Are you looking to travel to Indonesia and wondering how you will fit all the bucket-list destinations into a 30-day itinerary? Well, you’re not alone. From the beautiful beaches of the Gili Islands to learning to surf on Lombok to hiking Mt Ijen in Java, there are many great things to do in Indonesia. For most nationalities, the longest tourist visa you can receive is the standard 30-day tourist Visa-on-Arrival. This is also called a B211A Visa or Indonesia VOA. However, extending this to a 60-day visa is possible once you are in Indonesia. If you’re currently in Indonesia and need help extending your visa, or if you’re planning to travel for more than 30 days in the future, I’ll walk you through the visa extension process.
Once you have entered Indonesia on your 30-day Visa-on-Arrival (VOA), you can extend it by another 30 days from its end date. You can do this either by extending it yourself or through an agency. I spoke to a few people, did some research online, and decided to extend my visa through an agency. Most other travellers I met made the same decision due to the ease and convenience of using an agency. However, some ex-pats or travellers who spoke Bahasa Indonesian extended it themselves to save the agency fees. Keen to learn some basic Indonesian phrases for travelling? Check out my guide to the best phrases to learn for backpackers here.
How much does it cost to extend a tourist visa in Indonesia?
Whether you extend the visa yourself or go through an agency, there is a standard cost of 525k Indonesian Rupiah ($35 USD). This is the same price as the original Visa-on-Arrival for Indonesia (VOA). Many scam agencies advertise visa extensions for less than this price, so be wary. No legitimate agency will advertise a price less than 525k Indonesian Rupiah ($35 USD) as that is the amount charged by the Indonesian Department of Immigration. Most reputable agencies have a set price for tourist visa extensions (so no haggling!) of around 850k Indonesian Rupiah ($56 USD). This price includes the standard immigration extension charge of 525k Indonesian Rupiah ($35 USD) plus a service charge of 315k Indonesian Rupiah ($21 USD), which is a service charge that goes to the agency for organising the visa on your behalf.
I’ve thrown a lot of different numbers around. To make things a bit easier, below is a chart with the exact amounts:
| Cost of going through an agency | Cost of doing it yourself (without a visa agency) | |
| Initial Visa on Arrival (VOA)– 30 Days This is the visa you receive at the airport when you first arrive in Indonesia. | $35 USD | $35 USD |
| Cost of Visa Extension- additional 30 Days (meaning you get 60 Days total in Indonesia) This is the minimum amount owed to the Indonesian Department of Immigration for your visa to be extended | $35 USD | $35 USD |
| The Agency service charge for organising visa extension for you This is the money paid to the Visa Agency. If you do it yourself, you do not pay for this. | $21 USD | $0 |
| Total money spent on Visa Costs for 60 days in Indonesia | $91 USD | $70 USD |
What documentation do you need to have to extend your Indonesian Tourist Visa?
Before you even walk into an agency or start filling out e-forms to extend your visa, you will need the following:
- Your passport (not a copy). If you go through a visa agency, they must keep your passport to organise the visa for you. This is standard practice for visa agencies, although, a bit nerve-wracking being without your passport in a foreign country!
- A return flight ticket within the extension period. So if you arrive in Indonesia on the 1st of May 2023, you will be granted 30 days until the 30th of May 2023. Extending your visa for an additional 30 days will give you up until the 29th of June, 2023. You will need an actual ticket out of Indonesia before this date, or they will reject the visa extension.
- Money to pay up-front for the total cost of the Visa extension. Most agencies accept credit cards as well.
How long does it take to extend your tourist visa?
Most agencies will tell you to allow around ten business days from start to finish to extend your tourist visa. One thing to keep in mind is how many public holidays and religious celebrations there are in Indonesia, particularly in Bali. My visa took much longer because there were three public holidays when the immigration office was shut, which delayed all the visa applications.
If you know you will be staying more than 30 days when you arrive in Indonesia, it’s best to start the process when you first arrive. I had to backtrack to Canggu to begin the process and again for my immigration appointment because I didn’t plan for it.
Most visa agencies will offer a standard and express processing time (which is generally much more expensive). For example, Baliviza (the agency I used) charges 850k Indonesian Rupiah ($56 USD) for a standard processing time of 14 business days and 1200k Indonesian Rupiah ($80 USD) for an express processing time of 5 business days.
So if you’re within 14 business days, taking into account Indonesian holidays, of the end of your initial 30-day VOA, do you need to pay extra for the express visa? Not necessarily, actually. The visa application only needs to be submitted to Indonesian immigration before your initial VOA date ends. Still, it can be processed and completed after that date. That means you have a lee-way with the dates.
I know a few people who left it a bit late and couldn’t get an immigration appointment before their initial visa was due to expire. However, it didn’t matter because the Immigration Department had received their request to extend before the initial visa expiry date. Their extension visas were approved, and they weren’t charged any visa overstay fines. While I wouldn’t recommend waiting too long to start the visa extension process, I also wouldn’t stress too much about paying extra for an express visa.
One slightly inconvenient thing is the inconsistency in wait times to get an appointment at immigration. Some people I met had an appointment within seven days of applying for an extension, whereas I had to wait 14 days. I had to text the visa agency and ask them for a time before a specific date as I wanted to go to the Gili Islands and then Lombok and didn’t want to backtrack. They were pretty understanding of this and helped me get my preferred date.
If I did my time again, I would apply for a visa extension when I first arrived in Indonesia and while I was staying in Canggu near the visa office. I would then stay on Bali’s mainland, awaiting my appointment time, travelling to places like Ubud, Amed, Uluwatu and Sidemen. That way, if you get a text with an appointment time for the next day, you can venture back overland to attend the immigration office. Only after receiving the extension would I head to the islands or Lombok.
The actual process of extending your Indonesian Tourist Visa
Step one: Decide which Visa Agency you’re going to use. I used Baliviza in Canggu after recommendations from other travellers and had a great experience. As you have to leave your passport, make sure you trust the agency and have checked the reviews online. Most popular agencies are in either Canggu, Kuta, Seminyak or Ubud. So make sure you sort out your extension before you leave for the islands!
Step two: Go into the agency with your passport (remember not a copy) and outbound flight ticket. You must pay the total cost and leave your passport securely with the agency. Some agencies offer a courier service, where they pick up your passport from your hostel, and you pay online.
Step three: You will receive a WhatsApp message from the visa agency with your appointment time to visit an Indonesian immigration office. If you’re in Bali, the only office is called Ngurah Rai Immigration Office, and it is south of the airport. You can request a different time or day if this doesn’t suit you, but there are limited time slots. I asked for a slot first thing in the morning, which, in my opinion, is the ideal time to visit immigration.
Step four: Go to the immigration office before your assigned appointment time. At the immigration office, you will have your photos and fingerprints taken. The immigration officer may ask you a few standard questions. After that, you will receive a receipt confirming your visa extension.
Step five: Collect your passport from your visa office before departing the country.
What to Expect at the Immigration Office:
There is a strict dress code for immigration, so you must cover your shoulders, chest and knees. They do have sarongs and coverups at the door, which they lend to you for free to wear if you are not covered up. They enforce this more for women than men. For example, I had long pants on, and they still made me put on one of their free sarongs to enter.
A bit of a warning about the immigration offices (particularly the Bali one)- they are organised chaos. I had an appointment first thing in the morning. I got there right before the immigration office opened, and about 200 other people (all with appointments) were queuing outside the office, waiting for it to open. Once you enter, report to the worker standing in the doorway. The employee will give you a piece of paper with a number. After that, you have to go to the large waiting area behind. If you’re lucky, you may get a seat, but more than 50% of the people there had to stand.
The immigration office has multiple desks with different letters assigned to them, like desk A, desk B, and desk C. Some desks were for specific visa types like working visas or digital nomad visas. They call the following number in the queue by displaying it on a large screen above the desk. So, you do have to keep an eye out on all desks in case your number pops up. If you miss your turn, they don’t wait around or call out the number; you’ll have to get another number and go to the end of the queue again.
Despite the large numbers of people in the immigration office, the actual officers are super efficient! Once your number appears, you go to the desk and take some photos and fingerprints. The immigration officer may ask you a few standard questions. They will give you a visa extension receipt, and you’re good to go. You will have to collect your passport from your visa agency at a later date before you leave the country. The total time in the immigration office was 1 hour because I got there so early and queued waiting for the office to open. Some people spend a whole afternoon in immigration, so make sure you allow extra time.
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