I urgently need to know how to maintain my four year old daughter's
residence in Indonesia legally. She is an Australian citizen by birth
and Indonesian law having been born in Indonesia of an Indonesian
mother/citizen and me,an Australian citizen.  She obviously needs to
be with her mother but we do not have any supporting papers to legally
allow her to stay with her mother in Indonesia.

 What can we do therefore to ensure that our daugher can stay in
Indonesia with her mother while I live and work in Australia for the
time being

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Clarification of Question by johnfrommelbourne-ga on 20 Jun 2003 03:42 PDT

My daughter has been living in Indonesia all her life since birth
which is now 4.6 years.

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Clarification of Question by johnfrommelbourne-ga on 20 Jun 2003 08:34 PDT

I think i need to clarify something as well as say thanks very much to
those who are trying to help,i.e political guru etc. We want our
daughter to remain in Indonesia  as an Australian NOT as an
Indonesian. Yes as some have suggested it would be easy to have her
remain here as an Indonesian or to make her an indonesian citizen but
that would mean she would have to  be recorded as "NO FATHER" as they
say here in Indonesia.  On the other hand if we declare father as
Australian then we are back to  original question's dilemna, namely
she is Australian but cant stay here unless she has residency papers.
Once again therefore how can we get residency papers for an Australian
child living in Indonesia with her Mum

I assume that you have thought of contacting the Australian Embassy in
Indonesia, but just in case you haven't, here is a link to its
webwite:

Australian Embassy Jakarta Online
http://www.austembjak.or.id/

Are you sure your absence would make it not possible for your daughter
to stay in Indonesia? What is your daughter's legal status in
Indonesia? Does she have a resident permit that must be renewed
periodically? Why should she have to leave the county if you do?(I am
curious about something. I believe many countries grant citizenship to
all born in the country, as long as the newborn child's parents are in
the country legally. Indonesia does not do this?)

Dear John, 

I have only began to research for a solution, and must leave for a
while. However, considering that the benefit of your daughter requires
an answer asap, I shall write here some suggestions, with the hope
that some other researcher would answer that to your satisfaction by
the end of the weekend (I don't do weekends ;-) :-
The Indonesian cisitzenship law does not really help, but there's one
clause saying that "A child under the age of 18 who is not married and
retains his/her kinship with the father who has not yet acquired
Indonesian nationality, qualifies for Indonesian nationality if he/she
lives permanently in Indonesia" (Source: Cached Google Version of the
Indonesian Nationality Act explanations,
http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:nYHjc3rxO7MJ:www.promo.web.id/indonesia/nationalact.php+indonesian+citizenship&hl=en&ie=UTF-8).

I doubt if appealing to the Australian consulate (as suggested by Mark
J) would help, but you should try every possible solution.

If you recognise the child as yours, then she doesn't fall under the
category of "a person whose mother is an Indonesian national, but
whose father's nationality is unknown or whose father is stateless"
(ibid) who would qualify for Indonesian citizenship.

You should get any residency documentation proving that the child and
her mother have stayed in Indonesia since her birth, since it might
assist you in your case with the immigration office, which is where
you have to go.

Happy for someone to attempt a worthwhile answer but situation is now
not as urgent as before as in very recent few hours we have learned
much that appears set to remedy situation. Answer that is correct
still paid however.

  Thanks a lot,

    John