159 countries lost visa free access to Indonesia

I had to pay a lot of money and very complicated requirements, including an interview to obtain UK, US and Schengen visa.
And even then there is no guarantee we'll get it.
Several years ago we applied for a visa to the UK to visit a child who lives and works in London. It was not the first time applying for a visa. We meet all requirements including confirmed return tickets; fully paid as we were sure there would no problem considering the previous 6x was also no problem. We also have valid US and schengen Visa.
But apparently our application was rejected with the reason "there is no good reason to visit the UK". The money we paid, over GBP 1200 just disappeared. When we appealed, we received an answer that the visitor visa applicant had no right to appeal.
 
I think that that kind of fee is very bad for tourism. The 4-member family will pay 150 USD for Indonesian visas. Now, if they go to Bali, maybe they will pay, but if they planned to go elsewhere, they will maybe reconsider. Tourism went up from the years when the visa waiver was introduced in 2016 from 11.5 million to 16 million in 2019,

Turkey has a similar system but their Visa on Arrival is just 10 USD, and some countries have a waiver (Indonesia recently). Indonesia should at least give reciprocity for the countries that do not ask Indonesians for visas.
Why pay for Bali and not for, say, Raja Ampat?
 
I had to pay a lot of money and very complicated requirements, including an interview to obtain UK, US and Schengen visa.
And even then there is no guarantee we'll get it.
Several years ago we applied for a visa to the UK to visit a child who lives and works in London. It was not the first time applying for a visa. We meet all requirements including confirmed return tickets; fully paid as we were sure there would no problem considering the previous 6x was also no problem. We also have valid US and schengen Visa.
But apparently our application was rejected with the reason "there is no good reason to visit the UK". The money we paid, over GBP 1200 just disappeared. When we appealed, we received an answer that the visitor visa applicant had no right to appeal.
So sorry to hear. Yeah, even with a granted visa entry to the country is solely at the discretion of the border official you meet too.

From experience - the UK visa gets granted much more easily if the applicant reside in, say, the US as opposed to Indonesia (even with Indonesian passport). Not sure where Nigeria is on that spectrum.

Being denied visiting your own child is mind blowing, but given who runs the Home Office the past few years it's sadly not a surprise.

Still smarting over how in 2010 or so the UK government changed the rules (when May was home secretary, before she then became the... 3rd worst PM? Truss and Johnson blew her out of the water on that score) to disallow a citizen from sponsoring their parents to immigrate unless in very limited circumstances.
 
including confirmed return tickets; fully paid….
Currently it has become very complicated to make a temporary booking. And even the airlines which give you a 24-36-72 hour consideration window to pay (for a price), don’t really provide you with an official booking, just a somewhat vague reservation. Which can be refused in the application. The websites providing dummy tickets can not be trusted of course. This really becomes an issue for many people, obviously the participants of the ‘tours’ don’t encounter this problem as often.
 
Currently it has become very complicated to make a temporary booking. And even the airlines which give you a 24-36-72 hour consideration window to pay (for a price), don’t really provide you with an official booking, just a somewhat vague reservation. Which can be refused in the application. The websites providing dummy tickets can not be trusted of course. This really becomes an issue for many people, obviously the participants of the ‘tours’ don’t encounter this problem as often.
If you have a booking reference you have a valid booking.
 
🤦🏼‍♂️I can see you have a lot of experience in obtaining Schengen visa…
 
Currently it has become very complicated to make a temporary booking. And even the airlines which give you a 24-36-72 hour consideration window to pay (for a price), don’t really provide you with an official booking, just a somewhat vague reservation. Which can be refused in the application. The websites providing dummy tickets can not be trusted of course. This really becomes an issue for many people, obviously the participants of the ‘tours’ don’t encounter this problem as often.
Maybe .. an option is to pay with a creditcard .. when one is refused a visa, a refund is possible.
 
Voa is the paid $35 one that can be extended once for 30 days
You were always able to use that one for meetings

The free one for 30 days only strictly for tourism was the visa waiver one. It was free. That has now been changed only for Asians

Basically now everyone has to pay $35 on arrival
Kerching

And now no confusion about visiting a friend, attending a meeting where you stay silent, going to a wedding, or here to play bitcoin in ubud

But they are strict now on showing return flight and hotel booking
Huh, with a VOA one cannot visit friends and family? Also one cannot stay at a friend's home? Always stay at a hotel?
 
Huh, with a VOA one cannot visit friends and family? Also one cannot stay at a friend's home? Always stay at a hotel?
That was not classed as tourism before, when they were looking for excuses for a shakedown (the visa free one, don't confuse with the paid VOA)

Now they get the $35 from everyone but they ask for a return ticket and hotel booking which actually you ARE supposed to provide anyway on entry
 
That was not classed as tourism before, when they were looking for excuses for a shakedown (the visa free one, don't confuse with the paid VOA)

Now they get the $35 from everyone but they ask for a return ticket and hotel booking which actually you ARE supposed to provide anyway on entry
Oh God, yeah, I just realized the full list of activities include tourism and business meetings but no mention of visiting family


Don't you normally only have to provide an address in Indonesia though?
 
That was not classed as tourism before, when they were looking for excuses for a shakedown (the visa free one, don't confuse with the paid VOA)

Now they get the $35 from everyone but they ask for a return ticket and hotel booking which actually you ARE supposed to provide anyway on entry
Weird, so one cannot stay at a friend's or family home.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bob
Because Bali is on every world traveler's bucket list, while Raja Ampat, Lombok Lake Toba, and Yogyakarta, almost nobody in the other world has ever heard for.
Bali's not on every traveler's bucket list given its current state, but anyway that wouldn't make any difference. If someone wants to travel 5 or 15 thousand km to go somewhere they'll be willing or not to pay for a visa based on how much they want to get to that destination. A lot of folks would pay the visa fee to see Raja Ampat, Wakatobi, Mentawai, or Sumba but not Bali, and vice versa.
 
This is not a big deal. The visa waiver has been canceled basically since Covid started 3 years ago.

Recall that for a short period of time, only citizens and residents could enter Indonesia. Then they relaxed the rules to allow short-term visas, and finally VOA. Then they kept adding countries to the VoA list. A few days ago the government finally scrapped the last of the Covid restriction. This would've restored the visa waiver program if it were not canceled.

So yeah, officially they canceled the visa waiver recently. But in practice, it has not been available since early 2020.
 
More good news....

The visa waiver ain't coming back any time soon
The VOA price could triple


And at the same attract way more tourists, and get rid of the "bad" ones.

Well, well, 500k x 3 = 1500k, for a family of 4 = 6000k (360 euro)
 
More good news....

The visa waiver ain't coming back any time soon
The VOA price could triple


And at the same attract way more tourists, and get rid of the "bad" ones.

Well, well, 500k x 3 = 1500k, for a family of 4 = 6000k (360 euro)
Screenshot_2023-06-25-10-19-07-16_40deb401b9ffe8e1df2f1cc5ba480b12.jpg

Unfortunate autocorrect from the article you linked
 

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Follow Us

Latest Expat Indo Articles

Latest Tweets by Expat Indo

Online Now

Forum Statistics

Threads
6,288
Messages
104,993
Members
3,560
Latest member
André
Back
Top Bottom