Bali is great if you want to find a place to chill and take care of yourself for some time, and Indonesia has a friendly free 30-day tourist visa for 140 nationalities in the world. I already knew that 30-day wouldn’t be enough for me as I totally fell in love with the island when I was here last time (August 2018), so I was quite determined to stay in Bali for more than 30 days after I quit my job. This post is a simple, step-by-step instruction that guides you through the complete process of getting your Indonesia 60-day tourist visa extension in Bali.
**This post is written in March 2019. Rules and regulations may change later, so please do some additional search yourself just in case.**
Many people choose to use an agent or fly to Singapore/Kuala Lumpur and back to avoid the process, but I was determined to do the Indonesia 60 Day tourist visa extension by myself. (I personally prefer to see through the whole process instead of putting it in someone else’s hands.) I’m not going to lie – It’s quite time-consuming, but it’s very straight forward.
Key Facts for Bali and Indonesia:
- Visa Regulations are based on your passport/nationality – 140 nationalities can get a Free Entry Stamp (max. stay 30 days.)
- A Free Entry Stamp CANNOT be extended.
- Passport must always be valid for 6 months (for social visa 12 months) from the day of arrival. No exceptions.
- Keep a page on the passport empty for the stamp or visa sticker.
- 60 days IS NOT 2 months! The Day of arrival counts as day one, the day of departure counts as a full day, too. Count your days precisely when you book your departure flight.
- If you overstay, the penalty fee is IDR 300,000 per day.
- Don’t bring more than IDR 100mio in cash (ca. $ 7,000 USD)
**This post only discusses the 60-day tourist visa extension. If you want to stay longer than 60 days, you need other extension visas such as social or KITAS. Please check here.**
Before you go through the immigration at the airport (whether you use an agent or not):
- You must pay $35 USD for your VISA ON ARRIVAL (VOA) BEFORE you go through the immigration at the airport. There’s a little counter on the left side. (You’ll actually go through immigration faster because you won’t be in the same line as the people who are entering Bali visa-free.)
- You need to give them a specific date of departure that’s within 60 days after your arrival even if you don’t have a departure ticket yet.
- You will receive a little purple slip at the airport. That is your VOA Payment. Guard it with your life because you’ll need this at the immigration office for your application submission.
**Important Notes**
- You need to begin the visa application process within 3 weeks after your arrival. I began my application pretty much right away after I arrived in Bali just to get it out of the way.
- You need to visit the office on 3 separate days for application submission, photo & interview, and passport pick-up. If you’re not ready to spend the time, you should probably skip the rest of this post altogether.
- Plan at least 9 days for the 60-day tourist visa extension in Bali. I submitted my application on a Monday, had my photo & interview scheduled on a Thursday, and my pick-up day was the following Tuesday. If you are going to the Nusa Dua Office, plan at least two weeks just to be on the safe side. (I met someone who processed his in that office, and it took way longer.)
- They will take away your passport, and you won’t be able to get it back until the pick-up day. Plan your travel accordingly.
The documents you’ll need to prepare to bring to Immigration:
- Your passport
- 1 copy of your passport picture page.
- 1 copy of the departure flight ticket from Indonesia.
- 1 copy of visa on arrival receipt.
- 1 copy of the visa sticker page on your passport.
- Name, address, phone number, and email of your accommodation
- IDR 500,000 for application submission (on top of the $35 USD you paid at the airport)
**Find out where you can make copies around Bali** (It should cost you no more than IDR 2,000.)
- I used the name of my accommodation and their contact info as my local sponsor. I didn’t fill in the e-mail, and it was fine.
- Contact your villa/homestay/host/accommodation and tell them that you’ll be using their name and address for the visa extension.
Before you go to the immigration office:
Go as early as possible to avoid the long line. I arrived around 10 am and thought that was early enough, but I was wrong. In fact, I didn’t get to submit my application until 1:30 pm as they were on break from 12 pm – 1 pm! (there were 5 numbers left until it was my turn before they took the break. Talking about poor luck.)
Avoid handling your Bali 60-day tourist visa extension process during or even the day or 2 after the Balinese holidays.
I definitely learned this the hard way – I drove 30 minutes and tried to submit my application the day after Nyepi (Balinese New Year), and that did not work out at all. I actually checked the Denpasar immigration office’s official website for their business hours. The website said they’d accept application submission that day. IT WAS A LIE.
MAKE SURE YOU GO TO THE IMMIGRATION OFFICE ACCORDING TO THE AREA YOU’RE STAYING (or where you’ve booked your accommodation.)
I also learned that I COULD NOT apply at the Denpasar office if I used my hostel’s address in Canggu. Some blog posts on the web said you should go to the one that’s the closest to you. That is NOT exactly how it works.
Canggu is the odd baby – If you live Canggu, you need to go to the Nusa Dua Office. NOT the closest office to you. (It sucks because the Denpasar Office is so much closer!) I had accommodation booked in Ubud, so I just stayed in Canggu and used the address of my homestay in Ubud to apply for the visa.
The rest of the tourist areas such as Kuta, Seminyak, Uluwatu, Legion, and Jimbaran all go to the Nusa Dua Office.
Day 1: 60-Day Extension Tourist Visa Application Submission
- Pick a ticket number from the machine, have all your documents ready and wait.
- After the officer takes your application form, you wait for them to call your name to pick up your payment receipt (bukti pengantar pembayaran) at counter B. The receipt should have your photo & interview date on it.
- Go to the little orange van right outside of the office and use the receipt to pay your IDR 355k. After you pay, they will return the same receipt to you and staple the “actual” payment receipt to it (So you get two payment receipts in total.)
Day 2: Photo & Interview
- Go to counter 4 (not the machine) that says “Reporting for Photo” to get a ticket number (begin with letter C) and wait.
- In the photo & Interview room, they will ask for your fingerprints (all 10 fingers one by one!), as well as several standard questions, such as:
- Your name
- How many times have you been to Indonesia
- Where are you staying? (In my case, I was actually staying in Canggu for the meantime, but I had to answer Ubud.)
- What are you here for?
- Do you have any family or friends here?
- Are you traveling with anyone?
After they’ve taken your picture and finished the interview, they will return the same payment receipt you got last time with the pick-up date, and you are free to go!
Day 3: Pick-up Day
This is the easy one! Just go to the office between 1-4 pm with your receipt to pick up your passport, and you are all set to enjoy the rest of your time in Indonesia!
**On Day 2, the officer at the interview told me that I must come to pick up my passport before 1:30 pm, which was a lie! (Or I was hallucinating.) The officer still gave me my passport with my visa extension step on it when I was there at 8:20 am though.
Everyone who wants to extend a visa without an agent must read this article.
Now the fee for application submission is IDR 500,000.
Thank you for reminding me to update that information. YES. Fees has gone up!