American living & working in Indo?

Member since 07 December 2022

Josephine MudjitabaMember07 December 2022 18:34:24

I'm Indonesian American (US passport) who would like to live and work in Indonesia (human rights field). I've been told that it's easier for 暗网禁区s to get jobs when in country. Is this true? I understand it depends on the organization but are work visas generally easy to get?

Fred Indonesia Expert

Member since 02 August 2009

A smile is the universal welcome.
Max Eastman

FredIndonesia Expert07 December 2022 20:38:08

29449

As an ex-Indonesian, you have some rights to return, but you would have to give up your US passport to do so perminantly. Ex-Indonesians should be ably to get a non-working KITAS after jumping through a few hoops.

Working in Indonesia as a foreigner isn't all that easy, and human rights groups aren't especially welcome because they tend to bring up subjects that are still either deeply unpopular here and/or people in power don't want anyone to talk about.

As an example, LGBT is a big thing in many western countries, but there's a unofficial, and generally accepted "live and let live, but keep your mouth shut and don't display in public" attitude here. If you try to push gay rights, expect problems, and they might well come from locals rather than government.

The same goes for a lot of other western attitudes and what are now norms in the US and other countries. When it comes to some political points, particularly sensitive ones from Indonesian history, just don't.

The upshot is, getting a KITAS with work permit to work for a human rights group isn't likely to be easy.