Business Visa

All persons coming to Indonesia for business purposes (as opposed to just a short term tourist or study trip) for a period to exceed 60-days are required to obtain a business visa.

A business visa does not allow a foreigner to work or be gainfully employed in Indonesia, but only to conduct business negotiations, short term work assignments or training assignments. If you plan to work in Indonesia for a period of time, you must have an ITAS and a proper IMTA.

A single entry business visa can be extended two times after a one-month stay (one month for each extension). If you have a multiple entry business visa (MBV), after a 60-day stay the visa can be extended four times (one month for each extension). You can enter Indonesia as many times as you want in a one year period on the multiple entry business visa, as long as you don’t stay more than 60 days on each visit.

If you enter on a multiple-entry business visa, you are not required to get an exit permit each time you leave.

Please be aware, however, that there may be Indonesian income tax obligations if you are in Indonesia on a business visa for more than 6 months in one year.

If you plan to temporarily work in Indonesia for a few months, you must apply for a temporary working visa index 457. Your sponsoring/employing company can apply for it at the Indonesian Immigration office in Jakarta. Upon entry into Indonesia with a temporary working visa index 457, you will get a 60-day visa stamped in your passport at the Indonesian Immigration airport. Within a few days after your arrival, you will have to apply for a temporary working permit at the Manpower Department, but you must first pay the DPKK fee or Skill and Development Fund fee of USD200 to cover your 60 day working period (USD100/month).

Online application for 212 business multi entry visa – The procedure now requires both the applicant and the sponsor (separately, with different logins and passwords) to fill out online applications and submit documentation. The applicant can’t just submit a sponsor letter his/herself as in the past. In addition you have to go in person to Jakarta to get a hard copy of a permission letter that is required to retrieve your visa from your chosen embassy abroad. Without that letter you can’t get your visa. It won’t be emailed to you.

Since it is impossible to speak to a live human being anymore at the immigration office, it’s important to get the process right.

One person’s experience: Its taken me over 9 months to finally get my visa renewed because my sponsoring company mis-entered information and in my attempts to correct my application I had multiple applications on file. They froze me out for suspicious activity but I was never able to speak to anyone to explain my situation. No one answers their phone help line and no one would speak to me in person at the immigration office. Finally the university international office intervened and after a couple of bribes, new letters, and several visits in person on their part resulted in unfreezing my application. Most people won’t have access to this special intervention, however, so detailed information about the process is important for new expats and those renewing and unaware of the online system. The consequences of making a mistake in the online system can mess you up without recourse for fixing it.

Overstaying your Visa

Overstaying any type of visa is a serious offense if you have overstayed more than 60 days. If your overstay is less than 60 days, you will be fined Rp 200,000/day for every day you overstayed your visa and then deported once you have paid the fine. The maximum fine for overstaying a visa is Rp 25 million and 5 years in jail. If you inadvertently overstay, go IMMEDIATELY to the immigration officer at the airport once you realize it and explain the circumstances. Delaying the report will only make the situation worse.

There are only a few legitimate reasons for overstaying your visa – the main one being that you were ill and in the hospital or unable to travel. Once you realize you will not be able to leave before your visa expires, ask a friend to officially report your illness in writing to the local immigration office so that you officially acknowledge that you have overstayed your legal stay limit. This will lessen the monetary penalties. Don’t wait until the immigration catches you!

Repeated Short-term Visas Necessitate Leaving the Country to get a New Visa

Choosing short term visas for a temporary measure while an ITAS is being sought is quite common. The Indonesian government does not approve of people working on these visas, yet they continue to grant them to people who repeatedly come back to Indonesia after a short trip outside the country. Another option to consider is a multiple-entry business visa. This requires zero trips to local Immigration office for an entire year, but you do need to go to Singapore every two months and then re-enter Indonesia.

Feedback from some visitors to this site that have been in this situation:

“According to Indonesian consular officials, it’s perfectly legal to come to Indonesia on a 60-day VOA, leave before the end of the sixty days, flying out of Indonesia, then returning on a new 60-day VOA. There is no need to pay bribes or any other fees upon arrival in Indonesia.”

“Some immigration officers may suspect that you are working in Indonesia without a permit. They just wonder how you finance your living costs (extended holidays after having returned for the x-th time to Indonesia. That’s why they might ask you some questions. Some officers might go further and try to put you in an embarrassing situation in order to extract bribes from you, or simply asking for some money. It’s a psychological game. There is no general answer on how to deal with each kind of such situations. The best results come from staying polite and taking in easy.”

Source : http://www.expat.or.id/info/docs.html#Business