Newman H. Waters

I thought that I would pose a question to the board on the off chance that
someone has experience with getting police clearance from Indonesia. General
advice might be helpful as well. I'll have to give a little background to
explain our situation, so here goes. I'm American and my wife is a Chinese
citizen born and raised in Indonesia. She moved from Indonesia to the US in
2001 and all of her Indonesian documents have since expired. We've tried
working with an immigration agent in Indonesia and have contacted the police
department as well, but haven't gotten anywhere. They all seem to indicate
that she must go through a long process to renew her Indonesian residency
before there is any chance that this letter could be obtained. She isn't
moving back to Indonesia, so this doesn't make any sense. The Chinese
embassy in Jakarta won't answer the phone or reply to our correspondence, so
we've had no luck getting a letter of introduction from them as described in
Form 47P.

At this point, I don't know what else to do. We have to turn in our medicals
and police clearances by Sept. 4th. I have the medical reports and US police
certificates to submit, but we've hit a brick wall in trying to obtain the
Indonesian clearance for her. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do
in this case? Any chance that DIMIA would accept an affidavit stating the
steps we've taken to obtain the clearance and our lack of success in doing
so? We would hate for our application to be denied solely on the basis of
failing to meet this formality. I'm afraid there is no good alternative at
this point.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Newman

Englishmum

    > I thought that I would pose a question to the board on the off chance
    > that
    > someone has experience with getting police clearance from Indonesia.
    > General
    > advice might be helpful as well. I'll have to give a little background
    > to
    > explain our situation, so here goes. I'm American and my wife is a
    > Chinese
    > citizen born and raised in Indonesia. She moved from Indonesia to the
    > US in
    > 2001 and all of her Indonesian documents have since expired. We've
    > tried
    > working with an immigration agent in Indonesia and have contacted the
    > police
    > department as well, but haven't gotten anywhere. They all seem to
    > indicate
    > that she must go through a long process to renew her Indonesian
    > residency
    > before there is any chance that this letter could be obtained. She
    > isn't
    > moving back to Indonesia, so this doesn't make any sense. The Chinese
    > embassy in Jakarta won't answer the phone or reply to our
    > correspondence, so
    > we've had no luck getting a letter of introduction from them as
    > described in
    > Form 47P.
    > At this point, I don't know what else to do. We have to turn in our
    > medicals
    > and police clearances by Sept. 4th. I have the medical reports and US
    > police
    > certificates to submit, but we've hit a brick wall in trying to obtain
    > the
    > Indonesian clearance for her. Does anyone have any suggestions on what
    > to do
    > in this case? Any chance that DIMIA would accept an affidavit stating
    > the
    > steps we've taken to obtain the clearance and our lack of success in
    > doing
    > so? We would hate for our application to be denied solely on the basis
    > of
    > failing to meet this formality. I'm afraid there is no good
    > alternative at
    > this point.
    > Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
    > Newman

The big problem with Indonesia is that the whole country (from the
government down) is rife with corruption. You will probably have to
offer a bribe to get the police clearance...I kid you not.

I suggest you try this expat site for Indonesia which has a busy
messageboard used by Western expats living there, as well as locals:

http://www.expat.or.id

PS. Another problem may be that your wife is ethnic Chinese. I remember
in the late 1990s when thousands of Chinese Indonesians were being
massacred in some Indonesian provinces and had to flee to
Singapore...there was/is a lot of jealousy as the Chinese are in the
minority in Indonesia but they're more productive and businesslike
ie. far wealthier than the native Indonesians. I'm just wondering if
with your wife being Chinese, you're getting no luck with trying to
get the police clearance. However, I still tend to take the view
that someone wants their hands palmed with more than silver!!!!

Newman H. Waters

Well, I'd have to say that your comments are spot on. I did speak with
several Aussie expats on the board that you mentioned before posting my
question here. They offered their sympathy, but couldn't offer much beyond
that. In regards to the corruption, I'm well aware of that fact. Bribes are
standard operating procedure over there. Government agents generally have
the official price list for any services as well as an "unofficial" price
list that must be paid if you actually want the service performed. The
immigration agent that we worked with regularly deals with this. However,
they were still unable to get them to back away from the requirement she
renew her residency first, taking an unknown number of months and expense.

In regards to ethnicity, my wife pretty well faced institutional
discrimination for the duration of her life there when dealing with the
government. She was routinely denied services unless she submitted to
outright extortion. I believe that her ethnicity has everything to do with
our lack of success in getting the police clearance. Perhaps if we're lucky,
our DIMIA case officer will have some sympathy re: our explanation. We'll
see.

Newman
    > The big problem with Indonesia is that the whole country (from the
    > government down) is rife with corruption. You will probably have to
    > offer a bribe to get the police clearance...I kid you not.
    >
    > I suggest you try this expat site for Indonesia which has a busy
    > messageboard used by Western expats living there, as well as locals:
    >
    > http://www.expat.or.id
    >
    > PS. Another problem may be that your wife is ethnic Chinese. I remember
    > in the late 1990s when thousands of Chinese Indonesians were being
    > massacred in some Indonesian provinces and had to flee to
    > Singapore...there was/is a lot of jealousy as the Chinese are in the
    > minority in Indonesia but they're more productive and businesslike
    > ie. far wealthier than the native Indonesians. I'm just wondering if
    > with your wife being Chinese, you're getting no luck with trying to
    > get the police clearance. However, I still tend to take the view
    > that someone wants their hands palmed with more than silver!!!!