Ward of Wall Street

For any who read my Friday the 13th post from back in February, in it I said that I had signed contracts with Wall Street almost two months ago. So I think it was either late December or early January when I signed on to work at the same place at which I started this Indonesian Odyssey almost a year ago. You see, I have many reasons to like Wall Street. This may sound like overcompensation for misery, but even though they brought me over here under false pretenses; even though they kept from me the fact that I'd be working illegally on a business visa instead of legally working on a proper work visa; even though instead of a year of legal work I only got two months of illegal work from them, I was happy working there and I was impressed with the corporate responsibility the company showed to all the foreigners with business visas they had to let go. I was offered, (and was told that all the other teachers were offered the same), either a job at another Wall Street in another country, or a plane ticket home. I had only just arrived a month before this offer was made so I didn't want to turn around and go back to Canada. And though I contacted several different Wall Streets in other countries, I wanted to stay in Indonesia. Besides, a ticket to Calgary would have cost the company a couple thousand bucks. Why not take a job here and save them some dough? I was offered a job and a proper work visa, (KITAS), by English Today. The owner said I'd have it in a couple of months and then I'd be working legally here. Which is what I came over for.

I worked for several months with English Today and the boss gave me several reasons why he had to postpone the application for my KITAS. Because of this and the nature of the job, too much Jakarta traffic time and not enough teaching time/salary, I phased myself out of the company and started freelancing. As a freelancer I had to be careful of advertising online or posting ads in apartment buildings or places of prominence because either could increase my chances of being caught working without the proper visa, blacklisted so I couldn't work again in Indonesia, and deported or even thrown in jail. Indonesian jail. So I kept my client list small. This kept my profits small, but I was able to pay the bills. Barely.

The signing of the new contracts with Wall Street and the insistence of everyone I talked to there that I would be getting my KITAS soon and working legally again soon was something I didn't hide from my clients. I was honest and told them I could only teach temporarily. I gave them the timetable Wall Street gave to me. For this reason some of my students cancelled when my KITAS was supposed to come in. But it didn't come in and I had to renew my business visa again. Although I was contracted to work at Wall Street, they told me that they don't pay for outbound flights. It's a policy of their's. I found that odd considering every foreigner working here when Wall Street got busted for bringing us over on business visas was offered outbound flights to other Wall Streets in other countries or back to their countries of origin. I also know that during the many years they had practiced this illegal, but very common business tactic over here, it often took more than two months to get workers the proper visas so they paid for visa renewal runs to Singapore, which included the outbound flight to Singapore, not just the flight back. See the business visa lasts for a year, but needs to be renewed every 60 days. NOT every two months, as I learned the hard way.

Anyway, I renewed my visa back in mid February. I had to go into debt to do it, but got 'er done. I was told at the airport immigration gate that that renewal, (my 4th), would be my last. He suspected that I had been working illegally on the wrong visa. Why else would anyone spend that length of time in Indonesia on a business visa. I lied to him and said I had been going to meetings and receiving training. I also had to do things like go for physical check-ups and there had been many delays in the process. For instance my first medical check-up was deemed unsatisfactory so I had to go get another one. I told him what I had been told by Wall Street: that I would definitely receive my KITAS before this new 60-day renewal expired. He reluctantly believed me but told me that it was unlikely that I would be allowed back into the country on anything BUT a KITAS. For instance if, at the end of the new 60 days, (April 18th), I tried to re-enter Indonesia on a tourist or visitor visa, it would be denied. When that happened I would be blacklisted and unable to ever work in Indonesia again. I told him I would get my KITAS soon. So I was allowed back into Indonesia.

For the past almost 60 days I have been VERY anxiously awaiting my KITAS and working very few hours due to more cancellations and the inability to sign new students because I would soon be working for Wall Street and have to cancel our classes. So the money wasn't exactly rolling in. I was generously offered a place to stay by one of my students and that saved my bacon because I couldn't have made rent payments if he hadn't, but it also eliminated another paying client. The maid who cleans three times a week at the apartment where I live is making double what I am right now. Maids here make notoriously low wages. But I kept waiting for Wall Street and trusting that the KITAS would come soon.

I got a text from John, from Wall Street, a little while ago saying, "Good news! We are now in the final stages of your KITAS! It should only be about one more month!" I didn't have a month left on my visa. In fact I think he sent this message to me around the end of March or beginning of April when I had less than 3 weeks left on it. So I sent back a reply asking what we would do if I didn't get the KITAS before my visa ran out. I told John that I didn't have the money for another visa run to Singapore and that I doubted I'd be able to do one. It took several days before I really got a response to this. I guess Wall Street didn't see the urgency. John said they'd look into it and look into paying for another visa run or if that wasn't possible maybe doing something else. Then I waited some more.

I sprinkled a little more urgency into my text messages, emails and phone calls and finally just a few days ago I got an email from John suggesting that our best course of action would be for me to go to another country for a couple three weeks, up to a month until the KITAS was processed. Then Wall Street would pay my way back, sign me up, get me a place and give me start-up allowance like they had last year when I first started working for them. How was I supposed to afford this if I couldn't even afford a visa run?

So I called John up and got a bit MORE forceful with my words. I mentioned that Wall Street had offered me a ticket back to Canada as reparations for what they had done illegally bringing me over here and misleading me into believing I'd be working a year legally when in fact I only worked 2 months illegally. That hasn't changed. I am still here for that reason. Why can't they offer me a similar type of reparation NOW in the form of a ticket to Korea and some money to spend while I'm there for a month. The ticket home would have been at least 2 thousand. I suggested a thousand for the month in Korea. I have to admit, while having this conversation I really wished I had taken that plane ticket, cashed it in and used the money to help me through the very lean ensuing 10 months.

Well John got into the fact that I had taken another job. Yeah, which I said saved Wall Street a couple grand. It didn't remove their ethical responsibility or liability towards me. I was just doing something that would have saved them money is all. So John said he didn't want to play the blame game. I told him that I had interviews and meetings and phone calls with SEVERAL of the businesses over here in Indonesia that I could have worked for and every one of them wanted to just hire me on my business visa. I KNOW it's not really all that unethical or evil or whatever, and if I thought it was I wouldn't be re-applying to Wall Street. But I DO think they still have a responsibility, morally, ethically, logically and legally towards me. I am still, until I get working legally over here, a virtual ward of Wall Street.

So then John mentioned that it would be a hard sell to convince the HR and Finance departments at Wall Street to give me money to go to a country where I have worked and lived for so many years. Pay is better, food is better, technology is incomparably better, weather is better, job is better, so many things are better there and I'm used to them. Not to mention I have lots of friends in Korea. He said Wall Street would worry that I'd just take the money and stay in Korea. He suggested I just borrow from friends. So I said that I had been here less than a year. How many friends of less than a year do YOU have who would hear you ask, "Hey, buddy old pal... Could I borrow a few hundred bucks so that I can leave the country where you are and make it really difficult for you to collect it?" and then start shelling out the money. It'd be a very tough sell to even old friends. But I feel Wall Street should do this for me. Not just because of their corporate responsibility towards me, forget that and let's just think logically. I know when you get a large, segmented business and you try to mix reason and money this is hard to do but let's look at this for a second. Wall Street has already paid a couple hundred bucks for my medical checks and they've paid for the KITAS to get processed. I think that's a thousand or two. Not to mention all the time. If I can't find a loan and Wall Street doesn't pay I can't work. The company will have to hire someone else, maybe bring them over from another country and pay for a new visa and plane ticket. Paying for me to go to Korea for a month will actually SAVE them money!

He didn't think they'd see it that way so I said then how about just LENDING me the money. I'll be working here and they could just take the money out of my paychecks. So finally John agreed to talk to the higher-ups and see if they'd agree to help me out. That was the morning of my birthday. I waited all day on pins and needles for his reply.

My friend, Mr. Yoo, came over to take me out for a Korean feast on my birthday and a few beers. While we were discussing my situation I got the message from John saying that corporate had declined my request. Boy did THAT put a damper on the festivities!

So now I'm shopping around for a ticket to Korea. I found one on Air Asia that's going to be about 400 bucks. Including other travel expenses I need about 500 bucks. If I don't find it I will overstay my visa and forfeit my ability to work in this country. I will also be forced to find the money to allow them to deport me. Wall Street won't even LOAN me the money so that I can avoid this massive disaster and earn them whatever they would make from a year of my teaching. Where the hell did that corporate responsibility go? 10 months ago they were all appologetic offering me jobs and plane tickets and money... now they won't even give me 500 bucks to keep me out of jail. For a crime THEY committed. And this is Indonesian jail we're talking here.

I have friends I can stay with in Korea and borrow money from there. I think I'll be able to extremely reluctantly borrow the money from some friends to pay for the ticket. Believe it or not I STILL think that if Wall Street gets my KITAS and calls me back from Korea I will go because I have signed contracts and I don't break contracts. But MAN am I ever thinking hard about just staying in Korea now! The problem with that is I'm at least a month away from legal work in Korea because I need a criminal record check for that. The only work I could find in Korea for the next month would be illegal and that what I've been trying to avoid for the past year! Again, I can't for the life of me figure out why Wall Street won't help me out here knowing all of this. I'm starting to suspect that maybe THEY don't think my visa will be approved and they just don't have the stones to tell me. This is their amazingly irresponsible way of getting rid of me.

I've contacted the Canadian Embassy here and a couple other organizations that help Canadians overseas but they cannot intervene in issues of immigration, visas, national autonomy and so on and so forth. All they can do is ensure that I'm treated okay while I'm languishing in prison. A couple agencies, however, DID provide a list of lawyers here in Jakarta who deal with matters such as these. If I don't get my KITAS and go back to work for Wall Street, or maybe even if I do, they told me that I have legal recourse. I don't know if it would be worthwhile because it seldom is, but it might be something to look into. The problem I can forsee with THAT course of action would be that I can't afford a lawyer either. And if I could find one to work without pay, any settlement I might be able to get would most likely just be enough to cover his/her salary. This has been my experience with the law in Canada, never mind what might be the case over here! It would probably be handled the way things are handled over here. I'd most likely get hooked up with the law firm of Rush, Rush and Delay.

So that's what's going on now. What would my life, or this blog, be without all my travel drama?