Minister of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform (PANRB) Abdullah Azwar Anas has praised the improvements in immigration services by the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham), particularly the simplification of business processes for Visa and Limited Stay Permit (ITAS) services. President Jokowi's directives in 2022 highlighted numerous complaints from foreign nationals regarding the difficulty of obtaining visas and ITAS in Indonesia. Anas emphasized that Kemenkumham swiftly followed up on these directives, with the goal of making visa and ITAS services more accessible to foster a better investment climate. Previously, regulations governing foreign workers (TKA) in Indonesia were considered complex and expensive, with limited visa categories, leading to a low number of foreigners in the country. Therefore, in 2022, Kemenkumham and the Ministry of PANRB discussed steps to simplify the business processes for Visa and ITAS issuance.
Anas explained that the inefficiency in visa and ITAS processing was due to applicants having to deal with multiple agencies, wait for recommendations without a definite timeline, and navigate siloed and non-interoperable systems. The policy recommendations included implementing a single phase, single process model, linking immigration recommendation applications with the Online Single Submission (OSS) system, processing visas concurrently with business permit applications (Single Process), simplifying visa requirements for investors, and digitizing visa payment mechanisms. This transformation was formalized with PMK Number 7/PMK.02/2023, repositioning the immigration institution within the foreign nationals' licensing framework. These changes significantly impacted Kemenkumham's RB and SAKIP scores, improving from category "BB" in 2022 to "A" in 2023. Anas believes this positive trend can be maintained and enhanced. He also underscored the crucial role of immigration in various aspects of national and international relations, such as economic, cultural, educational, and security dimensions, through enhanced service efficiency, transparency, accountability, information technology strengthening, and inter-agency collaboration. Minister of Law and Human Rights Yasonna H. Laoly reiterated Kemenkumham's commitment to continuous innovation in digitizing immigration services, with support from PANRB for optimal digitalization.
