Tag: visa on arrival

  • Do you need a visa for Bali in 2025?

    Do You Need a Visa for Bali? (2025 Guide)

    Who Needs a Visa for Bali in 2025?

    If you’re heading to Bali it’s quite likely you will need a visa, but which one depends on the length of your stay in Indonesia, and your nationality. I spent 3 months in Indonesia last year, and the biggest question to ask is whether you’re spending over 30 days in Indonesia.

    The view of the sunset at Sunset Bar in Munduk, with grass in the foreground and the hills in the background
    Sunset Bar Puri Lumbung, Munduk

    Staying in Bali under 30 days

    Visa on Arrival: Many countries can get the visa on arrival (VoA), which is officially known as the B1 visa. This is probably the easiest option for your trip, if you know for sure you will be in Indonesia less than 30 days.

    When you arrive at the airport it will be well signed, and there are plenty of staff to help. Just follow the signs to the VoA desks, pay for your visa which is IDR 500,000 – this roughly converts to the following:

    ~£25~€28~$35~AU$ 48~NZ$ 52

    You can pay card or cash, and it’s an incredibly easy process – Bali airport is well accustomed to tourists so everything is well signed.

    Apply Online: You can also apply for your visa online before your trip if you prefer, and if you think there is a chance you are going to extend your visa to another 30 days this is definitely the route you should take, as the extension rules have changed in 2025 for the VoA:

    Indonesia eVisa Portal

    Just check if your passport is from one of the below countries for either option:

    And if your passport is from one of these following countries, you don’t need a visa at all if your trip is less than 30 days:

    If your nationality isn’t listed as visa-free or for the VoA, you’ll need to apply for a different visa before arrival. Check for your nationality here and it will let you know which visa is required:

    Bali Visa Checker – bali.com

    Picture of Dreamland Beach in Uluwatu, Bali, with cliffs in the background and surfers in the foreground
    Dreamland Beach, Uluwatu

    Staying in Bali over 30 days – 2025 update

    Your first 30 day visa can be extended 1 time, whether you got it on arrival at the airport or online, so you can stay 60 days in Indonesia in total. This is inclusive of the day of arrival and day of departure.

    **If you applied for your 30 day visa online, you can extend it in online, which is the easiest route to take.**

    However, if you got the VoA, the rules have changed for 2025. You are no longer able to extend your visa without going to an immigration office in person to do a finger print and photo procedure – you may even have to go up to 3 times. Check for an immigration office in the town you’re in, otherwise you may have to go to Denpasar. You can also use an immigration agent to help with the process if you prefer.

    Now, for our 3 month trip to Indonesia we didn’t fancy heading to Denpasar 3 times and potentially being separated from our passports, so we decided to go on a visa run instead, which would be your alternative option. This is where you leave the country for a few days, and then you can re-enter Bali on a new 30 day visa on arrival. We spent 4 days in Kuala Lumpur, flew back to Bali, and got another 30 day visa at the airport when we landed.

    Cafe view overlooking rice fields in Munduk, Bali
    Munduk, Bali

    Staying in Bali over 60 days

    Whether you applied for your visa online or got it on arrival at the airport, you can only extend your visa one time, so if you’re planning on staying for longer than 60 days as a tourist in Indonesia, your only real option will be to then make a visa run after the first 60 days.

    Make sure you’ve planned this into your budget (we were caught off guard by last minute flight prices), and you can tick off another great destination on your journey. Our second visa run after 60 days was to Singapore, where we spent 3 days before heading back to Indonesia. We entered via boat to Sumatra and got a new VoA at the entry port, for a total of 90 days in Indonesia across 3 different visas on arrival for the whole 3 month trip.

    Picture of Kuta Beach in Lombok, with the sand in the foreground, and the sea and rock in the background
    Kuta Beach, Lombok

    Learn from our mistakes!


    • Check for public holidays – when we were looking to extend in May in Bali the immigration offices were closed for a few public holidays, so even if we hadn’t done our visa run to KL we likely wouldn’t have been able to extend our visas before they ran out. This includes online visa processing as the offices are completely closed on public holiday days.
    • Budget in your visa runs – we knew we’d have to make one visa run after 60 days so had planned to go to Singapore, but were not expecting our last minute trip to Kuala Lumpur. Last minute flights were eyewatering and blew our backpacker budgets out of the water, meaning we had to sacrifice on a few activities in our trip (RIP surfing lessons in Lombok 😪).

    Useful links:

    Always look for up to date visa information because it can change before you depart on any trip. A website I like to use is CIBT Visas – pop in your nationality, destination and reason for travel and it lets you know what visa you will need:

    www.cibtvisas.co.uk

    For Bali specifically you can also check for lots of info on bali.com:

    https://bali.com/bali/bali-visa-indonesia-entry-regulations/visa-on-arrival-voa/

    And the immigration website to apply/extend online for your visas is:

    Indonesia eVisa Portal.

    Explore Indonesia travel guides…

    Hi, I’m CJ and I’ve been backpacking New Zealand and South East Asia for the last 2 years. Explore my travel guides to help plan your next trip abroad 🌍

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