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Indonesian Passport Renewal in the UK is so Easy!

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Hello my dear Indonesian fellows, for those of you who are about to come to Leeds or are already here and knowing that you have to renew your passport sooner or later here in the UK...Here’s some information I'm going to share to you my recent experience!

The first question that you might think about when you have to renew your passport in the UK is “Do I have to go to London?”. The answer is... no! The Indonesian Embassy in London has a special service that I find it reaaaaaally helpful for Indonesian students or diasporas who are living outside of London, like me. The service is called “Layanan Jemput Bola”, where the Indonesian Embassy staff basically come to your city. However beforehand, you have to send your passport and other documents through the post to the Embassy in London.

The embassy opens this service every year (it might be more than one period at a time!). They will announce when and which towns they are going to visit. Usually, they visit cities with many Indonesian citizens living there, for instance, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, and so forth. So far in 2020, the Embassy staff came to Edinburgh, York, Exeter, Birmingham, Oxford, Dublin, Newcastle, and Sheffield. When they visited Leeds on 23 February 2020, was when I successfully renewed my passport. Alright, I will get there in a minute! But first, let me tell you what you need to prepare to renew your passport:

First- you must complete an online arrival report through the Indonesian Embassy website. All the information you’ve provided when you do the report becomes the official record for the Embassy. If the Embassy is not keeping any record about you, you’d have a difficult time accessing the Embassy’s service...

Second- print out an online form for passport renewal. This form has actually been automatically filled in, based on the information you’ve filled when you did your arrival report. Therefore, all you need to do is just check or edit if you have any updated information, print it out, and sign. This form also contains a barcode and your application number that is very important.

Third- print out and sign a proof of “Layanan Jemput Bola” registration form. This form is proof of your commitment to attend “Layanan Jemput Bola” in the desired city you have selected, on the specific date.

Fourth, you have to print out and sign a statement of the originality of the document(s) and a declaration letter of citizenship status. All of these aforementioned documents can be found on the website. Simple right?

The next thing you have to provide is the copy of your BRP, the copy of your passport, the original passport, and the copy of your ID Card (KTP). FYI- as an alternative to your ID card, a copy of your birth certificate is also allowed. Before we move on, here’s a little tip from me: create and print out a document checklist to help you check if all documents are complete. This helps a lot! Okay, now all the required documents are ready. Now, lets go to the nearest post office!

It is highly suggested to use a special delivery envelope. By using this envelope, your document is guaranteed to be delivered safely before 1 pm on the next day. It is very important to consider this special delivery envelope option because it will contain your passport, therefore it must be a very secure delivery. If you’re not sure which one is the special delivery envelope, please ask and the post office staff as they will guide you through. On the envelope, write down the address of the Indonesian Embassy as followed:

To : Konsuler (Paspor Baru/Lapor Diri/Legalisir/ Surat Keterangan)
Embassy of The Republic of Indonesia,
30 Great Peter Street
London SW1P 2BU

Also don’t forget to write your details on the sender box. The next thing is very important: you MUST provide a RETURN ENVELOPE! Otherwise, you have to collect your passport in London (unless this is what you want, maybe you’re planning to go on a trip to London anyway). But I wasn’t planning to go to London, so I expected my passport would be sent back to my apartment once it’s been renewed.

Okay, lets get back to this return envelope. What is that for? It’s just a blank envelope that you’ve already filled in with your complete address, attached it with your other documents and sent it along to the Embassy. The Embassy will use that envelope to send your passport from London to the address you wrote on the envelope, once it’s been successfully renewed. This return envelope MUST be attached with a 500 grams stamp (you may ask the cashier, they will provide this to you).

The last very important step is a POSTAL ORDER, this is how you pay for your passport renewal service. The Indonesian Embassy does not receive any form of payment except a postal order. You can only get postal order from the post office. You should come to the cashier and tell the officer that you need a postal order to pay for your passport renewal fee. The official fee for passport renewal is £25 and you have to pay £3 for the postal order fee. You have to attach your postal order as a proof of payment along with other documents and the return envelope, seal the big envelope, and send it over! The total fee that I had to pay for the passport renewal service through Layanan Jemput Bola is £44 (including 2 special delivery envelopes, delivery fee, a 500 grams stamp, and postal order fee).

Your document will be sent within one day and the Embassy will notify you through email when they have received your documents.

Guys, please be aware that you MUST at least send all documents TWO WEEKS BEFORE the scheduled Layanan Jemput Bola held in the city that you selected. I sent it three weeks prior to the schedule. All you have to do is wait until the due day. The Embassy will notify you through email the time and venue to do the biometric session. In my case, I went to the Malmaison Hotel in Leeds at 13.00. The hotel is only 15 minutes away by bus from my accommodation and I didn’t have to bring anything. The whole process only took less than 15 minutes to take a picture and fingerprint records. The queue was not long, because they open the session at 13.00-16.00 and there were only 10 people on the list. The officer told me that they might cancel visits to certain city(ies) if there were less than 10 people registered for this service. I bet I was lucky that there were exactly 10 people in Leeds, so I don’t have to go to another city! 😀

Long story short, three days after the biometric my passport has been renewed! On the fourth day, I received my new passport and yayyyy its very easy and helpful! All the information about this service, the fee, and to obtain the required documents, click https://indonesianembassy.org.uk/jemput-bola. We should be thanking the Indonesian Embassy for this helpful service. Finally, for you who have to renew your passport, good luck ! I hope this helps!