Two things about visa-free entry to Bali surprise almost everyone who looks it up properly. The first is that you probably do not qualify: the exemption list was cut from 169 countries to 13, and even after two additions it stands at fifteen. The second is stranger — for anyone who might want to stay a little longer, being visa-free is the worst outcome available, because the exemption cannot be extended while the paid alternative can.
The reduction came through Presidential Regulation No. 95 of 2024, signed on 29 August 2024, with Brazil and Türkiye added on a reciprocal basis in July 2025. Most visitors to Bali — including citizens of the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, the European Union, India and China — are not on the list and never were under the current rules. They arrive on a visa on arrival, pay for it, and are usually better off for it.
This article sorts out which permit you actually hold, why the outdated figure keeps circulating and what believing it costs, what none of these permits allow regardless of price, and the three separate obligations that travellers routinely merge into one. Rules and figures are current as of August 2026, published guidance is openly contradictory on the central question and that is addressed directly below, and eligibility should be confirmed against the Directorate General of Immigration rather than any summary, including this one.
Visa exemption operates under index A1 and covers fifteen countries and territories: the ten ASEAN member states — Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam — together with Brazil, Colombia, Hong Kong SAR, Suriname and Türkiye.
The permit grants 30 days counted from arrival as day one, for tourism, meetings, family visits, transit, business discussions or medical treatment. It is free. And it is strictly non-extendable: there is no mechanism to add days from inside the country, and no conversion to another permit without leaving.
Why the old number persists
Guidance published in 2026 still states in places that over 160 nationalities enter Bali visa-free. That claim describes the pre-2024 position and is now wrong, but it survives because it was correct for years and because travel content is copied more often than it is checked. The practical consequence falls on the traveller: someone who plans around it arrives without an approved visa on arrival, and sorts the problem out at the airport rather than at home.
Where sources conflict this sharply, the resolution is not to pick the more convenient one. Check your own passport against the current official list before booking, because both the exemption list and the visa on arrival list have moved more than once since 2024 and can move again.
The visa on arrival, index B1, covers a far wider group — commonly cited at around 97 countries — costs IDR 500,000, grants 30 days, and can be extended once for a further 30 days at the same fee, giving 60 days in total. It can be obtained on landing or, better, in advance as an electronic visa on arrival through the official immigration portal.
Set the two side by side and the counterintuitive result appears. A Singaporean entering free of charge has 30 days and no way to add a day to them. An Australian paying IDR 500,000 has the same 30 days plus the option of 30 more. The exemption saves a modest fee and removes all flexibility, which matters most to precisely the people who tend to need it: those whose plans change once they are on the island.
Extensions are also no longer a purely online affair. Indonesia now requires online registration followed by an in-person biometric appointment at an immigration office, so an extension needs to be started well before the first 30 days expire rather than in the final days.
| Route | Duration and extension | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Visa exemption, index A1 | 30 days, free, no extension possible | Fifteen nationalities on short, fixed trips |
| Visa on arrival, index B1 | 30 days for IDR 500,000, one extension of 30 days | Most other nationalities on trips up to two months |
| Single-entry visit visa, index C1 | 60 days, extendable in blocks up to 180 days total | Longer stays; applied for before travel, processing about 5–10 working days |
| Multiple-entry visit visa | One, two or five years, up to 60 days per visit | Frequent returners, including owners visiting property |
| Limited stay permit | One year and upwards, by sponsored category | Living in Indonesia rather than visiting |
The decision worth making before booking flights is which row you belong in. Someone planning eleven weeks who arrives on a visa on arrival discovers at day 55 that the maximum is 60 and that the visit visa they should have applied for at home takes five to ten working days to issue. That is a border run and a re-entry, both avoidable at the planning stage.
Every route above is a visit permit, and visiting excludes working. Indonesian regulation reads work broadly: it is not limited to taking a local job, and covers income-generating activity carried out while in the country, including work performed online for clients and employers abroad.
This is the point where visitors most often assume a grey area exists, and where enforcement has been most visible. Immigration conducts checks in tourist areas and coworking spaces, and working without the appropriate permit carries fines and deportation. The purpose-built route for foreign-sourced income is the remote worker permit, which sits in a different tier entirely and requires a contract with an employer registered outside Indonesia.
Property ownership does not change any of this either. Buying a villa confers no entry privilege and no additional days, and an owner arriving on a visa on arrival has exactly the same 30 days as any tourist. Where the intention is to work, operate a business or manage a rental, the applicable permits and tax obligations are set out in our guide to working on Bali legally.
Much of the confusion around arriving in Bali comes from treating three separate requirements as a single thing. They are issued by different authorities, cost different amounts and are checked at different moments.
Each is straightforward on its own. The failure mode is assuming that paying one covers another — a completed arrival card does not extend a stay, and a paid levy is not a visa.
Overstaying is the most expensive way to misjudge any of the above, and the exemption's rigidity makes it the likeliest route into that mistake. The fine is IDR 1,000,000 per day per person from the first day, with no grace period, and it applies to children and dependants individually.
Beyond 60 days of overstay the matter stops being financial: detention, deportation and an entry ban follow, with reported ban lengths ranging from one to five years in some accounts and considerably longer under the 2024 immigration amendment in others. The variation in published figures is itself a reason not to treat an overstay as a manageable cost.
The practical guard
Short-stay permits are designed for visiting, and they stop serving anyone whose relationship with the island becomes continuous. The signals are practical rather than legal: repeated back-to-back entries, a lease in someone else's name because you cannot sign one yourself, no local bank account, and administrative friction in situations where residents have none.
At that point the question changes from which visit route to which residence permit, and the answer depends on sponsorship — an employer, your own company, a spouse or family member, or an investment. For those arriving through a family connection in Indonesia, the available routes and their conditions are set out in our overview of family visa options for Indonesia.
Buyers frequently discover that the visit permit is not the binding constraint on a purchase — the transaction itself runs on its own timeline of title checks, notarial deeds and land registration, which rarely fits inside 30 days. How that sequence works and where the waiting happens is set out in our guide to the property purchase process in Indonesia.
Can I enter Bali visa-free with a European or American passport?
No. The exemption list covers fifteen countries and territories — the ten ASEAN states plus Brazil, Colombia, Hong Kong SAR, Suriname and Türkiye. Citizens of the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, India and China use the visa on arrival instead.
Why do some sites still say over 160 countries are visa-free?
Because that was true before Presidential Regulation No. 95 of 2024 cut the list to 13, with Brazil and Türkiye added in July 2025. Outdated guidance is still in circulation. Verify your nationality against the current official list before booking rather than relying on any summary.
Can visa-free entry be extended?
No, under any circumstances. The 30 days are fixed and there is no in-country extension or conversion. This is the main practical disadvantage against the paid visa on arrival, which can be extended once for a further 30 days.
How long can I stay on a visa on arrival?
Thirty days initially for IDR 500,000, extendable once by another 30 days for a total of 60. The extension now requires online registration followed by an in-person biometric appointment, so it should be started well before the initial period runs out.
Can I work remotely while on a tourist permit?
No. Indonesian regulation defines work broadly enough to include online income-earning activity carried out in the country, regardless of where the client or employer is based. Enforcement includes checks in coworking spaces. The remote worker permit exists for foreign-sourced income and is the intended route.
Is the Bali tourist levy the same as a visa?
No. The levy is IDR 150,000 per visitor, applies only in Bali province, funds environmental and cultural programmes, and grants no immigration permission whatsoever. It is separate from both your visa and the online arrival declaration, and all three may apply to the same trip.
Visa-free entry to Bali is narrower and less useful than its reputation. Fifteen nationalities qualify, the stay is fixed at 30 days with no way to extend it, and everyone else pays a modest fee for a permit that is genuinely more flexible. The three obligations at the border — permission to enter, the arrival declaration and the Bali levy — are separate, and satisfying one does nothing for the others. None of the visit routes permits work of any kind, including remote work, and none of them is improved by owning property here. The useful move is the boring one: check your nationality against the current official list, decide which route matches the length of stay you actually intend, and arrange it before you fly rather than at the desk.
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