Indonesian tourist visa extension in Bali at Kantor Imigrasi Singaraja
Singaraja, Bali, Indonesia
A substantial and positive change in the visa policy of Indonesia was in June 2015 lifting the visa requirement for Czech citizens (and many other countries) for stays in Indonesia not exceeding 30 days (Visa Exemption). If you decide to travel around Indonesia and you intend to stay for longer than 30 days, you will have to go through the visa extension process. You have the opportunity to extend for another 30 days (for a total of 60 days) your Visa on Arrival, which you must apply for when you first enter Indonesia. Visa on Arrival (VOA) will be issued at any major international airport, such as Ngurah Rai in Bali or Soekarno-Hatta in Jakarta, and will cost you 35 USD (cash or card payment). If we sum up the VOA and visa extension fee, we get a total of about $ 70 for a two-month stay.
Note: The Visa Run is worth considering, i.e., departing to a nearby destination like Singapore or Kuala Lumpur and returning to Bali or Lombok (LOP). For a return ticket LOP - Kuala Lumpur we paid 98 USD per person including one piece of checked baggage.
Visa On Arrival
That's how the Visa On Arrival looks like (Visa sticker), this can be extended for another 30 days.
Visa Exemption
A stamp that you receive free of charge at the airport, entitling you to stay up to 30 days (counting the day of arrival and the day of departure as two full days, in fact, you have 28 full days.
No extension is possible.
How to extend Visa on Arrival?
You have two choices. The most comfortable and most convenient option is to pay a fee and use services of Visa agent or travel agency. There are many of them in touristy centers such as Kuta or Ubud, and they will be more than happy to assist with your request.
The slower, but cheaper option (saving about 400,000 IDR per application) is to process the extension personally at one of the immigration branches. As we are backpackers and we love to do things the local way, we chose this second option.
According to the available information on the visa extension, you can file your request at 3 locations in Bali:
Kantor Imigrasi (Kelas I) - Denpasar's central office
Jl. DI Panjaitan Komp Mandala Renon
Kantor Imigrasi (Kelas I) - office at the airport
Khusus NGURAH RAI
Jl. Raya I Gusti Ngurah Rai. Tuban.
Kantor Imigrasi Singaraja - North Bali
Jl. Pahlawan
Indonesia
If you read through various online discussions on this topic, you notice that the information is often outdated and incomplete. Here I describe my own experience as of June 2015 (all branches should follow the same procedure). Most people request the extension of their visas in Denpasar. Therefore, it's obvious, that due to the high application volume, the immigration officials are irritated, handling time is longer and successful processing can sometimes get delayed.
We have decided to submit our application in a quiet immigration office in Singaraja (map of Kantor Imigrasi). It is a small office with super nice officials, and we have met only a few tourists in this branch. The whole process took place without any problems or inconveniences.
To begin with, you need to reserve enough time to get this done, you will have to come up 3 times to the immigration office! In our case, it took 7 days (Wednesday - Tuesday) until the application was processed.
On Wednesday, we filled out the application for the extension of the tourist visa. The clerk took the completed form from us, placed it in a red folder and requested one copy each of the following:
- Passport photo&data page,
- Indonesian visa passport page (VOA),
- a return ticket from the country (I did not buy the ticket, just booked through an online agency)
Note: The sponsor is no longer needed when filling out the application - leave it empty.
On Friday, we had to come at a specific hour and pay 355,000 IDR per request and then take fingerprints and photographs (face) with an immigration official. Get ready for a short interview, that the clerk may want to check if you really want to leave the country after the visa has expired (questions about the job back home, etc.).
On Tuesday the following week, we only came to pick up our passports with a new stamp. Finally!
Note: Immigration officials point out that the visa extension process must start one week before the expiry of the original visa the latest. The timetable is predefined. So it is not possible to pay and collect the visa the same day, let alone to do everything within one day.
Visa Extension
Stamp of extended visa to a predetermined date (by date of your return flight).
TIP
One of the reasons why we were handling the extension in Singaraja was our stay in Lovina Beach. This small town lies just 5 km from the immigration office, so it is ideal for commuting. If you feel like a few days of relaxation, sunbathing and visiting superb restaurants, Lovina is a great choice. For the journey between Lovina and Kantor Imigrasi, we paid between 1,000 and 5,000 IDR per person (bemo - depending on how hard we negotiated).
