The step-by-step plan for Indonesia

With this step you know which three links arrange your stay in Indonesia, and in what order. Newcomers often mix them up.

• The eVisa you apply for online. You must use it within ninety days of issue.
• On arrival it's converted into an ITAS: the actual residence permit, digitally on your passport.
• After that you register within fourteen days at Dukcapil, the civil registry. Almost every site skips this registration duty. The proof is called the SKTT, and without it Immigration nowadays refuses your renewal.

Count on enforcement too, because Bali enforces. A task force deported 165 foreigners in four months. Almost all of them were working on the wrong visa or staying too long (overstay). Overstaying costs a million rupiah a day, from day one. After sixty days come detention and deportation. So this journey is no longer a grey area. It's a chain you walk through neatly.

In this step you choose which route fits you. There are four routes, each with its own sum.

• The retirement KITAS (E33F), the retirement visa for over-55s. You need US$ 3,000 a month in pension income, a bank balance, health insurance and an agent as sponsor (an agency that vouches for you with Immigration). You renew the visa every year.
• The Second Home (E33), for five years. For this you place a deposit of US$ 130,000 at a state bank. You pay it in within ninety days of arrival, and you may not touch it.
• The remote worker visa (E33G), for those who work remotely. You work for a company outside Indonesia and earn at least US$ 60,000 a year. The visa is valid for one year, and you can renew it in Indonesia.
• The partner route, for whoever is married to an Indonesian.

Note: on the retirement visa, work for Indonesian employers or clients is forbidden. On the Second Home and the Silver Hair it is only allowed after reporting it to Immigration, and for an Indonesian employer also with a work permit. You'll read more about that in phase 5.

In this step you see what the move is going to cost you. The big items here are different from elsewhere:

• The year's rent you pay in advance. On Bali a year's rent in one go is the norm.
• The agent and visa costs, which come back every year.
• The private health insurance, with cover for medical evacuation.
• The pet, because the detour via Jakarta runs into thousands.

The car isn't among them, because it can't come. Work it out with your own choices in the calculator.

With this step you find out whether Indonesia really suits you. Have this conversation before you apply. You end up with a few conditions on paper that you both stand behind.

Going alone? Then have this conversation with the people you leave behind. The questions below work for them too.

Take three evenings. One conversation is too short for a decision like this. Agree on three evenings, with a week in between:

• Evening 1, why. What do we hope to find in Indonesia? What are we leaving behind here? Would that really be different there?
• Evening 2, what we give up. Who and what will we miss? What are we dreading most? What do we do if it disappoints?
• Evening 3, the conditions. What has to be arranged for each of us to say yes? When do we check together whether it's going well, for example after six and after twelve months? And what would be a reason for us to go back?

Write the conditions down. On the kitchen-table card it all fits on one A4 sheet.

Indonesia comes with four subjects that need to be on the table:

• Healthcare in old age. There's no Dutch safety net. Insurers apply entry limits, often seventy-five and sometimes lower, and the premium rises hard. Whoever wants to grow old here without a policy that is guaranteed for life can end up uninsurable.
• The distance. It's sixteen to eighteen hours' flying with a connection, and the time difference is six to seven hours.
• Everyday health. Dengue fever, a virus spread by mosquitoes, is an annual reality on Bali. For foreigners, traffic is the biggest risk factor.
• Working in Indonesia. On the retirement visa you may not work for Indonesian employers or clients, not even "a bit online". On the Second Home and the Silver Hair it is only possible after reporting it to Immigration, and for an Indonesian employer also with a work permit. If you want to keep working remotely for a foreign employer, the remote route is meant for that.

Divide the work. Agree who takes on which part of this plan: the papers for the visa, the house and the cancellations, the school, the move. That way not one of you carries everything. Invite your partner into your plan; then you can both see what's done.

Is one of you going without an income of your own? Whoever lives in Indonesia and doesn't work in the Netherlands usually no longer builds up AOW. For every year you're not insured, you later get 2 percent less AOW. From the moment you're no longer insured, you have one year to take out voluntary insurance with the SVB. Also discuss whether that partner keeps an account and money of their own, and how you decide together on big expenses.

Married, registered or living together? It can make a difference for your partner's residence permit, for co-insurance in healthcare and for inheritance. If you're married to an Indonesian, there's a partner route of its own; it's in the routes earlier in your plan. Check at the visa and at your healthcare further on in your plan what applies to you.

Are children coming? How you tell them depends on their age:

• Up to about four: tell them shortly before the move and keep fixed habits, like the bedtime ritual and the cuddly toy in the hand luggage.
• Primary school: tell them well in advance and let them look along: photos of the school, the neighbourhood and the house. Let them choose something, like their room.
• Teenagers: involve them in the decision itself. For them, saying goodbye to friends weighs heaviest. Agree how they keep in touch and when they see their friends again.

Your child comes along on a child visa of their own, the E31E. For it the immigration service asks for the parents' marriage certificate or marriage book and the birth certificate, in English or with a sworn translation into Indonesian. So arrange those certificates before you leave. Local schooling isn't a realistic route for Dutch children; count on an international school.

Who learns the language, and when? The national language is Bahasa Indonesia. Often the partner without work needs the language most, and precisely that partner has no colleagues to practise with. Plan it together, preferably before you leave.

Choose below the date on which you want to be standing in Indonesia. The plan then works out whether that's feasible with what still has to happen. From that moment it watches the deadlines for you: the ninety days of the eVisa and the deposit, the fourteen days of the registration duty, and the renewal, which you file in the last thirty days before expiry.