Bali lovers have just been awarded a huge win from Indonesia’s Directorate General of Immigration. Indonesia’s Ministry of Immigration has announced the launch of a 5-year multiple-entry visa for tourism and business activities.
The huge move comes as part of Director General of Immigration, Silmy Karim, is on a mission to modernize the Indonesian immigration system for citizens and foreigners.
He wants to create a world-class immigration service that is affordable, efficient, and works to the benefit of all who use it.
The new D1 Visa is part of the Tourism, Family Visit, and Transit visa category. The visa will also allow successful applicants to visit Indonesia for up to 60 days at a time over the course of five years.
Information supplied by the Department of Immigration has not outlined how closely the 60-day periods can be used back to back.
Other multiple-entry visas require holders to leave the country for a minimum of 24 hours and then return.
Though some people have cut this even shorter and taken the last flight of the day out of the country, staying overnight in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur and coming back on an early morning flight the following day.
However, this is not a visa designed for foreigners to live in Indonesia essentially; the vast majority of visa holders won’t be using the 60-day periods back to back.
The visa costs IDR 15,000,000 and must be paid online to the Department of Immigration in Indonesian Rupiah at the point of application.
With this visa holders can attend meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions as participants. Alternatively, holders can conduct activities related to tourism and visit friends and family in Indonesia.
Visa holders must comply with Indonesian and provincial laws and regulations, respect local customs, culture, and wisdom, and have sufficient living expenses while in Indonesia.
Visa holders are not permitted to conduct income-generating work or business in Indonesia, though this is a viable option for digital nomads whose income is generated online and from activities conducted online or outside Indonesia.
The Department of Immigration says D1 visa holders have stated: “Staying in Indonesia over the period of your stay permit, engaging in prohibited activities, not complying with visa conditions, and/or not complying with Indonesian laws may result in you paying fines, being deported, and/or other legal charges.”
They add, “You are prohibited from selling goods or services” and “you are prohibited from working in an employment relationship with an individual or corporation in Indonesia.”
Key details to note before applying for the D1 visa are that the applicant must apply on a passport that is valid for at least 6 months, supply proof of living expenses of at least USD 2,000 or equivalent, and provide a recent color photograph and additional documents.
Additional documents that are required are either “Information, invitations, or correspondence from government agencies or private institutions that explain the relationship with the applicant.”
Alternatively, applications can provide a “Statement letter from the spouse or parents explaining the family relationship with the applicant and the activities to be carried out in Indonesia, attached with a family card / similar document.”
Like many tourist visas in other countries around the world, this requirement essentially calls for a letter of accountability or invitation.
For Bali lovers who already have relationships with people in Indonesia, they can ask friends and family members to write such a statement letter.
For those requiring a visa for businesses the letter can easily be produced by the organization sending them to Indonesia, for tourists who frequently visit Bali but don’t have those relationships there will be visa agents who will start advertising application support for the D1 visa.
Tourists are highly recommended to only work with visa agents who come with personal recommendations and to be on high alert for fraudulent and scam visa agent services, especially online.
With this in mind, there is only one official Indonesian Immigration website for visa applications, and that is https://molina.imigrasi.go.id/ – this is the same website where travelers can apply for the visa on Arrival, Second Home Visa and all other temporary stay visa categories.
