Job Discussion Forums

[bradleycooper]

This is just a simple reminder to all potential TEFL teachers coming to Indonesia that it is absolutely illegal to work on VKU visas. If you want to be legally employed in Indonesia you need to get a KITAS. (This is a work visa and it lasts for 12 months).

VKUs are business consultant visas and they only last 2 months at a time. It is illegal for expats to do anything other than business consultancy on these visas. People caught teaching on them in the past have been deported. Some schools in Jakarta have been luring teachers into working on VKUs. Be informed that if Immigration raids your school, you will probably be deported. You and not your employer will bear the brunt even though they organized the whole process. It is simply not legal to work on VKUs as an English teacher.

[princesss]

Latest news is that immigration has raided a school in Bogor. 7 expat teachers who were employed on VKU business consultant visas have been caught. They are going to be deported. This is part of a crackdown on foreign teachers following the JIS pedophile case. Once again, people should avoid schools who ask you to work on a VKU visa. As has been repeatedly said on here, you risk being deported.

http://gjismyp.wordpress.com/

[Tazz]

Name of school in Bogor? Not the wonderful Swara EF by any chance?

[jef dam]

[princesss]

http://gjismyp.wordpress.com/2014/05/20/latest-indonesian-government-regulations-are-not-good-news/

I was referring to the latest post from that site. The site is maintained by the principal of a large National Plus school who is using his own name. I think that we can therefore assume that "Principal Pak Liam" is a very reliable source.

The date is May 20th 2014 where he mentions that Immigration raids against VKU teachers have been happening. 7 teachers have been forced out the door due to these raids. The British Institute Bogor had teacher deportations in 2007, but that isn't what Pak Liam is referring to. From the context it is clear that these are recent events he is referring to. According to Liam, Immigration is now forcing out VKU teachers.

The most relevant part is this one:

Immigration have already done some spot checks on schools that I know about. A school in Bogor got found out that they had all their expat teachers on business visas… 7 teachers going home now… they are also carefully checking what your KITAS job is listed as, ie SMA English teacher cannot be teaching Art or Year 5 etc….

[jef dam]

That's not mentioned in the post by Pak Liam from May 20th that I read.

[princesss]

Ok, I will try and be patient here. Click on the post. Don't just look at the shorter version on the main page. Read the whole article and there are comments and debate at the bottom. Pak Liam, the school principal, makes the comments I have quoted here the discussion below. It is the second comment down. Once again, the most relevant comments are:

Immigration have already done some spot checks on schools that I know about. A school in Bogor got found out that they had all their expat teachers on business visas… 7 teachers going home now… they are also carefully checking what your KITAS job is listed as, ie SMA English teacher cannot be teaching Art or Year 5 etc….

[jef dam]

Ah, so you're citing not the article but the comments section. Apologies if I don't find that credible in any way, shape, or form.

The headmaster of Nat+ he may well be, but......

He doesn't make any mention of when this mass deportation occurred, provides no credible evidence to support his comments (the deportations that happened in Bogor in 2007 were pretty widely reported on in the media, and given the current JIS witch hunt you'd think that a half dozen or so bule teachers getting deported would eat up the column inches), and in his next post compares Indonesia to North Korea.

Jef Dam remains skeptical.