The wealth of natural resources, especially as a producer of plantation commodities traded on the world market, made the territory of Indonesia which was mostly controlled by the Dutch East Indies to attract various foreign countries to participate in developing the plantation commodity trading business. In order to regulate the flow of foreign arrivals to the Dutch East Indies, the colonial government in 1913 established the office of the Secretary of the Immigration Commission and because its duties and functions continued to grow, in 1921 the office of the secretary of the immigration commission was changed to immigratie dients (immigration services).

The immigration service during the colonial administration of the Dutch East Indies was under Director Yustisi, whose organizational structure saw the formation of committees such as visa applications and other necessary divisions. Corps ambtenaar immigratie expanded. Experienced and highly educated personnel are employed at the centre. Not a few of them are consignments from the Netherlands (uitgezonden krachten). All key immigration office positions are in the hands of Dutch officials.

The immigration policy set by the Dutch East Indies government was open-door politics (opendeur politiek). Through this policy, the Dutch East Indies government opened the widest possible way for foreigners to enter, live, and become citizens of the Dutch East Indies. The main purpose of implementing the "open door" immigration policy was to obtain allies and investors from various countries in order to develop exports of plantation commodities in the Dutch East Indies region. In addition, the presence of foreigners can also be used to jointly exploit and suppress the indigenous population.

Although it continues to grow (adding immigration offices in various regions), the organizational structure of the Dutch East Indies government immigration service is relatively simple. This is thought to be related to the relatively small amount of traffic arriving and departing from and/or out of the country at that time. There were only 3 (three) areas of immigration handled during the Dutch East Indies administration, namely: (a) the field of permits for entry and stay of people; (b) the area of ​​residence of foreigners; and (c) the field of citizenship. To regulate these three fields, the government regulations used are Toelatings Besluit (1916); Toelatings Ordonnantie (1917); and Regelings Passport (1918).