When a company sends one of its executives on an overseas assignment, they sometimes offer some form of assistance to the individual and their spouse to help them prepare for the move and the orientation. Once the expat family arrives in their new posting, hopefully they are given additional assistance in settling in. The real question is just how much assistance the company is willing or able to give the expatriate family prior to and following their move and overseas.
That said, not every expat arriving in Indonesia comes with a corporate package behind them. An increasing number of people are relocating independently — whether as entrepreneurs, retirees, remote workers, or under newer visa categories such as Indonesia’s Second Home Visa. Much of the guidance on this page applies equally to self-sponsored relocations, and we have noted where the approach may differ.
Companies should recognise that they make an enormous financial investment when they relocate their employees overseas. Transporting the family and their belongings, setting them up in a temporary home, and ensuring they have the support they need to settle in and function effectively — all of this represents a significant outlay. The return on that investment depends entirely on how quickly and successfully the family adjusts to their new environment.
The goal of relocation services, no matter who provides them, should be to get the family settled in as quickly and smoothly as possible in appropriate housing, to get the kids settled in school, get transportation arranged and the family to join the appropriate community organization or business organization. The sooner the expatriate family is settled, the sooner the working spouse can begin to concentrate fully on their job and the task at hand.
Various forms of relocation services include:
Pre-Departure Training
If your sponsoring company has sent other families to Indonesia in the past, if possible, arrange to meet with them and learn more about your destination. These ‘veterans’, especially if they are recent returnees, can greatly assist new families in giving insight into preparing for their move.
If a significant number of people from one company are coming to Indonesia together, a group training programme can be arranged for the employees, their spouses and even their children to help prepare them for their move. This also allows them to become acquainted prior to departure and begin to form a new support group amongst them.
Online resources have expanded enormously in recent years and are worth exploring well before departure. Active Facebook groups, expat forums, and Indonesia-focused communities give a genuine, unfiltered picture of daily life and can connect you with people currently living in the city you are moving to. This site’s own Practical Information section is a good starting point for building your knowledge base before you arrive.
Familiarization Trip
Many companies arrange for the employee and their spouse to visit Indonesia several months before their actual posting begins. During this ‘familiarization’ or ‘look-see’ trip they can view houses or apartments, visit schools, medical facilities, shopping malls, and begin to get an idea of where they might want to live. While Jakarta remains the destination for the majority of corporate expats, the same approach applies equally to those heading to Surabaya, Bali, or the Riau Islands — each of which has its own expat community, housing market and schooling options worth exploring in person.
They can also go to a supermarket to see what products are and aren’t available and get an idea of the cost of living in their new home. This will help prepare them for packing for the move and making decisions about what to include in their household shipment. The working spouse can meet people they will be working with in the firm and the accompanying partner can visit community organisations to get more information on lifestyle and conditions that may be possible for their family. For more information on what you might want to include in a familiarization trip, read our article on how to Hit the Ground Running.
Support Groups for Accompanying Partners and Spouses
In companies where there are a number of expatriate families, there is often a trailing/dependent spouses group which meets regularly for socialising and to provide support and assistance to newly arrived families. Utilise these support groups, especially in the early weeks and months after your arrival. These ‘seasoned expats’ can help answer many of your questions, show you around stores, invite you to lunch and help with the transition process. You can greatly benefit from their experiences.
Beyond company-organised groups, there is a thriving ecosystem of expat communities across Indonesia’s major cities. In Jakarta, groups such as the American Women’s Association, the International Women’s Association and various nationality-specific clubs remain active and welcoming. Many of these now have WhatsApp and Facebook group presences that make it easy to connect before you even arrive.
Networking with Organizations
One of the best services a company can offer their newly arrived staff is supplying them with information about existing expatriate business associations and community organisations. The quicker the family becomes involved in the community, the quicker they’ll be making new friends and finding answers to their questions on their own and therefore be less dependent on the office staff to solve all of their problems. This allows them to meet people outside the office or school, offering additional perspectives and opinions on some of the questions they have regarding the move.
Formalities Staff
Companies with large numbers of expatriate staff usually have formalities staff who take care of the documentation requirements for expatriate families. These people are well experienced in dealing with the various needs and concerns of expatriates. Often a quick phone call to the formalities staff can get your questions answered with a minimum of frustration. Since proper documentation is a very lengthy and complicated process in Indonesia, many companies prefer to subcontract this out to companies that specialise in documentation.
For those relocating independently rather than through a company, a growing number of visa and documentation agents specialise in handling the paperwork for self-sponsored expats, including applications under the Second Home Visa programme introduced in 2022 and the various KITAS categories available to investors, retirees and spouses of Indonesian nationals. As always, work only with reputable, established agents and verify their credentials carefully. Our Visas and Documents section covers the main visa categories in more detail.
In some companies the Human Resources Department also arranges housing, home repairs, transportation, guards for your home and a variety of other services for the expatriate staff members and their families. This can sometimes be a challenge as by law the HR professional must be an Indonesian national and as such does not necessarily fully understand issues from the perspective of the relocating expat. Ask your sponsoring company what kind of assistance you can expect from the HR staff, and what matters you will have to handle on your own.
Home/Apartment Search
The search for a new home can be exhausting. Regulation of real estate professionals in Indonesia remains limited compared to many countries, and the standard of agent you may meet can range from a friend of a friend looking to make some extra money to highly qualified and professional consultants. One of the best services a company can provide their incoming expats is to ensure that they are put in the hands of a reputable housing broker/agent from the start — one that will thoroughly survey the requirements of the family and only show them homes that match their requirements.
It is very important to understand the terms of the lease that you are signing as in most cases the entire amount of the lease must be paid in advance prior to moving into the home. Once the landlord has received this lump sum, the lessee has very little leverage to force the landlord to make needed repairs should there be issues in the house that are revealed at a later date.
Most incoming expats now begin their property search online before arriving in Indonesia. Platforms such as Rumah.com and 99.co carry extensive listings across Jakarta and other major cities and give a useful sense of the market before your familiarization trip. For short-term accommodation while you search for a permanent home, serviced apartments and furnished short-stay rentals are widely available and represent a sensible option for the first few weeks after arrival.
School Registration
Choosing a school for your children is rarely an easy choice. In Indonesia, international-quality schooling is extremely expensive. Even if the sponsoring company has agreed to pay for school tuition and fees, it is still important that the parents choose the school that is best suited for their child. In Jakarta, where traffic is extremely bad, a decision on which school to put your children in will affect where you live and how long the commuting parent will spend fighting the traffic every day to get to work.
You will benefit from the assistance of someone who can help you visit the various schools and is familiar with the difference in the curriculum between them and what school best fits the learning style of your child. A large school that has wonderful facilities may be too large and overpowering for a shy child. Some grades may not have seat availability and so parents will need to consider their second or third choices for schools. A child that is struggling with a different language in the classroom may need a smaller class size and more one-on-one attention. The school of your choice often determines the neighbourhoods that you may live in, due to proximity. The school placement for your children will have wide-ranging influences on your lifestyle during your stay in Indonesia, as well as your child’s future. Most of the international schools in Indonesia encourage the parents to be as involved in the school as they want to be and often this also helps the parent to become networked and make friends as well.
School places at the most popular international schools in Jakarta can be very competitive, particularly at certain year levels. It is advisable to begin the application process as early as possible — ideally during or immediately after your familiarization trip — rather than waiting until you have arrived and settled.
Check out the listing of international schools so that you can contact them and get basic information before your arrival.
Orientation Programs
Orientation to your new life in Indonesia can include participating in a formal orientation course through a company that provides this service. During your familiarization visit, or during your first weeks in town, you can join a one, two or three day programme to help you. You will be accompanied by a seasoned expat who can explain to you what to expect during your relocation, introduce you to sources of information that will be helpful, and answer the many questions that will arise during this time. Typically the tour will include visits to medical facilities, schools, shops, hobbies of interest, and services to help you get oriented quickly. Cross Cultural Training programmes can also be very beneficial.
For those relocating outside Jakarta, orientation services are less formalised but communities in Bali, Surabaya, Medan and other cities are generally welcoming and well-connected. The expat communities in these cities tend to be smaller and more tight-knit than Jakarta, which can actually make the settling-in process faster and more personal.
Personalised Assistance in Getting Your Home Set Up
Full service relocation firms can advise you regarding almost anything that you need to do in your first few weeks in your new home. From buying furniture, to renting a car, to hiring household staff, to getting repairs made on your new home — they can provide you with the needed information you will require.
In recent years, apps and online platforms have made many of the practical tasks of setting up a new home considerably easier. GoJek and Grab provide on-demand transport, food delivery, grocery delivery, and a wide range of household services. Tokopedia and Shopee are the dominant e-commerce platforms for household goods. Traveloka is widely used for local travel and accommodation. Learning to navigate these apps early on will make a significant difference to the ease of your daily life, and most expats find them indispensable within days of arriving.
Dependency
Relocation services provided by companies vary widely. If you are the unlucky soul that is basically told to handle it all yourself, at least you’ve found this web site to help show you the way. Hopefully your company will provide more assistance than that, recognising that you are thrust into a totally foreign environment where you have to learn how to run your lives all over again from scratch. If your company is not familiar with professional orientation and cultural training, you might consider telling them about these services and suggest that you would like to receive them.
Accept the fact that for your first few weeks and months in Indonesia you are going to be much more dependent on others than usual to help you accomplish your basic tasks. You cannot do it by yourself, since you will not know where and how to accomplish things in Indonesia. Everything is done differently here than in your home country, from how you pay the phone bill to how you park in the mall.
The worst thing a newcomer can do is stay in their house and bemoan the fact that they don’t know where to find something they need, or that they don’t know what to do next … get out of the house and meet other expats. Make it a point to ask every single person you meet at least two questions. If you take a proactive stance, you’ll soon be on your way to finding all the answers you need.
Get involved in community groups early on. Take advantage of the apps and digital tools that now make daily life in Indonesia far more manageable than it was even a few years ago — from finding housing supplies to grocery and food delivery, booking transport, paying bills, and yes, even learning Bahasa Indonesia. While you’re enjoying your favourite sport or hobby, you will be talking with other expats who can help with your settling in. Just remember, every expat you meet has been in your shoes before. Don’t be shy about asking for help … in fact you should be shouting for help in the first few weeks and months! You will find that most other expats are quick to give you pointers and to help you accomplish what may seem to be an insurmountable list of tasks to a newcomer, because they are easy for an Orientation professional.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a professional relocation company to move to Indonesia?
Not necessarily, but professional support makes the process significantly smoother, particularly in Jakarta where navigating housing, school registrations, visas and documentation simultaneously can be overwhelming. Many expats relocating independently manage without a formal relocation firm by leaning on this site, expat community groups, and a good visa/documentation agent.
What is a ‘look-see’ or familiarization trip and should I take one?
A familiarization trip is a visit to your destination city — typically one to two weeks — made before your actual relocation, to research housing, schools, and daily life. If your company offers one, take it. Even a short visit will dramatically improve your decision-making on housing, school choice and neighbourhood, and will reduce the culture shock of your actual arrival considerably.
How far in advance should I start the relocation process for Indonesia?
Ideally, begin at least three to six months before your planned arrival date. Visa and work permit processing, school applications and property searches all take longer than most people expect. The most popular international schools in Jakarta have waiting lists.
I am relocating independently, not through a company. Where do I start?
Start with your visa category. The right visa depends on your circumstances — whether you are employed by an Indonesian entity, self-employed, a retiree, an investor, or the spouse of an Indonesian national. Indonesia’s Second Home Visa, introduced in 2022, has opened a new pathway for long-stay independent expats. Our Visas and Documents page covers the main options.
Is Indonesia a good place to relocate for families with children?
Yes, and many expat families find it a richly rewarding experience. Jakarta in particular has a well-developed international school ecosystem, strong expat community networks, and a wide range of family-friendly amenities. The main challenges for families are traffic in Jakarta, air quality during dry season, and the cost of international schooling — all of which are manageable with the right preparation.
