Malaysian Foreigners Become Indonesian Citizens In West Sumatra, Immigration: Married To Indonesian Citizens

Head of the Regional Office of the Directorate General of Immigration of West Sumatra, Nurudin, when interviewed in Padang, Wednesday (8/10/2025). BETWEEN/Muhammad Zulfikar

JAKARTA - The Regional Office of the Directorate General of Immigration of West Sumatra (West Sumatra) revealed that the gap that can make Nur Amira a foreign national (WNA) from Malaysia as an Indonesian citizen (WNI) is through marriage.

"There are several conditions to become an Indonesian citizen, one of which is married to an Indonesian citizen and applying to become an Indonesian citizen which is regulated in Article 19 of Law Number 12 of 2006 concerning Citizenship of the Republic of Indonesia," said Head of the Regional Office of the Directorate General of Immigration of West Sumatra, Nurudin in Padang, Wednesday, confiscated by Antara.

Nur Amira is a foreigner from Malaysia who is now in the Detention Room of the Immigration Office Class I Non-Immigration Checkpoint (TPI) Agam for violating Indonesian immigration rules. In the near future the immigration authorities will deport the person concerned after coordinating with the Malaysian Consulate General.

However, at the same time he was forced to leave his biological child named Zahira (15) as a result of his marriage to an Indonesian citizen from Payakumbuh City in 2009, but divorced in 2015.

In addition, to become an Indonesian citizen, a person can go through a citizenship mechanism, people who contribute to the interests of the state such as a football player, or someone who has dual citizenship so that they can choose between the ages of 18 and 21.

Meanwhile, of these categories, the thing that allows Nur Amira to become an Indonesian citizen is to marry an Indonesian citizen and then apply. Even though Nur Amira was married to an Indonesian citizen in 2009, this did not automatically abort her Malaysian citizenship status.

Before the status of Indonesian citizens through the Article 19 mechanism was granted, Nur Amira was obliged to meet other requirements, namely obtaining a limited stay permit and having settled in Indonesia for at least 5 consecutive years, or 10 consecutive years.

"To my knowledge, when he married in 2009 he never applied for a residence permit or Indonesian citizenship," he said.