How to volunteer legally in Indonesia

Matthew Brealey
8 min readMar 30, 2021

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Unfortunately there is a lot of incorrect information online about Indonesian law including about volunteering.

For example I read this article, which is incorrect about the law. It suggests that you need a KITAS (which should be called ‘ITAS’, as the ‘kartu’, or card has now been abolished, and it is now an electronic ITAS).

The main ways a foreigner can be legally present in Indonesia are:

  • a visitor stay permit (ITK) -a visitor permit
  • a limited (sometimes ‘temporary’) stay permit (ITAS) — a residence permit usually for 1 year
  • a permanent stay permit (ITAP) — a residence permit usually for 5 years, makes the holder subject of a KTP (identity card)

Note the word ‘present’. The stay permit (‘izin tinggal’) is a permit to be in Indonesia, which is different from the permit to enter in Indonesia, which normally takes the form of a visa. When you enter Indonesia via an immigration checkpoint, then you will either already have a visa, buy a visa, or most of the time enter on a visa waiver (visa-free entry). The exception is for residents (ITAS/ITAP), who have an annual (or longer) re-entry permit (izin masuk kembali). The stay permit is issued at the airport in accordance with the visa you obtained.

The simplest way to enter (assuming there are no Covid-related shutdowns etc.) is using a Visa Waiver.

This allows the following activities to be performed (as defined in Permenkumham 27/2014, article 6):

  1. tourism;
  2. family;
  3. social;
  4. art and culture;
  5. government visit;
  6. business talks;
  7. buy goods;
  8. attend a seminar;
  9. attend an international exhibition;
  10. attend a meeting in head office or sub-office in Indonesia;
  11. to continue a journey to another country; and
  12. join Means of Transport in Indonesian Territory [this refers to crew on board a ship/aircraft]

This is an exhaustive list of activities, and you have a visitor stay permit which allows you to do any of those activities.

What happens if you don’t comply with this? Here is where the fun starts.

The immigration law, 6/2011, explains that immigration have a duty to perform ‘field oversight’, which means that they (not the police) are responsible for responding to reports about immigration-related activities of foreigners. And, Article 83 of that law creates an administrative (not criminal) sanction to simply remove a foreigner who has broken the law, or who threatens security and public order. This administrative sanction essentially means detention followed by deportation. This Article was employed to remove a foreigner who had promoted moving to Indonesia during the covid-19 pandemic, and who had said Indonesia was LGBT-friendly, actions which were deemed to have broken this article, as being not in accordance with the norms and customs of Bali in promoting such activities. There is a second Article, Article 122, which says that using a stay permit other than in accordance with its ‘purposes and objectives’ is a criminal offence, which can be prosecuted, or simply used as a reason for deportation under Article 83.

There is therefore widespread discretion to remove a foreigner from Indonesia, if they are causing a disturbance. How does this affect foreigners? Voluntourism is an activity widely criticised across the world. For example, a group of foreigners coming to Indonesia to build a school can be perceived as taking jobs away from Indonesian builders. This can be seen as causing disorder. In addition, a foreigner running a dog sanctuary with 100 barking dogs, could be judged to be causing a nuisance, and many Indonesians dislike dogs, for religious reasons. Often foreigners have different perspectives on voluntary work and charity work from Indonesians. Indonesia is known for ‘gotong royong’, which is mutual cooperation for mutual benefit (i.e. mine and yours). For example, clearing an irrigation canal to allow rice fields to grow would be an activity performed by Indonesians in gotong royong.

Foreigners performing volunteer activities in any particular field may be in contradiction with the values of the community. That is not to say this is always the case, but it can be.

When foreigners are seen to be ‘working’, this nearly always causes disquiet. In addition, many volunteer project are run by other foreigners often without a proper legal structure (a yayasan) in place, and using unsuitable labour, which is poorly managed and often overpaid. These factors lead to disquiet in the community as people are jealous of local staff perceived to be making excessive profits. Such factors can lead to a report to immigration that the project and its staff and/or volunteers are breaching security and order and/or misusing a stay permit.

The latter of these is unlikely, in that volunteer work is ‘social’. something confirmed on government websites. If we compare the activity of volunteering to ‘tourism’, then tourism is a commonplace activity involving going from place to place, taking photographs, etc. A tourist behaving like a normal tourist cannot really possibly be said to be ‘misusing’, nor ‘threatening public order’, in that tourist comings and goings are a normal part of life. For a volunteer, this is quite different as they will be in one place sometimes for a long period of time, might be involved in disputes with local staff, etc., and there is potential for disturbance.

For this reason, when involved in volunteering that is for anything more than a day or two, it is advisable to have a clear positive permission. This means that if immigration asks questions, you can point to the way in which your visit has been arranged.

The first step would be to only volunteer for a registered yayasan (foundation). If there is no yayasan, then avoid. The next would be to get a positive visit visa, instead of using a visa waiver. If you apply for a visit visa (there is no such thing as a specific ‘tourist visa’, there is only ‘visit visa waiver’, plus ‘visit visa for tourist purposes’, in the case where you specify that in advance), then if your purpose is NOT stated as tourism, then you must have a ‘sponsor’, which is any Indonesian body or person who vouches for your presence. For example a foreigner staying with their Indonesian parents for 2 months, who applies for a visitor visa should tick the box ‘family’ on the visa application form. In this case the appropriate sponsor is their Indonesian family member.

The reason to get a positive visit visa is that it makes it clear what you intend to do, so in case of dispute you can point to the way in which you have arranged your visit. In Indonesia it is customary to send formal letters before making a visit, and such letters will go a long way to show respect for customs and values.

There are five different visit visas:

  • Single Entry Visit Visa ($50) Code B211A — which largely resembles the ‘visa waiver’, but adds the activities of ‘urgent and necessary work’, ‘non-commercial sport’, ‘comparative study, short course or training’.
  • Single Entry Visit Visa ($50) Code B211B — especially for industrial visits, for process improvement, quality control, and candidate for foreign worker as a trial period. Also allows activities under B211A
  • Single Entry Visit ($50) Code B211C — journalism or non-commercial film making, both of which require separate permits from the relevant government agency. Also allows activities under B211A.
  • Visit Visa On Arrival B213 — costs 500,000rp at the airport, and is the same as B211A
  • Multiple Entry Visit Visa D212 — costs $110 per year for 5 years, and resembles the visa waiver in activities, but not for use for tourism, nor airline crew.

The visas B211B, B211C and D212 require special permission, whereas B211A can be issued directly overseas at an Embassy or Consulate.

It can be seen that there is not a big difference between the B211A visa and the visa waiver. The difference is the formal process that can be followed which shows respect for local customs. For example, the Indonesian Embassy in Qatar says for volunteer work(kerja sukarela), you should send a letter of invitation from the volunteer project. Other Embassies may do this slightly differently, so feel free to discuss with your local Indonesian Embassy.

In terms of the article I linked at the top, it gets this matter totally wrong, by suggesting an ITAS. An ITAS is intended for someone who lives in Indonesia. Typically a volunteer is a visitor. In addition, an ITAS (izin tinggal terbatas) is obtained usually from a VITAS (visa tinggal terbatas).

The limited stay visas consist of the following headings:

  • C311 — in the context of work; working for a UN Agency
  • C312 — in the context of work; working for a company
  • C313 /C314 (1/2years)— not in the context of work; as an investor in a special ‘PT PMA’ (limited company authorised for foreign investment)
  • C315 — not in the context of work; training and scientific study
  • C316 — not in the context of work; education
  • C317 — not in the context of work; family members of an Indonesian family
  • C318 — not in the context of work; repatriation (former Indonesian citizens
  • C319 — not in the context of work; as a retired person
  • C320 — working holiday (special concession as a gesture of reciprocity from Australia, which allows Indonesians to do the same; only valid for Australians)

It can be seen that the VITAS ‘in the context of work’ is for a paid job, while there is no possible relevant VITAS for a volunteer.

The specific rules about paid work are laid out in the manpower law. There are definitions there (Article 1):

  • Tenaga kerja asing (foreign manpower) is a foreign national who holds a visa in the context of work
  • Pemberi kerja (employer) is an individual, business, legal body or other body, which employs manpower by paying a wage or other form of compensation

There are further details in the law, which was modified by the 2020 Omnibus Law. The law explains how foreign workers cannot be employed by individuals, only by businesses or other legal bodies, and the employer must have a work permit, which costs $1200/year. Specific exemptions are specified:

  • Director or Commissioner of a company meeting certain requirements
  • Diplomatic and consular staff
  • Staff needed to re-start stopped production
  • Certain technology start-ups
  • Vocations (?!)
  • Studies for a defined period
  • Business visits

In essence, a foreigner worker is the specific object of a work permit, and is paid. To avoid this issue, a foreign volunteer should pay some sort of fee which covers the cost of any accommodation or stay, so that they are not getting compensation in kind.

It can clearly be seen that there is no ITAS/KITAS/VITAS appropriate for volunteers. Volunteer work is not something that is regulated as work. Rather it is an activity which has potential to cause disturbance. Therefore the foreigner can minimise such risk by:

  1. applying for a visit visa at the foreign embassy with an appropriate sponsor letter from a properly established foundation
  2. the Indonesian volunteer project can make immigration aware of their activities involving foreigners as a courtesy. This would be the local immigration office for their area. This reflects immigration’s ‘field oversight’ — immigration are to keep track of foreigners, so a project that uses foreigners can send them a formal letter before starting the project to ask permission
  3. if they are sleeping in the project, there is a website to allow the presence of foreigners to be reported to immigration. This is a requirement for ‘people who are asked to report’, which seems to be construed as ‘anyone offering accommodation to foreigners under Article 72 of the immigration law. (note: the requirement to report to police was removed by SPRIN/2471/XII/2013, as this is the responsibility of immigration)

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Matthew Brealey
Matthew Brealey

Written by Matthew Brealey

miscellaneous articles on Indonesian law and other topics

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