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Indonesians married to foreigners have welcomed a new immigration draft bill they say will enable families to stay together.

The House of Representatives and the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights have agreed on a draft bill that would no longer require foreign spouses to annually renew their residence permit abroad and would give them the right to work. The draft bill is to be presented to a House plenary for passage next week.

Nitta Mehraj, from the B4 Club, said on Friday that the changes were important as the main point of building a family was to be able to stay together without going through complicated procedures.

“As a family, we want to live and stay together,” said Nitta, who has been married to an Indian national for four years.

“Indonesia is also their home, why do they have to extend their Kitas [temporary residence permit]?” she said, referring to her family members. “[Extending the Kitas] is complicated for them and it is expensive.”

Foreigners’ temporary residence permits currently have to be renewed each year.

Yustinah Hoelger, who has been living with her German husband for the past decade, welcomed the news, saying it would allow her and her husband, a medical doctor, to return and live in Indonesia.

“The main obstacle for us to live in Indonesia was the constant need to renew my husband’s Kitas and his work permit. We are now seriously considering returning to Indonesia,” said Yustinah. But she also said that to return to Indonesia, the couple needed certainty on the matter of property ownership.

“We certainly want to know what can and cannot be owned by a foreigner married to an Indonesian national,” she said.

However, Eva Kusuma Sundari, a lawmaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said that the matter of property ownership for foreign spouses and their children would be addressed separately in another draft bill, on agrarian matters.

Julie Mace, a representative for the International Rainbow Alliance (APAB) and the Indonesian Mixed Marriage Society (PerCa Indonesia), praised the bill as being a notable improvement over the 1992 Immigration Law.

“I can sense that this new draft bill is very good and roughly all that we wanted has been granted, such as that our children can stay in Indonesia,” she said.

Under the new rules, expatriates married to Indonesians would automatically be granted a permanent residence permit as long as the Indonesian spouse can provide sponsorship. Children from mixed marriages would also be eligible for permanent residency if they opted to take the nationality of the foreign parent.

The bill would also allow these expatriates to stay in the country after divorcing their Indonesian partner as long as their marriage had lasted at least 10 years.

Foreign spouses in a mixed marriage would also be allowed to work in the country. Currently they have to seek a sponsor to be able to work in Indonesia.

Nitta said there were still other things that needed to change, but were not yet included in the new draft bill.

“We would like no age limitation to be set for children from a mixed marriage for having a dual citizenship,” she said. “We want them to be allowed to keep their dual citizenship as this will be more advantageous.”

Under the 2006 Citizenship Law, children born from mixed parents would automatically obtain dual citizenship — Indonesian and the nationality of the foreign parent. However, they have to pick one after turning 18.