When applying for your mixed-child Indonesian citizenship to the Ministry of Law and Human Right in Jakarta, your overseas marriage must prior be registered with the Civil Registry Office in Indonesia. In turn, they will issue Marriage Reporting Certificate (so called Laporan Perkawinan or Tanda Bukti Lapporan Perkawinan). Your overseas marriage shall be legally recognized by the Indonesian laws. Failure to do so might jeopardize your childs application. The Ministry would send request for additional evidence, and therefore will delay the process for months.

Application for childs citizenship can be made either at the nearest Indonesian embassy or consulate or in your home country in Indonesia. In support to your application in Indonesia, you must provide Indonesian spouses domicile evidence such as national ID Card (so called KTP) and family card (so called kartu keluarga). Based on our experience, officials would require your child to be listed on the family card as member of the family, but some just dont require so. You may submit the application by yourself or you may authorize other third party who have enough experience handling such case.

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When you have decided to file for a divorce against your spouse, one of the legal issues that you should pay attention to is court jurisdiction. I mean you must know what and which court that responsible for your case. Failure to do so will cause your divorce petition rejected. Therefore, it is the first important thing you should know before you proceed any further.

Type of Courts

There are two (2) type of courts related to divorce cases i.e. religious court (so called “pengadilan agama”) and district court (so called “pengadilan negeri”). Most of the courts located in every town which in Indonesia also known as “walikotamadya” or “kabupaten”. We call this differentiation as Absolute Court Jurisdiction.

How to determine?

The type of your ceremony when you got marry is to determine which court is responsible for your case. If you were married in Moslem, then your marriage was registered with the Office of Religious Affairs (so called KUA/Kantor Urusan Agama). Therefore, when you’re filing for divorce, your divorce petition must be registered at the local religious court. If you were married in Non-Moslem ceremony i.e. Christian, Hindu, or Budhist, then your marriage was registered with the civil registry office. Therefore, your divorce petition must be registered at the local district office.

Court jurisdiction is one of the things that related to your divorce case in Indonesia. For further information, you must consult an attorney with experience handling family and matrimonial law in Indonesia.

Definition

Nulla Osta is an Italian terms of the Non-Impediment Letter, a certificate certify that you are legally free to marry and there is no objection to your proposed marriage.

Registering a Marriage in Italy

If you are registering your marriage in Italy, you need to get a Certificate of Singlehood from your local Civil Registry Office in Indonesia. The certificate must be legalized by the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (so called “Ministry of Justice”), and the legalized by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and lastly by the Italian Embassy in Jakarta. Thereafter, you need to make an exchange for a Nulla Osta at the nearest Indonesian Consulate to where you are getting married in Italy.

Time Frame

You must not set-up a marriage date before you can get complete and legalize singlehood certificate. There are too many surprises down the line. You need to work with government institutions and bureaucracy that sometime delays the time. Not to mention ridiculous supporting documents that you must supply before hand. You need to allow a month or two before you finally set the date and register the marriage in Italy.

Embassy of Indonesia

You need also to consult the Indonesian Embassy in Rome before initiating any actions. Sometime they only require legalizations with Ministry of Justice and Foreign Ministry. You are not required to secure Italian Embassy legalization or even Italian translation of your singlehood certificate.

Collect More Information

Most important of all, you need to collect more information from the very beginning. Securing lots information can sometime put you in the in right track. Information sometime can be very expensive, and access to it cannot be verified instantly. Therefore, you may ask an expert or local Indonesian lawyer to consult about the issues.

Good luck with your marriage!

In accordance with Compilation of Islamic Law, there are two (2) type of premarital agreement for Moslem couples. They are:

1. Taklik talak; and
2. Other agreement in line with Islamic law.

Taklik Talak consist of two words. Taklik means depending. Talak means divorce. Literally, Taklik Talak means divorce depends on something. I would prefer to refer it as conditional divorce. In Islamic Law, Taklik Talak considered as premarital agreement. What is Taklik Talak, and where you can find it? It is also known as 'Sighat Taklik'. It is the wording that a husband must read out loud after performing the marriage ceremony. Ring a bell? OK, I will refresh your memory. The following is an English version of standard Indonesian wording:

"Sighat Taklik"

After performing the marriage ceremony, I am [Husband's name] son of [Name of Husband's Father], I herewith promise truthfully that I will fulfill my obligation as a husband and I will treat my wife named [Name of Wife] daugther of Mr. [Name of Wife’s Father] kindly  according to the teaching of Islamic religion.

Furthermore, I read this sighat taklik  for my wife as mentioned as follows:

Anytime I:

1. leave my wife two (2) years continuously;
2. or I don't provide compulsory necessities of life for three (3) months long;
3. or, I hurt my wife's physically;
4. or, I neglect my wife for six (6) months long;

Then my wife is not willing and she complains about the matter to the religious court, and her complain is accepted by the court, and my wife pays money in the amount of Rp. 10,000 (ten thousand Rupiah) as iwadh (substitute) to me, then falls my once divorce to her.

To the afore-mentioned court, I authorize to receive the substitute money and then to hand it over to the Directorate General Guidance of Islamic Society Cq Directorate of Religious Affairs and Shari’ Guidance for the need of social devotion.

Divorce by Taklik Talak is not automatically granted. Divorce petition to the religious court would require to be submitted to cross examine whether there is any violation against conditions in Taklik Talak.

The Taklik Talak is not a compulsory to be performed, nevertheless once it has been performed, it can never be revoked. In the field of practice, many religious court dissolved marriages based on the 1974 Marriage Law and Compilation of Islamic Law, even tough the divorce petitions were filed based on violation of Taklik Talak.

The purpose of Taklik Talak is meant to protect women against men’s discrimination and to put them in equal position with men in all family affairs.