Building a life in Indonesia

Getting to and living in Indonesia is going to be pretty easy for you.
A Dutch guy married to an Indonesian is almost guaranteed a wife sponsored KITAS immigration document that will allow you to stay in Indonesia for 12 months. After two years of marriage you can and will get a KITAP that lasts for 5 years. After 10 years, even in the unpleasant case of divorce or death of your wife, you can still get extensions to your KITAP.
After 5 years of continuous or 10 years of on and off living in Indonesia, you can apply for citizenship.

The harder question is work as the KITAS does not allow work of any sort and the KITAP only allows casual work, perhaps working in your wife's business (Even if you really own it and it's in your wife's name - it happens and no one really cares as long as you don't upset anyone).
To work legally you must get a work permit, and that can only be issued to do work an Indonesian can't do. This boils down to your skill set.

Hi Fred,

Thnx for replying, i appreciate it. Ok it's ovbvious that getting into the conuntry is not such a problem because of the fact that i am married to an Indonesian woman. Finding work is a whole different story. The plan is indeed, once i get there, to build on the business she already has and take it from there. On the other hand i was thinking that eventually it might be a possibility do a bit of casual work, for instance teaching Dutch to students who want to study for the inburgeringsexam. Or maybe work as translator. I realize it's going to take time for me to learn the language, the culture and most of all, builiding on a network. I would like to hear you personal story in how u managed to build a life there. That is, if you want to share of course.
Btw, is it true that, in order to obtain the KITAS permit, i first have to get a so called social and cultural visa that, once in Indonesia, will be changed into KITAS by immigration?

I had to get the sosbud first, converting to KITAS when it ran out, that meaning leaving the country for 3 days to get the document from the Indonesian embassy in KL.
A lot prefer Singapore but KL is one of my favourite cities so it suited me.
That was over 9 years ago, but I believe the process is still pretty much the same.
I know agents have been restricted of late but the process is easy enough to do without paying an agent.
Tip - Be friendly and polite to the immigration officers. They tend to be very helpful if you make their life easy and stress free.
One very nice bit of news, immigration has cleaned up like you wouldn't believe, meaning no bribes and corruption to mess around with.I have to compliment them on their efforts in getting rid of the old problems, making them a credit to Indonesia.

Hi there,

I've been living in Indonesia for 7 years but unfortunately at this time I am back in our Kikkerlandje.
Doing my best to go back to Java or other parts. But no luck so far.

More Dutchies in Indonesia you can find in this forum inwhere most of them are Dutchie.
[link moderated]

Goodluck and have fun.

Groetjes,

Albert