There has been quite a bit of development in Indonesia recently to allow international visitors to enter and exit the country more smoothly without having to stand in various queues for hours on end, as was the case in 2022.

Indonesia recently extended eVOA arrival for nationals of 93 countries, visa-free entry to ASEAN nationals and some other.  They have also installed automated gates for entering and exiting the country that originally were for Indonesian nationals and ASEAN visitors to use, but which now are available for all.

You can access Indonesia’s Tourism page here.

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Recent Indonesia Entry Changes:

Update: Indonesia Automated Gate Immigration Now Open To ALL Foreigners With eVISA/e-VOA

Indonesia Introduces Automated Gate Immigration For 10 ASEAN Countries (Registration Required)

Indonesia Prepares To Return Visa Free Entry Option For 20 Countries + ASEAN From Early 2024

Indonesia Extends VOA & e-VOA For Nationals Of 93 Countries

Previous Entry Coverage:

Australians Complain About Extremely Long Immigration Lines At Bali Airport

Bali Airport Has Become A Nightmare With Hours Long Immigration Lineups!

Entering Indonesia Through Bali In May 2022

Applying for eVisa-on-Arrival:

I was in Melbourne and had an early evening flight on Qantas to Denpasar. I fired up my laptop to check out the eVisa-on-arrival process.

The process was relatively smooth, although my payment errored once.

You had to upload your passport information page and a photo of yourself. I had all these saved to my laptop as I had used them for various other visas.

You can download the visa-on-arrival paper immediately once the payment is completed, and you also have a PDF version of it sent to your email inbox.

Denpasar (Bali Arrival)

My flight arrived from Melbourne early/late evening.

The line at the Visa-on-Arrival booth was perhaps 15 to 20 deep, and the main immigration line looked to take 20 to 30 minutes.

Then they had autogates, but they were marked only for ASEAN national use randomly. Very few were using them.

I approached one of the agents and asked if I shouldn’t be able to use them as well, as I had done e-VOA, and he nodded.

Two of the first machines didn’t work with my passport, but the third one did, and I was through.

 

There was an email from the Indonesian immigration office with a stay permit.

There is one more step before you can exit the airport. You need to fill out a declaration form using the QR code and proceed to clear customs.

You can now also register your phone’s IMEI code if you plan to stay in Bali longer and use a local sim card, otherwise it will stop working after some time if the IMEI has not been correctly registered.

There is another booth after you exit the immigration area, along with ATMs. There is a notice about the Bali Levy, but nobody forces you to stop. It seems that this is currently collected entirely voluntarily.

Soekarno Hatta – Jakarta International Airport (CGK) Exit

These automated gates were indicated to be only used by locals, but I asked one of the agents if I could use them as well, as I had in Bali, and was told to go ahead.

The first gate wouldn’t let me through, but the second one did. Indonesia did not email me confirmation that I had exited the country however.

Conclusion

These eVOA and automated gates are really much welcomed changes to facilitate speedy entry for visitors to Indonesia. If only they could scrap the VOA for most nationals, like before the pandemic.

It took 30 minutes from the Qantas plane pulling up at the gate to when I entered the Grab vehicle, which probably included a 5-to-10-minute wait for the checked luggage.

The process is smooth if you do the eVOA and use the automated gates, although the combined VOA and immigration lines should have taken less than an hour the other Friday from the looks of it.

I don’t know why they try to discourage eligible visitors from using these autogates when entering and exiting the country. The machines have been installed and are operating, so why shouldn’t they be put to good use?

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