Indonesia, name change

[Alt name 1]

Some info, and another friend of us had the same problem before they decided to just do the name change at the Indo consul here. It is not necessary to get a "legal" name change through the court system in Indonesia to have all of the paperwork issued in a new married name, in fact we looked into that and the corrupt lil bassards wanted 10 million rupes (about a thousand bucks) vs. the posted fee of $35 to prevent the processing from taking months. I finally got in touch with the consul at the embassy (yes they answer the phone, especially if you're in Texas and pissed) and got the following information:

Go to immigration, have immigration change the name on page 3 or 4 of the beneficiaries passport, then bring the passport and marriage book (as well as a translated copy of the marriage book) to the interview, and the name change is acceptable. This is for petitioners who filed for their wife in their married name. It took my wife about 2 hours to get that done, and the immigration officer did not try to hit her up for any addtional "fees".

Also, at the police station, when my wife went to get her certificate, they told her the US embassy required that her head cover be removed for the photo. That is not true either, the state department has specifications for photos that only require no part of the face be hidden, but if a head cover is worn for religious reasons then it is acceptable.

Passing on some info only, good luck to all of you

David and Nitadyah