How to Get a Travel Visa for Indonesia

American citizens must have valid passports, visas and onward tickets to get into Indonesia. It's important to choose the right visa to avoid problems with Indonesian authorities.

Things You'll Need

• Passport valid for at least 6 months (must be valid for 1 year for a multiple entry visa)
• Onward ticket/proof of travel itinerary
• Visa application filled out in duplicate
• Two color passport photographs
• Self-addressed stamped envelope
• Bank statement
• Letter of employment
• Visa fee

Instructions

1. Determine what type of visa you need to get. There are several different types of visas, including tourist, student, business and others. Indonesian immigration officials enforce stringent restrictions on visa and participating in activities that are outside the boundaries of your visa can get you thrown in prison for up to 5 years.

2. Visit the Indonesian Embassy in Washington D.C. or an Indonesian Consulate to apply. Alternatively, you can download the visa application and apply through the mail.

3. Provide your passport, original travel itinerary, passport photos, visa application, visa fee, a recent bank statement, a letter of employment and a self-addressed stamped envelope when you apply for a visa through the mail.

4. Apply for a tourist visa when you arrive in Indonesia. There are visa application centers at most of the major Indonesia airports and a few seaports. These visas are valid for either 7 days or 30 days, and you typically only need your passport and onward/return ticket as documentation.

5. Keep your passport and visa with you as you travel in Indonesia to avoid problems with thieves or immigration authorities.

Tips & Warnings

• Obtain your visa ahead of time if you plan on entering through a land border crossing; you cannot get arrival visas at these crossings.

• For a fee, you can hire a visa service to apply for your visa for you. Compiling the information to submit to the service takes as much effort as applying for yourself, so it's not always cost-effective.

• If your passport doesn't have 6 months of validity on it, you can expect to be deported to Singapore or elsewhere to get a new passport issued. Indonesian officials take this rule seriously, and the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia cannot act on your behalf.

• Make sure your passport has a full empty page available in it for your Indonesian visa. If not, you may not be let in. If you don't have enough pages and you are abroad, get more at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate.

• You can't extend visas you get on arrival. It's recommended that you get a 30-day visa just in case you need to stay longer.

• The penalty for overstaying a visa is usually a daily fine. In some cases, offenders may be jailed as well.

• There are some places in Indonesia that foreigners are restricted from visiting without special permission. These include Aceh, Maluku, Poso and Irian Jaya.