The island of Bali, Indonesia, is among the most popular destinations in the world in 2025.
To visit Bali you need to get a visa to Indonesia, with a duration of 30 days, 60 days, and options of up to 6 months or 1 year. There are no free visas or exemptions for Indonesia, except for citizens of Southeast Asian countries.
Here is our complete guide on how to apply for a visa online for Bali, Indonesia, and tips on the most popular visa types.
In a hurry? Apply directly for a Bali visa at this link to complete the process in just a few minutes!
WHAT VISA DO YOU NEED FOR BALI?
To avoid misunderstandings, let’s always remember that Bali is not an independent nation, but an island part of Indonesia. For convenience, we’ll refer to the destination as Bali/Indonesia in this article.
In order to know which type of Bali visa to apply for, you must first decide the duration of your trip to Indonesia, whether less or more than 30 days. It’s also possible to extend some types of visa (paragraph 7), the procedure varies from case to case.
Below we list the best options for a short, medium or long-term tourist visa in Bali and Indonesia.
Please note: This information is updated as of March 2025, however visa legislation changes often. Check for updates or contact us in the comment section at the bottom of the post.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- 1. Visa On Arrival up to 30 days
- 2. Visa On Arrival up to 60 days
- 3. Tourist Visa C1, extendable up to 180 days
- 4. E33G Visa for remote work and digital nomads
- 5. Documents required
- 6. Do you need an exit flight ticket?
- 7. How to extend your visa to Bali
- 8. More types of Bali/Indonesia visas
- 9. Conclusions
1. BALI VISA UP TO 30 DAYS
If you’re travelling to Bali/Indonesia for a trip of less than 30 days, the Visa On Arrival (V.O.A.) is the best option. Visa On Arrival means the possibility of getting the visa for Indonesia when you arrive at the airport. This is the traditional method used for decades, which involves filling out forms, customs procedures and queues at the airport.
However, since 2022 the e-Visa On Arrival has been introduced. This is the electronic version of the visa, to be requested online before your trip to Bali/Indonesia. Like many online procedures, the e-Visa On Arrival speeds things up, we recommend it and always use it ourselves. The Visa Indonesia website allows you to compare services from the immigration website and to take advantage of support via Whatsapp, as well as receiving a potential refund.
The cost of the 30-day visa is 500,000 Indonesian rupiah, about $35 plus site, bank or currency exchange fees. We suggest applying at least 7-10 days before your trip to Bali to be safe.
The Visa On Arrival is available for over 80 countries, check your eligibility here. For not eligible passports, you’ll need to apply for a C1 Tourist Visa (paragraph 3).
2. BALI VISA UP TO 60 DAYS
If you are already sure that you’ll stay in Bali and Indonesia for up to 60 days and no longer, you may want to consider applying online for the 60-day e-Visa On Arrival, with the price including the extension that the agency will take care of.
This way you can stay in Bali for 60 days without having to leave. Alternatively, you can extend the 30-day visa (paragraph 7) by yourself, online or in person at the immigration office.
It’s not possible to extend the Visa On Arrival beyond 60 days. For a longer visa, we recommend the C1 visa, see below.
After the approval of the 30 or 60-day e-Visa On Arrival, the visa is registered directly in your passport. At the airport you can skip the queues and head straight to the automatic machines for the biometric reading of your eligible passport.
More information here on the 30+30 day visa.
3. BALI TOURIST VISA UP TO 60-180 DAYS
The C1 visa for Indonesia (Single Entry Tourist Visa) offers the possibility of getting a 60-day stay, extendable twice for another 60+60 days, up to 180 days without leaving Bali or Indonesia.
Clearly the price of the C1 visa is higher compared to extending the Visa On Arrival. The cost, starting from 2 million rupiah (about 130$) includes the Visa Indonesia service for acting as sponsor, and allows you to stay in Bali and Indonesia for a total of up to 180 consecutive days without ever having to leave the country.
This way you won’t have to worry about doing a Visa Run abroad, i.e. booking flights and hotels in a nearby country, expenses that added together easily become more expensive than the C1 visa. Not to mention the time savings in terms of days.
The C1 visa offers a lot of freedom to those who don’t have specific plans and want to keep the option of extending their stay in Bali/Indonesia open. This visa is also the best option for passport holders who are not eligible for Visa On Arrival.
DOES THE C1 VISA ALLOW TO WORK IN BALI?
Before the introduction of the E33G Digital Nomad visa (see below), the C1 visa was a grey area for remote workers. It does allow for a long stay, but not to legally work.
However, some intangible activities such as online consulting or abroad video meetings are not technically work and would therefore be allowed. The uncertainty remains, of course if questioned by an officer you must declare that you’re in Bali/Indonesia for tourism when applying for the C1 visa.
Once the visa is approved, you have 90 days to enter the country. We recommend applying at least a couple of weeks in advance.
You can apply for the 60-180 days C1 visa here, or apply for a C1 visa extension here. Remember that when extending your visa, you must use the same site/agency used for the first application, so that all data matches.
4. KITAS VISA FOR REMOTE WORK IN BALI
For those who want to work remotely in all respects and with the benefits of the case, here’s the new E33G visa.
Since 2024, the E33G visa, known as Kitas Remote Work Visa or Digital Nomad Visa Indonesia, has finally been available.
This visa was created for those who want to stay in Bali and Indonesia for a long time, for a stay during which they can travel and work remotely, as digital nomads or freelancers.
We specify that remote work means that your job can never be carried out with Indonesian companies, nor be on-site with Indonesian partners, employees or employers.
The E33G visa allows multiple entries during one year of stay in Bali/Indonesia. Therefore, it’s possible both to stay in the country and to exit and re-enter without new visas or additional payments.
ALSO READ: Seasons and best months to visit Bali
BALI/INDONESIA DIGITAL NOMAD VISA
The key difference compared to the C1 visa is that the Remote Work or Digital Nomad Visa offers many benefits related to staying up to 365 days. For example, the possibility of opening a bank account, getting a driver’s license and also buying a car/motorcycle, renting land or property, obtaining discounts on medical care.
All these aspects are not allowed with the other visas mentioned before. However, one of the visa requirements is to demonstrate a salary of at least $60,000 annually. The cost of the Digital Nomad Indonesia visa is relatively high (starting from $775 per year) but includes the various benefits listed above, with the aim of solving the grey area issue of previous visas. This visa is also renewable, not extendable, for up to 5 years.
Considering that the C1 tourist visa may cost $360 if extended up to 180 days, after which it requires leaving the country for a new application, the E33G visa is overall good value for money with its benefits and long stay times of up to 365 days.
The long-awaited Digital Nomad Visa Indonesia is therefore positioned as a complete visa to stay and work remotely and legally in Bali/Indonesia for a year at a time up to 5 years, taking advantage of the potential benefits.
Find all details here on the Digital Nomad Visa Indonesia E33G.
5. DOCUMENTS REQUIRED
Slightly different documents are required for each visa category to Bali/Indonesia, depending on the purpose of the visa itself. Usually the main documents and requirements are:
- A Passport valid for at least 6 months (12-18 months for 180-365 day visas).
- A return/exit flight ticket. We discuss this in detail in the next paragraph.
- The immigration card filled with personal travel details if applying at the airport. Alternatively, the application with your details online.
- Cash if applying at the airport, 500,000 IDR or $35 for a 30-day visa. USD and Euros are accepted with exchange rates rounded down. Payable online with Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, etc.
- Sufficient funds for your trip, at least €2,000. This has never happened to us, but we heard that proof may be required for tourist visas from time to time. Also, an employment contract and proof of minimum salary of $60,000 is needed for the E33G visa.
6. DO YOU NEED AN EXIT TICKET FOR BALI?
We get asked this question a lot, especially by those who travel for longer periods of time and have no specific plans to leave the country.
The answer is yes. To enter Bali and Indonesia, you are asked to show a plane ticket as proof of future departure from the country. This is to avoid cases of overstay, or illegal stays beyond the terms of the visa, which is not uncommon in Bali. When applying online, you must upload the plane ticket.
There are 2 ways to solve the exit flight issue if you haven’t purchased your plane ticket yet. The first is to apply on the Visa Indonesia website, which allows you to request a Visa to Bali/Indonesia even without having an exit flight, by selecting the appropriate box in the options.
The second way is to buy a ticket yourself through Onwardify.com. This site issues temporary flight reservations, valid for 48 hours, at a fixed cost of $14. Reservations are legitimate and accepted by customs and embassies for visa purposes.
We recommend and use Onwardify tickets for Bali, Indonesia, and beyond. In fact, often when travelling to Indonesia or anywhere in the world, it’s advisable to take care of visas first, even before buying flight tickets. More info on Onwardify.com.
7. EXTENDING YOUR VISA TO BALI/INDONESIA
Once you’re in Bali, you can also extend your visa online or in person, similarly to your original application.
The physical procedure is cheaper but not very simple. You need to go in person to the immigration office, two or three times over a period of about ten days. The first time to book for the procedure, the second time to start it in case it’s not done immediately, and the last time to collect your passport with the visa extension.
For this reason, it’s better to extend your Indonesian visa online, saving time and paperwork. If you don’t trust yourself to fill the application, use the Visa Indonesia website to compare options from the immigration website and to get support via Whatsapp, as well as to receive a refund in case of visa extension refusal.
More details here for the Visa On Arrival extension and the C1 Tourist Visa extension.
Documents needed for the extension are almost the same as for the Bali/Indonesia visa application:
- A Passport valid for at least 6 months (12 months if you want to extend a 180-day visa).
- A return/exit flight ticket (see above).
- Confirmation of your current visa, received by email after your first application online or in hard copy at the airport.
- Cash if you go to the immigration office, starting from 500,000 rupees. Or you can use debit/credit cards for online payments.
8. MORE TYPES OF VISAS
For the sake of completeness, we also mention the possibility of obtaining additional specific visas for Bali and Indonesia. For instance, for business, volunteering, retirement or investment reasons. There are in fact various visas for every purpose, for those who want to open a business or even buy a house in Bali.
It’s important to choose the correct visa and not go beyond the concessions of each visa. For example, remember that with a tourist visa you cannot physically work in Bali, or be paid by a Balinese, nor hire Balinese staff or assistants. You need a Kitas Work Visa to work in Indonesia.
The Volunteer Visa Indonesia C6 is designed for those who plan to do volunteer work in Bali or Indonesia. It has a standard duration of 60 days, extendable twice 60+60, up to 180 days, and allows you to work without being paid.
You may need a Business Visa C2 specific to run a business, or a 1-year Pre-Investment Visa D12 for investment purposes in Bali/Indonesia. Checks are frequent on the island, as are fines and expulsions for those who don’t respect the law. It’s always worth relying on a recognised and well-reviewed agency.
9. CONCLUSIONS
In summary, for trips under 30 days you can enter Bali and Indonesia with a Visa On Arrival, which can be requested upon arrival at the airport or online at least 7-10 working days before departure. It’s also possible to extend your Bali visa online.
For trips longer than 30 days up to 180 days or a year, check your options here.
Finally, please note that we are not a visa agency, this article is for informational purposes only. We recommend comparing the options listed above and the specific links for full details.
We hope this has clarified your ideas, if you have any questions please contact us!
ALSO READ:
Bali best beaches in Uluwatu, Kuta, Amed, Sanur
North-east Bali, guide to the real and autenthic Bali
Where to stay in Bali: hotels and best areas
Bali ceremonies, culture and festivals
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