New visa policy effective on 1st February 2004

The Ngurah Rai International Airport and Benoa Harbor in Bali will start to charge visitors with Visa on Arrival (VoA) when the new visa regulation is put into effect on February 1st, 2004. The Ngurah Rai International Airport and Benoa Harbor are the gateways to the Island of Gods.

Sources said that the new visa policy will be effective on February 1st, 2004.
Indonesia will charge foreigners US$25 for a 30-day nonrenewable visa or US$10 for a 3 day visit upon arrival.

It would take several minutes for immigration officers to process a visa-on-arrival request because the visa-on-arrival services and facilities are provided at immigration clearance desks at either airports or harbours.

Citizens of 21 countries will be offerred the facility VISA ON ARRIVAL, they are : South Africa, Argentina, Denmark, The United Arab Emirates, Italy, Canada, Poland, South Korea, New Zealand, France, United States, Britain, Australia, Japan, France, Hungary, Norway, Swiss, Taiwan, Brazil and Finland. The procedure on the airport should not not take more then 7 minutes.

Justice and Human Rights Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said that the government would regulate the implementation of VoA in several gateways to Indonesia, including the Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Jakarta, Polonia Airport in Medan, North Sumatera, Sam ratulangi Airport in Manado, North Sulawesi, Tabing Airport in Padang, Batam Harbor, Sibolga Harbor, Belawan in North Sumatera, Tanjung Priuk Harbor in Jakarta, Tanjung Perak in East Java and Jayapura Harbor in Papua.

The decree grants a visa-free facility to visitors from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, the Philippines, Hongkong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative Region, Chile, Morocco, Peru and Vietnam.

Vietnam decided to offer visa-free facility to Indonesia on December 4 of last year and therefore, the country is also granted with visa-free facility.

Vietnam replaces Turkey since the neighboring country has decided to offer a visa-free facility to Indonesians starting December 4 of this year.

The new policy cuts the length of the free-visa-on-arrival stay from 60 days to 30 days. Visitors from countries with visa-on-arrival facility would only be allowed to stay for 30 days and they will have to go to a new counter to have their passports stamped with the on-arrival visa before going to the immigration clearance desk.