Selective immigration policy slashes 87.91% of Indonesia visa-free arrivals

Indonesia's Directorate General of Immigration recorded 52,999 visa-free arrivals in the first half of 2026, down from 438,423 in the same period of 2025, an 87.91% drop the agency attributes to its "selective immigration" policy.

The 169-country list shrank to 13

Before the current rules, nationals of up to 169 countries and territories could enter Indonesia visa-free. That door has closed for most of them.

Presidential Regulation No. 95 of 2024, signed and in force since Aug. 29, 2024, replaced the 2016 framework and reset the Visa-Free Visit (BVK) base list to 13 countries: Brunei, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Timor-Leste, Suriname, Colombia and Hong Kong. Stays are capped at 30 days, non-extendable and non-convertible to any other permit.

Ministerial additions have widened that list modestly. Regulation No. 10 of 2025 added Brazil, Peru and Türkiye in August 2025 and Regulation No. 10 of 2026, effective July 9, 2026, folded in Kazakhstan, Macau SAR and Belarus while revoking the 2025 text. Everyone else who used to walk in free now pays.

What replaces free entry

Most non-ASEAN visitors are pushed onto the paid Visa on Arrival scheme, set at 97 eligible countries under Ministerial Decision M.HH-02.GR.01.06-2024 from January 2024 or onto a pre-arranged e-visa or visit visa. Immigration frames the shift as a filter for "high-quality foreign nationals" over mass low-spend tourism.

Digital nomads take the hit twice. Indonesia's remote worker visa, the E33G, requires at least US$60,000 a year in income and an employment contract with a company outside Indonesia. Remote workers who don't qualify and stitch together stays in Bali or Canggu must budget for VoA fees and extensions instead of the free 30 days many once used as a default. Anyone previously running visa runs on a passport that lost BVK status needs to price in VoA on every re-entry or move to a longer visit visa that requires paperwork before flying. The residency and stay-permit options are laid out in the Indonesia guide.

Who needs to act

Travelers holding passports from the newly added six (Türkiye, Brazil, Peru, Kazakhstan, Macau, Belarus) get the opposite news: a 30-day visa-free stamp on arrival, same non-extendable terms as ASEAN nationals.

Everyone else planning a trip after a lapsed visa-free habit should confirm their passport against the current BVK list before booking and pre-purchase VoA or an e-visa to avoid airport-counter surprises. ASEAN citizens and Singapore permanent residents remain covered under the pre-existing terms and don't need to change anything.

Correction, Sept. 23, 2026: An earlier version of this article said Indonesia had no dedicated digital nomad visa and put the old visa-free list at 156 nationalities. Indonesia's E33G remote worker visa was available when this article was published, and the list under the 2016 rules covered 169 countries and territories.