Process started: 4 August. Process completed: 26 October.
I have recently gone through the process to convert my spouse-sponsored ITAS to the 5-year ITAP in Surabaya. Given a lot of out-dated, wrong and confusing information on the Internet, I thought it may be worthwhile to share my experience on the process and requirements. Keep in mind the below is true for my case (Aug-Oct 2020) in Surabaya – it is highly likely that this will change and may be different in other locations.
For anyone that has questions, do feel free to contact me directly.
Background
For those of you that don’t know me or us, my wife is Indonesian and we married in 2017. Thus, I’ve had three KITAS already, with the most recent one expiring in October 2020. Now, in August 2020, I am applying for the ITAS-ITAP conversion. You can apply maximum 3 months before your current visa/permit expires. You don’t necessarily need to hold an ITAS already; the key requirement is that you have been married for a minimum of 2 years, although on my second ITAS the local immigration recommended to better wait one more year, “just in case” and because ITAP goes to the central Government, not only local immigration. Given I was regularly flying in and out of the country, and the ITAP process may take a while, I gladly did another ITAS first.
Documents required
- Forms 24 & 27 (see below, click for large)
- Statement and guarantee letter from spouse + Request for ITAS-ITAP conversion letter from spouse + Statement of integration for conversion ITAS-ITAP (see templates below, click for large). We didn’t use the forms directly, but made our own in Word, following the same formatting, printed and signed. On both statement letters we also added a stamp (meterai).
- Spouse’s KTP (id card)
- Spouse’s KK (family card)
- Marriage certificate
- Marriage report to the consulate
- Foreign marriage certificate
- SKTT
- Original and copy of passport and visa
- Foto 3×4, red background (better have more than 1, in our case the officer took 2)
Cost
While online I kept seeing 3.5m IDR, the official pricelist in Surabaya showed 5m IDR. The total cost for the ITAP+MERP (Multiple Exit Re-Entry Permit) was 5+1.75 = 6.75m IDR. The MERP will be valid for 2 years, and thus needs to be renewed then, while the ITAP will be valid for 5 years.
After submitting the the documents you will be given a payment slip with QR code. You can either pay cash outside at the Mobil Pos van, directly at the bank or via mobile banking. The officers did not recommend mobile banking, fearing it could “get stuck”. Our take was that they may not be sufficiently familiar with mobile banking, and it worked for us without any issue.
Process
- Make sure you have all documents ready. We brought originals and copies of everything, though they only kept the original passports and didn’t even look at the other originals (marriage certificate etc.). That said, I’d still bring it, since requirements famously always change depending on which person handles the case.
- You can fill in the two forms directly there, and put it all in the yellow binder they provide you, on which you put your name, address and phone number.
- Once submitted, you are given the payslip to pay and an appointment to take a photo and have an interview.
- In my case, we confirmed all requirements on Tue, 4 August, submitted all documents on Wed, 5 August and got the appointment for 10am on Fri, 7 August.
- On the appointment, you have to take a photo, provide your fingerprints and your digital signature. The interview was with “the boss”, and did not consist of an interview at all, but rather her informing us of the next steps, of which the next one is awaiting a phone call to arrange a home visit.
- “The boss” also informed us that after the home visit we would need to go to the ‘East Java Regional Office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights’. As of yet, we’re not sure for what. She also said that if we want the process to be faster, she recommends we fly to Jakarta to bring the passport+documents ourselves directly, as the mailing process apparently takes time. We will check further with the staff on this to see what we will do.
- I received a call on Monday (Aug 10) at noon asking if a home visit in one hour would be ok. Given I wasn’t home, I said that is not possible and we agreed to the next day in the afternoon.
- The home visit was very straight forward: one photo in front of the main door with the immigration officer, and another in front of the main gate. Two officers were present and asked whether I worked here, and how long my wife and we have been living in the house. No other questions or interviews occurred.
- After this, I didn’t hear anything for 2 weeks. On Aug 25, we decided to finally call the immigration office again and ask about a status update. They advised us to come visit to ask about the status update… so on Aug 26, Wednesday, we went and asked. We were advised once again to come back two days later on Friday, to pick up all the documents and then go to the other office (see point 6), for another “application”. What exactly that entails, we still don’t know. It appeared a bit like they didn’t do anything for two weeks, and only because we came and asked, things move forward… It also turns out the application number required to check the progress online is on the payment slip you receive on the first day – so make sure unlike us, you don’t throw that away. On the payment slip it mentions it as “No. Permohonan”.
- On August 28 we picked up two sets of documents. One set had to be submitted to the Office of Law & Human Rights, the other is to be sent to Jakarta, once we get another letter from the Office of Law & Human Rights. We directly went to the Office to submit one set of documents and were advised to pick up their recommendation letter on Sep 2 (3 working days).
- On Sep 2, we received a Whatsapp message that the document was ready. We picked up the letter and added it to the second set of documents, to be sent to Jakarta directly. We need to send it (or deliver it to Jakarta) ourselves. Not sure whether that has anything to do with Covid and reduced capacity… We are sending it with courier, while our staff in Jakarta will deliver it in person to the immigration office. Meanwhile, my passport stays in Surabaya and the office here should, within 10 days of receipt in Jakarta, receive the approval (digital, surprisingly!) to then proceed with the KITAP issuance.
- Update Sep 15: it turns out the Jakarta immigration office was closed (due to COVID?). We had to send all the papers back here, scan them and email them to the Jakarta immigration office instead (info.direktorat.intalkim@gmail.com). It took us several attempts to get this email address (the phone number didn’t work, of course… so we tried via Instagram, Twitter, and Whatsapp). So, another two weeks wasted of just ‘back and forth’, and currently awaiting confirmation how and when my papers would be processed. If I’m lucky this will be the last step and they will simply approve for KITAP issuance in Surabaya next. Let’s see!
- After a long silence, and regularly checking online (the online tracking system works again, provided the relevant officers actually update the status, which was mostly not the case…) and via Whatsapp, on 23 October (Friday) we finally received a Whatsapp message that the KITAP was approved. On Monday, 26 October I picked it up.
The KITAP is valid 5 years from time of issuance (21 October 2020 – 15 October 2025), while the MERP is valid 2 years from time of application (until 05 August 2022). - So, overall it took basically three months. Next step now is to obtain the KTP-OA which should be a matter of a day or two.
This is what the “e-KITAP” card looks like:
PS: the status of the application can be checked online here and here, using the application number (No. Permohonan) stated on the original payment slip. Not sure what the difference between the two systems is. In my case, the status showed different things in both systems.