We’ve used this headline a few times before in some of our blogs around ownership and management of villas and properties in Bali and Indonesia.
This time it’s about visas. So if you’re thinking about coming to Indonesia and possibly living and investing in Bali, you might want to spend 5-minutes reading this.
Since Indonesia closed its borders back in March 2020, more than a few expats got “stranded” in Bali, either by choice or because they where too late to get out.
Indonesian immigration and the government have done a tremendous job all this time, starting off by granting everyone an emergency status on their visas. Most other countries didn’t do this.
As the pandemic continued, and since August, Indonesia has allowed all expats to continue to extend their stay, and/ or change their visa to business/ social and stay permits without having to leave the country. There was some confusion and also some complaints when this first happened, but overall allowing this to take place, was again a remarkable policy.
Since August, Indonesia has also started to allow expats to come to the country for various reasons such as essential business, family reunions, investments, because they’re retirees and for business visits.
This has made it possible for people to start coming back to Bali (and Indonesia) for long-term visits. It means they can stay in great villas and have the time to consider if they would invest and eventually move to Bali.
Today we also got news that visits by yachts and people wanting to go on yachts in Indonesia is now also allowed.
All this is great news and gives Bali’s tourism industry some much-needed hope. However, we have also seen a lot of less responsive “agents” and agencies taking advantage of this situation.
Whether you’re in Indonesia already and you want to change or extend your visa or if you wish to enter Indonesia, we strongly suggest you do some homework as to the various visa options available and also research the agents and agencies out there offering services.
For example, an agent should have an office or a clear address, especially if they offer to be your sponsor. If you’re looking for a social visa however, then your sponsor is a ‘private individual’ and not a business.
In either case, there are times when you will need your sponsor like for extensions or if there are issues with immigration or other government institutions, so it pays to know where you can easily find them when you need them.
So what can you do (and not do), and how should the various visas be structured?
A Retiree KITAS is what it says it is. It’s for retirees, which in Indonesia is when you’re 55-years old or above, or at the very least you don’t have any commercial activities in Indonesia.
You need a sponsor that provides you with the documents you need and deals with possible extensions.
If you’re here or coming in on a Business Visa this is what you can do according to immigration’s own information. The visa type is called a 211 a / b.
The 211 a / b visa is for tourism, family, socio-cultural, government duties and business activities. The list includes:
- Tourism
- Family
- Social
- Arts and culture
- Government duties
- Sports that are not commercial in nature
- Comparative studies, short courses and short training
- Having business talks
- Make purchases of goods
- Give lectures or attend seminars
- Participating in international exhibitions
- Attending meetings held with representative head offices in Indonesia
- Continuing to travel to another country
- Join the means of transportation in the territory of Indonesia
- To carry out emergency and urgent work
- Industrial visiting activities include, among others, providing guidance, counseling and training in the application and innovation of industrial technology to improve the quality and design of industrial products as well as conducting audits, quality control of production or inspection of company branches in Indonesia. Prospective foreign workers in the work capability trial.
