Bali, visa's

Hi All,

I'm going to be visiting bali later on in the year as part of my rtw route. I want to stay for as long as possible but I'm not sure how long I can actually stay as the visa's have changed recently.

Word on the street is that I can apply for a 60 day tourist visa from here in the uk and then get a 30 day extension if I find a sponser? anyone know from experience how easy it is to get the 30 day extension? how many times can this be renewed?

Anyone know where's best to stay on the east side of the island? around nusa dua, keramas?

thanks,

See Indonesia - Red Tape

thanks for that

It's not quite what I'm after though - I'm looking for someone with hands on experience of extending visa's while in Bali.

There's lots of talk of being able to extend the visa a further 30 days if you find a sponsor and apparently there's company's in Bali that will do this for a small fee. It seems you can stay longer in Bali but the government keep it quiet and there's no official word on the process. I'm hoping someone could advice me on how much it costs, how long it takes, if they're always granted and how many times they can be extended?

thanks though blinq

Quoting murphc09

thanks for that

It's not quite what I'm after though - I'm looking for someone with hands on experience of extending visa's while in Bali.

There's lots of talk of being able to extend the visa a further 30 days if you find a sponsor and apparently there's company's in Bali that will do this for a small fee. It seems you can stay longer in Bali but the government keep it quiet and there's no official word on the process. I'm hoping someone could advice me on how much it costs, how long it takes, if they're always granted and how many times they can be extended?

thanks though blinq

The way you describe it makes it obviously illegal. If you're stopped in a spotcheck and the 'visa' is proved to be false, you'll end up in prison. Indonesian prisons are some of the worst in the world with torture and beatings commonplace. You might want to consider that aspect before going down the road you propose.

it isn't illegal, it's perfectly legit.

Surfers have been doing it for years in bali, staying for 4+ months without needing to leave to get another visa on arrival. There's plenty of online information on blogs etc but nothing official. I wanted someone who had first hand information, I guess my best option would be the surfing forums.

"Application outside of Indonesia

You can apply for this kind of visa for instance at the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore (which is rumored to be the fastest and most effective one in Asia) or any other embassy or consulate back in your home country. The process at the embassy will take you 3 days and you will end up with a Visa (single- or multi-entry, again depending how much you spent), which is valid for 2 month and allows up to 4 renewals or extension within Indonesia. You will need a formal indonesian sponsor.

The first 2 months of this visa are obviously the most convenient ones, as you have 60 days in a row, where you don’t have to worry about visa problems. When the expiry date of your 2 months closes in, panic usually is setting in. 8-/

So, how to extend that thing? Cost me how much?

You have basically 2 options, to get your visa extended for another month:

pay a Visa Agency to do all the paper work for you
D.I.Y. - meaning, to deal with the Indonesia bureaucracy yourself
Option 1 is usually done by handing over your passport, some passport pictures and the amount of 400.000-600.000 Rupiah to an agent, who is doing all the paperwork and trip to the immigration offices for you. Those agencies are to be found all over Bali and are usually reliable (according to the expats I spoke to). Some even keep your passport the whole time or until you really have to leave the country for a re-newal or other trip.

If you don’t have that much money to spend (just imagine that you could buy about 16 to 32 large beer Bintang for the amount you could save) and if you have more time than money - why not go the extra mile and get your extension yourself for about 200.000 Rupiah only?

All you have to do is to show up at one of the 2 immigration offices in Bali (one is located directly at the Airport bypass, the other in a nice Balinese-style building in Jl. Panjaitan in Denpasar) and fill out the paper forms which will be thrown at you.

Actually it’s not that difficult: all officers speak english well enough, the forms are self-explaining and consist mainly of information from your passport and your sponsor in the first place. Fill them out, copy your passport (personals page and stamp/visa page) and hand it over to one of the officers. Voila! You can be out there in 10-15 minutes!

You have to come back usually twice: one time to ‘learn’, that your visa extension is approved and that *now* is the right time for you to hand-over the above mentioned 200.000 Rupiah. That is usually a matter of 2 minutes and you are out again. Then you have to come back the next day to pick up your stamped/extended passport."

I think you're being a bit naive. Sure these things go on and Indonesia tops the bill as the most corrupt country in Asia, but just because there are certain 'agencies' around that arrange these things for you, doesn't make it legal.

You might recall that when you entered the country your details are fed into a central computer. That information remains in the database and shows when you arrived in the country and when you're due to leave.

Now let's assume you find someone who is willing to bend the rules for you for a certain fee. So you hand over your passport (a horrifying thought) to a complete stranger who supposedly processes the application for you. Sometime later, you receive it back with your new 'visa'. So the first question that springs to mind is, how do you know that the visa is genuine? After all, you're not going to get a receipt from the guy are you and therefore you have no way of knowing whether he has in fact been across the border on your behalf to get the visa renewed.

If it is forged, you're in serious trouble because you now have a stamp in your passport which isn't genuine. So let's say you're out and about one day and you come into contact with the police. Maybe a minor traffic accident through no fault of your own. The first thing which is going to happen is the police will want to see your passport. They will then compare the data on the central computer with the stamps in your passport. If any questions arise about the validity of your supposedly genuine visa, you will be detained, probably locked up in a six foot square cell with a dozen other undesirables who are also on remand while the police examine your case.

Need I go on?

[ Edit: Edited on 27-Apr-2009, at 06:54 by Blinq ]

Look, Stop being so suspicious, this is a genuine visa which can be acquired from the central Indonesian embassy in Bali or from the embassy in Singapore, the agents do the running round for you so you can continue to enjoy your stay in Bali. That's why I was asking for advice on the process, I'd like to know more about it, I may well end up doing it myself through the embassy in Bali.

The choices are :

1) Do it yourself, get a sponsor, do the paperwork, visit the embassy, return for payment etc etc = Lots of hard work

2) Get an agency to do the work for you for a small payment = relax and continue to enjoy your travels.

I've heard of hundreds of people who stay in Bali for months on end, it's LEGAL as they continue to renew their visa's, they continue to spend money and behave, one guy on a blog has managed to stay in Bali for a whole year so far using the agents to renew his visa when required and he's not encountered any problems.

[ Edit: Edited on 27-Apr-2009, at 08:05 by murphc09 ]

Quoting murphc09

Look, Stop being so suspicious, this is a genuine visa which can be acquired from the central Indonesian embassy in Bali or from the embassy in Singapore, the agents do the running round for you so you can continue to enjoy your stay in Bali. That's why I was asking for advice on the process, I'd like to know more about it, I may well end up doing it myself through the embassy in Bali.

The choices are :

1) Do it yourself, get a sponsor, do the paperwork, visit the embassy, return for payment etc etc = Lots of hard work

2) Get an agency to do the work for you for a small payment = relax and continue to enjoy your travels.

I've heard of hundreds of people who stay in Bali for months on end, it's LEGAL as they continue to renew their visa's, they continue to spend money and behave, one guy on a blog has managed to stay in Bali for a whole year so far using the agents to renew his visa when required and he's not encountered any problems.

1. 1 = Legal


2. 2 = Illegal - you'll see at sign at airport immigration to that effect, together with the penalties.

But it's your funeral....

Only one way to find out

If you do end up in the slammer, PLEASE PLEASE don't have a romance with Chapelle Corby cause I'll be reading about it in my wife's magazines for months