh penjamin atau penanggung jawab", so the guarantor/sponsor OR the responsible person/person in charge of that foreigner is still allowed to do things on behalf of. Guess companies now just put an agent on the payroll and everything continues as normal.

plus ça change...

 

[centurion]

Imigrasi asks business card if the company is a sponsor, so if you come very often in name of various companies they will notice that you are an agent.
Bur the rules are really made by dumbos-one step forward two steps back.

 

[Davita]

My Indonesian sux but below is a google translate.
Therefore, I'm not so sure I'd interpret that it abolishes all registered agents. It seems to me it's getting rid of all those 'tucan helpers' who had access to Imigrasi officials thru' graft.
I've used those people myself....and registered agents also use them to jump line-ups....so maybe that's what's being eliminated. ...but I could be wrong,
This would be in agreement with the Govt's recent stated policy to be more transparent.

Control of Immigration Services
To realize the immigration service that is clean, efficient, effective and non-discriminatory, as well as support for government efforts to eliminate illegal fees in all government agencies, the Directorate General of Immigration to take steps to curb the services Immigration, both the service request Passport RI, granting or renewal of licenses stay of foreigners and other immigration services.
This is confirmed by the Director General of Immigration No. IMI-1933.PR.07.04 dated November 07, 2016 on curbing In Immigration Service, which among other things point that the immigration service should be carried out by a professional, accountable, synergies, transparent, innovative, timely, cost, precise requirements, simple, straightforward and free of illegal fees.
Implementation of immigration services conducted on an individual be arranged in the order with queue numbers wherever possible this first first out. It is prohibited to discriminate the service by giving precedence, delay, accelerate reason levies, gifts, gift in any form.
Against persons with disabilities, the elderly, pregnant women and nursing mothers can be given priority service in accordance with the legislation.
It is not allowed to mention there bureau / committee conducting immigration services at the Immigration, license bureau operation / management of immigration services which have been published otherwise revoked and dinyatan not apply.

 

[centurion]

My Indonesian sux but below is a google translate.
Therefore, I'm not so sure I'd interpret that it abolishes all registered agents. It seems to me it's getting rid of all those 'tucan helpers' who had access to Imigrasi officials thru' graft.
I've used those people myself....and registered agents also use them to jump line-ups....so maybe that's what's being eliminated. ...but I could be wrong,
This would be in agreement with the Govt's recent stated policy to be more transparent.

Control of Immigration Services
To realize the immigration service that is clean, efficient, effective and non-discriminatory, as well as support for government efforts to eliminate illegal fees in all government agencies, the Directorate General of Immigration to take steps to curb the services Immigration, both the service request Passport RI, granting or renewal of licenses stay of foreigners and other immigration services.
This is confirmed by the Director General of Immigration No. IMI-1933.PR.07.04 dated November 07, 2016 on curbing In Immigration Service, which among other things point that the immigration service should be carried out by a professional, accountable, synergies, transparent, innovative, timely, cost, precise requirements, simple, straightforward and free of illegal fees.
Implementation of immigration services conducted on an individual be arranged in the order with queue numbers wherever possible this first first out. It is prohibited to discriminate the service by giving precedence, delay, accelerate reason levies, gifts, gift in any form.
Against persons with disabilities, the elderly, pregnant women and nursing mothers can be given priority service in accordance with the legislation.
It is not allowed to mention there bureau / committee conducting immigration services at the Immigration, license bureau operation / management of immigration services which have been published otherwise revoked and dinyatan not apply.

In article 5 it is said that all operational licences for immigration services are declared revoked and not valid any more .
In article 6 it is forbidden issuance of new operational licences.

This is typical Indonesian bureaucrat mentality: blame the others. Maybe upset from recent controls in other ministries where raids were conducted and government officials are immediately arrested, Dirjen Imigrasi decided to prevent any possibility to receive money from agents and avoid disgrace by some raid in the future. So the agents are guilty because they give money. But problem is not in agents but in corrupt officials racketeering agents on a daily basis. This is mostly a regular practice and agents mostly accept this as a usual thing and mostly don`t complain which is theirs fault as well.
Racketeering usually does not happens if you apply directly as a sponsor company or spouse sponsor WNI.

The Dirjen decision will make chaos especially for sponsor companies that are out of Jakarta or Java previously engaging agents so they didn`t need to come to Jakarta.Now they have to come in person to pay the official VITAS fee. The process will be less corrupt but more expensive-absurd. There is around 300-500 application for VITAS every day so let`s see what will be the effect.

 

[Davita]

If registered agents were no longer available for the purpose of getting Retirement Visas this could be a serious situation for foreigners.....unless some other provision was made.
Has anyone seen any more info that the Immigration Dept. has revoked all registered Immigration Agents Permits.
I've searched and cannot find anything other than the two links provided on this thread.

 

[centurion]

Retirement visas are sponsored by authorised travel agencies for elders, so in this case they should apply directly as a sponsor.
Immigration agents usually applied for these retirement visas trough cooperation and with guarantee/sponsor letters of these travel agencies.

 

[Davita]

Retirement visas are sponsored by authorised travel agencies for elders, so in this case they should apply directly as a sponsor.
Immigration agents usually applied for these retirement visas trough cooperation and with guarantee/sponsor letters of these travel agencies.

That is wrong information centurian...I have a retirement Kitap and very familiar with the agent who owns his own Registered Immigration Agency to provide this visa. His Company employs well over 20 employees and even has lawyers on the payroll.

If he was only allowed to sponsor me and other retirees.....he would be out of business.

It is true there are Agents who advertise but they aren't registered as agents...those are the ones I believe are being cancelled.

 

[centurion]

The specialised and authorised tourist agency issues your guarantee letter and biro jasa keimigrasian just handles your application.
Usually biro jasa has cooperation with these tourist agencies if they want to handle retirees.

I think this provision is still valid for retirees:

"Surat Permohonan dan jaminan serta keterangan identitas dariBiro Perjalanan Wisata sebagai sponsor"

These specialised tourist agencies have licence for handling elders from the Ministry of Tourism, there is maybe 10 or 20 of them.

 

[Smallworld]

I doubt if my agent's business would be viable if only concerned with retirement visas.
My agent IS a retired Senior Immigration Officer...highly unlikely he'd want to return unless he's the boss.....:lol:

Not only it is about being your own boss but also ... money.
What he was paid while working as Imigration officer vs what he was/is paid as an agent.... with one or two KITAP he has got more money than he could get in one year working in the office.