I had to travel to Kupang yesterday to report to immigration today. Due to the surgery I had a special dispensation and had not had to report to the office within 7 days of arrival in Indonesia but they would not extend beyond today. As I am resident in Rote which is covered by the Kupang office this is where I have to report to have my photograph, fingerprints and signature captured electronically; in addition I had to sign some documents, answer lots of questions and provide official photographs of myself in a selection of sizes
– official photographs are taken against a red background. The whole process took about 90 minutes and involved 4 offices and 5 officials plus our agent. After all this my KITAS was still not ready but will be issued in 3 or 4 days – fortunately Sam is in Kupang and can pick these up on my behalf. This was a very expensive trip for VSO but they have had much more expense associated with a change in the immigration legislation where every foreigner has to report to the immigration office where their social visa is extended within 90 days of arrival in Indonesia. This meant over 30 volunteers having to be flown from placement to Jakarta and back – for most involving at least one overnight stay – this close to the end of the financial year it must have been a nightmare. In future volunteers will fly back from Singapore via Jakarta – unless they have a VITAS so will not be quite as much additional expense. Amazingly one of the women I have got to know at church – because she works for an Australian NGO she speaks very good English and had been sent to befriend me – was staying in the same hotel and talked to me over breakfast.
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