How One-Way Ticket Works for Me

I don't know if this rule is worldwide or only in Indonesia, but to travel abroad you have to have return ticket. I believe it is to avoid people to work illegally abroad and not coming back to their home country.

No country would want this to happen.
Image is from here.


Anyway, when I wanted to leave for Dubai, UAE to be with the husband who's working there, I called several travel agents to purchase a one-way ticket because I needed not a return ticket (and of course to save some money :D). But those travel agents insisted that they could not sell a one-way ticket. It's against the rule, they said, although I had tried to explain that I would have some kind of a visa.

So the husband decided to make a residence visa sponsored by the husband (not by the company) and here is the process:
  1. Prepare a copy of the marriage certificate (translated into English by a certified and sworn translator, legalized by Kementerian Hukum dan HAM RI, Kementerian Luar Negeri RI, and Embassy of UAE in Jakarta). The translation costs IDR 50,000 and the legalization costs IDR 600,000.
  2. After the legalization, the certificate has to be sent to the UAE.
  3. The certificate has to be stamped by the Ministry of Foreign Affair in the UAE. It costs AED 150.
  4. Bring the certificate to be retyped by a document typing service. It costs AED 40.
  5. Prepare the sponsor's working contract to be stamped by the immigration office. It costs AED 130.
  6. Bring the stamped certificate and a copy of it, the retyped document, along with the husband's stamped working contract and a copy of it, copies of the passports, a copy of the husband's working visa, and a photograph of the wife to the immigration office in the UAE.
  7. Submit all the documents to the immigration, wait for an hour, and the residence visa sponsored by husband is done ;) It costs AED 200 something.
  8. Bring the visa to the airport EXACTLY one day before the spouse comes. It costs AED 40.
Total cost is about IDR 650,000 plus AED 560.

By the way, the salary of the sponsor should be at least AED4,000 to be able to make a residence visa for the spouse.

So we bought a one-way ticket online (check www.garuda-indonesia.com, www.bruneiair.com, or www.srilankan.lk for good deals from Indonesia to UAE). With a copy of the scanned residence visa, I went through this and that check-in flight and immigration counters and all went well. Hurray!

I hope this post will help anyone who is in a similar situation with me because I browsed and browsed but could not find anything that would assure me that I would be able to pass through immigration with no return ticket.

Oh well, after all the excitement and happiness, now here I am, stranded in this desert country :| Next post will be about homesickness.

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