Director-General of Immigration at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham), Silmy Karim, revealed that approximately 1,000 students switch their citizenship to become Singaporean citizens each year.
Silmy mentioned that the majority of these individuals who change their nationality are between the ages of 25 and 35. “Around 1,000 people per year, aged 25 to 35,” stated Silmy on Tuesday (July 11, 2023).
Special offer from Singapore
Silmy confirmed that among those who become Singaporean citizens, many are experts in their respective fields. Additionally, based on the information received by Silmy, these experts receive special offers in Singapore, which leads them to relinquish their Indonesian citizenship.
“That’s the information I received,” Silmy said. This information about 1,000 Indonesian students switching to become Singaporean citizens was presented at the CentennialZ’s Gen Z Festival 2023.
During the event, Silmy was explaining President Joko Widodo’s directive to immigration authorities to facilitate the entry and residency permits for qualified foreign nationals in Indonesia.
Global Talent Visa program
As a response to the increasing number of Indonesians changing their citizenship, the Indonesian immigration has introduced the Global Talent Visa program as part of the Golden Visa classification.
The Global Talent Visa is granted to foreign nationals with exceptional skills or expertise in their fields, aiming to contribute to the country’s economy and human resources development.
Silmy emphasized that this policy is expected to drive the country’s progress in economic and technological aspects through the inclusion of high-quality international human resources.
Not a new occurrence
Occurrences where Indonesians decided to let go of their citizenship for foreign citizenship is not exactly new.
The Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human rights recorded that since 2017 until 2022, the government had received 4,699 requests for removal of citizenship.
A survey revealed that Indonesians often choose to let go of their Indonesian citizenship for reasons of ease of transportation, communication, and hope of having free visa for certain countries.
