Changing from Kitas to Kitap and working!

[Ozric13]

Hi all

This has probably been asked a million times, but the laws here always seem to change, so am asking for 100% accuracy here as I don't want to make a mistake!

So I have been working for the same company for over 10 years, they always pay for my kitas and work permit, and now my kitas is up for renewal end of January, so got to get the process started now.

The agent handling my application has suggested I go over to a Kitap with my wife who is Indo as we have been married for 15 years, he states the Kitap is by your wife and the work permit would be sponsored and paid by my company.

So I need clarification if this is legal, as I don't want to make a mistake by switching to Kitap and then finding I have a problem working with my company or any future company for that matter.

All advice greatly appreciated and if anyone has the manpower law stating what's legal and what's not, extra appreciation.

Cheers Alan

 

[snpark]

Yes it's legal

 

[Teabag]

This has probably been asked a million times, but the laws here always seem to change, so am asking for 100% accuracy here as I don't want to make a mistake!

Then you may better ask your nearest immigration office and not an internet forum, just my 2 cents

 

[Helpful Herbert]

Yes it's legal and it has been done. It is also quite rare and new, and certain officials may not cooperate or be aware of it.

Since it involves both Immigration AND Manpower, you would have to go to both, if you want to ask directly. IMHO the Kitap/immigration part is easy. The work permit / manpower part is where a delay or complication might arise, so you can focus your efforts on that part. Another problem is that your company might have never done it before so they wouldn't know what to do.

I think there's a specific guideline, but I forget what it's called or who issued it.

 

[mas_dam]

The agent handling my application has suggested I go over to a Kitap with my wife who is Indo as we have been married for 15 years, he states the Kitap is by your wife and the work permit would be sponsored and paid by my company.

Unless something changed, you will need to first get a spouse sponsored KITAS, only then you can convert to KITAP afterwards. There is no process for direct KITAP issuance as far as I know.
As you are already holding a valid work KITAS, the correct process would be "Alih Sponsor/Penjamin" from work sponsored KITAS to spouse sponsered KITAS first.

You need to go to your specific immigration office and check what they are requesting and which letter template they use etc..
Also consider whether there is any change of the immigration office that will be in charge of you, i.e. if the company domicile is different than your wife's KTP domicile.

Below is just from google and as rough idea.:

Alih Penjamin/Sponsor - Kantor Imigrasi Kelas I Khusus TPI Ngurah Rai

imigrasingurahrai.kemenkumham.go.id

Alih Sponsor Izin Tinggal Terbatas (ITAS)

Sistem Informasi Pelayanan Publik

sippn.menpan.go.id

Since it involves both Immigration AND Manpower, you would have to go to both, if you want to ask directly. IMHO the Kitap/immigration part is easy. The work permit / manpower part is where a delay or complication might arise, so you can focus your efforts on that part. Another problem is that your company might have never done it before so they wouldn't know what to do.

There should be zero issue.
The work permit process comes before the immigration process with zero immigration involvement. Hence, the work permit process goes the same as always. The only difference is that you are done on corporate side the moment your work permit is issued instead of processing KITAS with immigration based on the work permit as 2nd step.
I think it is not relevant in your case, but for the records and future readers, please note that work permit validity will be maximum the validity of your spouse sponsored KITAS. It can be less than 12 months in this case on the first year until both run on the same rhythm.

Some agents might quote expensive for the Alih Sponsor process.. You seem to have a good relationship with your company. They will save on future annual KITAS costs. Worth having a chat about a possibility to have the company cover the expenses to get to 5 years KITAP.

(Spouse) KITAS to KITAP takes time. You will not complete Alih Status + KITAS to KITAP conversion until end of January. So either you go for Alih Status + New Spouse KITAS/extension and conversion afterwards, or you process another KITAS on company and do the Alih Status + KITAP conversion with plenty of time afterwards.
Keep in mind that you cannot leave Indonesia during KITAS to KITAP conversion! Your passport will be with immigration for min. 2 months.

ITK to Spouse Kitas Conversion

First off, I'm happy I finally found a forum for this. I wanted to see if anyone else was having the same problem or has had the same problem as me. Originally I had come to Indonesia on a 211b as that was the only visa available at the time so I could be with my wife. After that we...

www.expatindo.org

Your passport is with immigration during the process, so you cannot leave.


It will be very difficult for anyone to give you a realistic estimate other than what is already circulating here as different individual experiences. As you already mentioned, your local immigration office seems to be not the fastest, but the real delay/waiting time usually comes from Kanwil and Ditjenim/Directorate General of Immigration where the file is sent to.

Here is my experience Spouse KITAS to KITAP, South Jakarta, 2021/22:

H0 Application submitted
H1 Billing Code + Payment
Later this date became the backdated KITAP "issuance date" on the passport sticker. The actual KITAP does not display any issuance date, only expire date.
This date also became the issuance date of MERP/re-entry permit and base of 2 years validity of MERP.
H10 Immigration Interview Visit
H11 Kanim application letter (surat permohonan) to Kanwil with full file attached
H25
Later this date became the base for the calculation of the KITAP expiry date (+5 years).
I don't know what happened on this day, maybe some kind of pre-approval at Kanwil/Ditjenim.
(The MERP/re-entry expiry date still followed the issuance date (H1 +2 years) though, see above).
H71 Information that the Ditjenim process is completed and passport can be picked up on
H73 Pick-up of KITAP

The WA/contact numbers of Ditjenim that were provided by local immigration office (they even had a print-out) were completely useless. The number is simply not managed/there are either no replies or only copy&paste. It's even worse, you send the question (following procedure, incl. data like passport copy to identify yourself) at 9:00am, and they reply at 17:00pm that you contacted them out of office hours and should try again during office hours...

Starting H52 I started to follow-up to local immigration by sending screenshots of the attempts to contact Ditjenim on the provided WA number and asking them for updates. I don't know whether it triggered anything, but at least the local immigration did interact via WA.

Again, this is one individual experience, it can be totally different in other cases. I did not use any agent, all documents were 100% in order and bullet-proof, so no reasons to trigger any delays or questions

Once you are on Spousal KITAS/KITAP, you deal with manpower and immigration separately.
Jakarta Immigration doesn't care about legal work with work permit, they did not want to receive a report or my work permit on file when I checked with them.

See also this thread:

Company KITAS to wife KITAP questions

I can't get a clear answer from the agent my company uses, except that they will charge double the normal price they charge for a kitas extension including a change of sponsorship. I think this is exorbitant so I figured I'll just do it myself, my previous experience with immigration getting the...

www.expatindo.org

4.
There is no problem. As long as you continue to be compliant on the work permit side and your company does everything as they always did with Kemnaker (RPTKA, DPKK, Notifikasi, Laporan Keberadaan etc.) everything is fine. At least for South Jakarta Immigration (2020) there seems to be also no mechanism or need to report your work permit docs/the fact that you work on spousal KITAS to immigration.

This is of course completely separated from the discussion that can be found in other threads concerning the question what kind of work would be tolerable under spousal KITAS without work permit (almost none formal work).

 

[Ozric13]

Unless something changed, you will need to first get a spouse sponsored KITAS, only then you can convert to KITAP afterwards. There is no process for direct KITAP issuance as far as I know.
As you are already holding a valid work KITAS, the correct process would be "Alih Sponsor/Penjamin" from work sponsored KITAS to spouse sponsered KITAS first.

You need to go to your specific immigration office and check what they are requesting and which letter template they use etc..
Also consider whether there is any change of the immigration office that will be in charge of you, i.e. if the company domicile is different than your wife's KTP domicile.

Below is just from google and as rough idea.:

Alih Penjamin/Sponsor - Kantor Imigrasi Kelas I Khusus TPI Ngurah Rai

imigrasingurahrai.kemenkumham.go.id

Alih Sponsor Izin Tinggal Terbatas (ITAS)

Sistem Informasi Pelayanan Publik

sippn.menpan.go.id

There should be zero issue.
The work permit process comes before the immigration process with zero immigration involvement. Hence, the work permit process goes the same as always. The only difference is that you are done on corporate side the moment your work permit is issued instead of processing KITAS with immigration based on the work permit as 2nd step.
I think it is not relevant in your case, but for the records and future readers, please note that work permit validity will be maximum the validity of your spouse sponsored KITAS. It can be less than 12 months in this case on the first year until both run on the same rhythm.

Some agents might quote expensive for the Alih Sponsor process.. You seem to have a good relationship with your company. They will save on future annual KITAS costs. Worth having a chat about a possibility to have the company cover the expenses to get to 5 years KITAP.

(Spouse) KITAS to KITAP takes time. You will not complete Alih Status + KITAS to KITAP conversion until end of January. So either you go for Alih Status + New Spouse KITAS/extension and conversion afterwards, or you process another KITAS on company and do the Alih Status + KITAP conversion with plenty of time afterwards.
Keep in mind that you cannot leave Indonesia during KITAS to KITAP conversion! Your passport will be with immigration for min. 2 months.

ITK to Spouse Kitas Conversion

First off, I'm happy I finally found a forum for this. I wanted to see if anyone else was having the same problem or has had the same problem as me. Originally I had come to Indonesia on a 211b as that was the only visa available at the time so I could be with my wife. After that we...

www.expatindo.org

Once you are on Spousal KITAS/KITAP, you deal with manpower and immigration separately.
Jakarta Immigration doesn't care about legal work with work permit, they did not want to receive a report or my work permit on file when I checked with them.

See also this thread:

Company KITAS to wife KITAP questions

I can't get a clear answer from the agent my company uses, except that they will charge double the normal price they charge for a kitas extension including a change of sponsorship. I think this is exorbitant so I figured I'll just do it myself, my previous experience with immigration getting the...

www.expatindo.org

Thank you Mas-Dam

Really nice information, cheers