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Yes, it is possible to stay in Bali for up to six months on one visa! We just finished our second five-month stay and spent our entire time in Bali without having to do any annoying visa runs.
Here’s how to get your Indonesia visa extension in Bali:
1) Get an Indonesian Tourist Visa in Advance
Before you arrive in Bali, you need to apply for a 60-day Indonesian tourist visa from an Indonesian embassy in your home country or a neighbouring country like Singapore or Malaysia.
Here’s how we got an Indonesian visa in Singapore and London. Applying in Asia is easier as there are fewer requirements (you’ll still need an onward ticket though). Flights from Bali to Singapore are cheap, so it’s easy to stop there for a few days on your way to Indonesia.
Some people think it’s necessary to apply for an Indonesian social visa but a tourist visa works just as well, and you don’t need a local sponsor.
Once you enter Indonesia with your new visa, you’ll be able to stay for 60 days.
If you choose not to get a visa in advance, you can pay for the 30-day Visa on Arrival at the airport, which can be extended for an extra 30 days but only once, so you’d need to leave the country after 60 days. The free 30-day visa waiver is not extendable.
As for most countries, make sure your passport is valid for at least six months after your arrival date.
2) Find a Bali Visa Extension Agent
You could get your Bali visa extension yourself, but it’s a real hassle and involves three separate trips to the immigration office in Denpasar every month. Chances are you’re in Bali to relax on the beach or do yoga in Ubud, so you don’t want to be spending so much time in Denpasar (an hour’s drive from Ubud).
Instead, you want to find a Bali visa extension agent who will take care of it all for you. We paid 650,000 IDR ($49) each, but it was worth it for the time and stress saved.
There are many visa agents in Bali, but you want to choose someone reliable—a personal recommendation is best.
We get our visa extensions in Ubud. On our first trip we used Elizabeth who is based near the Alchemy restaurant in Penestanan. She was rather terse and not the best at communication, but she was efficient and reliable. You can call her on 0813 3842 4617 or ask for directions to her office in Alchemy.
On our second visit we used Bali Viza, who will conveniently collect and deliver your passport from your house or hotel. I communicated with Nika on Facebook (search for Nika Baleva) and she always responded quickly and we never had any problems. Bali Viza operates over most of Bali and can collect and deliver passports for free in south Bali and Ubud.
You can also look for agent recommendations in the Ubud Community Facebook group.
3) Start the Process Two Weeks Before Your Visa Expires
After you’ve been in Bali about six weeks, you’ll need to start your visa extension process. Your agent will advise you on the best time to start taking into account public holidays that can close the immigration office and delay the process.
Our first visa expired during Eid when the office was closed for over a week, so we handed over our passports to Bali Viza 2.5 weeks before our visas expired.
Remove any passport covers before you send them to immigration as ours returned without them.
4) Visit the Denpasar Immigration Office for the First Extension
Unfortunately, you do have to visit the Denpasar Immigration Office on one occasion, but it’s only for your first extension to get your fingerprints and photo taken.
We went to the office about a week after we handed over our passports. It took us 50 minutes to drive there on a motorbike from Ubud—look for Immigration Office Class 1 on Google Maps.
We arrived at 10 am and it took us 1.5 hours because the photo machine broke and they were busy before the holiday. Last time we were only there for 15 minutes. The agent meets you and takes care of everything. They give you a queue number and you just have to wait for your number to be called.
Usually, your passport and new visa extension will be delivered three or four days after fingerprinting. For us, it was delayed because of the holiday and our passports were away for over three weeks. Make sure you keep a copy of your passport.
5) Extend Up to Four Times
60-day tourist visas can be extended four times for 30 days each time for a total stay of 180 days. Note that 30 days is not a full calendar month. We also ended up losing one day for some reason on our first extension.
Subsequent extensions are easier. You don’t need to go to Denpasar and can start the process a week or so before the expiry date. You should expect to be without your passport for 10–14 days a month though.
If this is too much time, you can pay extra for an express extension. Bali Viza charges 1,000,000 IDR ($75) and it takes 2–3 working days.
6) Enjoy Bali!
Enjoy your extended stay on this beautiful island!
If you are looking for some ideas, see our favourite things to do in Ubud, our yoga in Ubud guide, a digital nomad guide to Ubud, and a fantastic off the beaten track Bali road trip.
Let us know if you have any questions and share your experiences with getting a visa extension in Bali.
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