If you are planning a trip to Jakarta or Bali, you most likely will need to pay for Visa on Arrival when you arrive at the airport. This means yet another admin work you need to do upon arrival.
You’ll be glad to know, that starting November 2022 you can apply for Visa on arrival online before you actually arrive in Indonesia! This could potentially save you some time from having to line up to pay for Visa on arrival at the airport.
In this post, I’ll detail how to apply for this electronic Visa on Arrival through a safe, official website made by the Indonesian government. Don’t trust any other website when they say they’ll get you electronic VoA! They’re likely a third-party website that will charge you extra, or worse, steal your identity.
- Do I need Visa on Arrival (VOA) to enter Indonesia?
- What is Indonesia e-VOA?
- Do I qualify for Indonesia e-VOA?
- Where can I apply for Indonesia e-VOA?
- How can I apply for Indonesia e-VOA?
- How early should I apply for Indonesia e-VOA?
- What if I made a mistake on my MOLINA profile?
- My experience with e-VOA for my Bali trip
Do I need Visa on Arrival (VoA) to enter Indonesia?
Most likely, yes.
Unless you hold a passport from a South East Asia country (which is part of ASEAN), you will need Visa on Arrival (VoA) to enter Indonesia. This means you’ll have to pay Rp 500,000 for a visa each time you enter Indonesia. As the name suggested, the visa can be obtained on arrival at the airport.
➡️ Check the list of countries eligible to apply for VoA here.
What is Indonesia e-VoA?
e-VoA is short for electronic visa on arrival, a process that will let you apply for Visa on Arrival electronically online, even before your arrival at the airport in Indonesia. This will save you time as you won’t need to line up separately to obtain and pay for VoA once you reach the airport in Indonesia.
VoA will grant you 30 days of stay in Indonesia which is extendable once. One benefit if you have e-VoA, is that the extension can be done online through the MOLINA website.
Do I qualify for Indonesia e-VoA?
As e-VoA is still being rolled out slowly, even if you qualify for VoA, you might not be able to apply for e-VoA. You will need to be holding a passport from one of the approved countries to be able to apply for e-VoA.
On top of that, you need to be arriving at a specified immigration checkpoint – check the list of e-VoA-approved checkpoints here. Most major airports like the Bali international airport and Jakarta airport are included, but if you’re arriving via a lesser-known checkpoint, make sure you look it up first!
Where can I apply for Indonesia e-VoA? (Beware of scammers!)
Sign up for an account at MOLINA. This is the OFFICIAL, ONE AND ONLY website of the Indonesian government. Don’t use any other link! There are some third-party agents out there posing as the official website, but they’ll just scam you by charging you more, or worse, they might steal your identity.
You should only be paying Rp 519,500 for your e-VoA – Rp 500,000 for the e-VOA plus a 3% credit card fee of Rp 19,500.
How can I apply for Indonesia e-VoA?
If you qualify for e-VoA and want to get it before your arrival in Indonesia, here is what you need to do:
1. Sign up for an account at MOLINA
First and foremost, sign up for an account at MOLINA. Again, this is the OFFICIAL link from the Indonesian government. Don’t use any other link!
Make sure you use an email you have access to, because you’ll need to activate the account via a link sent to the email.
Tip: You’ll be able to re-use the same MOLINA account again for your future trips to Indonesia, so be sure to save this credential somewhere!
When registering, have the following documents ready because you will need to provide them:
- A photo of the applicant – which needs to be in a 4:6 ratio and at least 400×600 pixels in size
- A scan of the applicant’s passport biodata – I just took a photo of the passport biodata and it worked fine!
Parents take note! You’ll need separate accounts for each person, even for infants and kids. You cannot apply for them under your account. Hopefully, they’ll make this process easier in the future.
2. Create an application for your visa on arrival
Once registered, log in to your MOLINA account with the credentials you’ve set in Step 1. Then, create an application for a visa on arrival by clicking on “Application” on the main navigation then “+ Add” button.
Tip: You’ll need to do this for each separate trip you’ll be making to Indonesia in the future if you decide to apply for e-VOA for those trips. So again, be sure to save your MOLINA credential somewhere!
Fill out the form that comes after, indicating your mode of transport and arrival. You’ll also need to provide an address where you’ll be staying. We were staying at multiple hotels in Indonesia, but I’ve just provided the first hotel and it went through fine.
3. Providing your accommodation address
Now, providing the address of your accommodation – it might confusing for foreigners on how you can fill in the province, city, district, and village. Well, thankfully I speak Indonesian so I’ll show you how! All you need to do is… use the good ol’ Google Maps.
Let’s use one of my trips as an example: On a trip to Jakarta, I was staying at The Westin. The address provided by the hotel was simply “Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said Kav.C-22 A, Jakarta, 12940”, which does not tell me anything in terms of what I need to put on the form.
So what I did was, I put the address into google and then I was able to get the full address of the hotel with all the information I needed!
Google provided me with the complete address for the hotel:
Jl. H. R. Rasuna Said No.Kav.C-22A, RT.2/RW.5, Karet Kuningan, Kecamatan Setiabudi, Kota Jakarta Selatan, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta 12940, Indonesia
That’s a long address, so let’s break it down to exactly what each of them mean:
- “Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said Kav.C-22 A” in the street address of the hotel.
- Right after the street address is the “village“, in this case, “Karet Kuningan”.
- After that, it’s Kecamatan which means “district“, and in this case, the value is “Setiabudi”.
- Then after that, it’s Kota which means “city“, and in my case, the value is “Jakarta Selatan”.
- What comes after is the province, which is “Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta”, which is commonly abbreviated to “DKI Jakarta”.
After that, I simply selected the values from the dropdown in reverse, starting from Province first, to city, then district, and finally village…. and voila! In the end the postal code is auto-populated. I got same postal code as provided by the hotel, and that’s how I knew I have the correct address.
4. Make visa fee payment by credit card
After the application has been created, you’ll need to make the visa fee payment by credit card, and it’s important to note the credit card needs to be 3DS (3D Secure) enabled.
To make a payment, go back to the “Application” tab, then click on the transaction number of the application you’ve just created.
Once you are inside the transaction, scroll down to “Payment Information“, click on the “Make a payment” button, and provide your credit card number on the next page.
Again, make sure that your card has a 3DS or “3D Secure System” and that it is open to international transactions.
The cost for e-VOA is Rp 519,500. Due to the credit card processing fee (3.9%), it is slightly more expensive than paying with cash on arrival (which is only Rp 500,000). However, if you ask me, the cost is worth it! And really, Rp 19,500 translates to less than $2.
It might take some time for the payment to be complete and that’s normal.
5. Receive your e-VoA PDF in your email
Once your payment has been confirmed, you’ll receive your e-VoA via email, or you can go back to the Application page again and download your e-VoA PDF from there.
Keep a soft copy of your e-VoA somewhere that you can access if you need to. You can also print it out. In my case, they never asked to see my e-VoA document.
And that’s all really!
6. Another step for entering Indonesia: Customs declaration
Aside from your visa, you can also do your customs declaration online. I highly recommend doing this before you arrive in Indonesia. Just make sure you complete this before boarding your flight to Indonesia and keep the QR code. You’ll be asked to scan it upon arrival at the airport in Indonesia.
How early should I apply for Indonesia e-VoA?
The e-VoA is only valid for 60 days, so don’t apply too early! I applied one day before my arrival and thankfully everything went smoothly. I got my e-VoA PDF in my email within minutes.
What if I made a mistake on my MOLINA profile?
You can still edit some information on your MOLINA profile by editing your profile in the account, and it will be reflected on the e-VOA PDF. You just have to re-download the PDF from your MOLINA account.
In my case, I accidentally specified the wrong gender and I was worried it would cause issues on arrival, but I was able to just edit my MOLINA profile to flip the gender. When I re-downloaded the e-VOA PDF from my MOLINA account, it reflected the correct updated gender.
My experience with e-VoA for trips to Indonesia
I have used e-VoA twice so far. I went to Bali in November 2022, a few weeks after the e-VoA system was rolled out, and then to Jakarta in March 2023.
Applying for e-VoA in my experience was… slightly frustrating on my first trip. There was a technical glitch and I was not able to load the payment link. However, I waited an hour, and the link magically worked. I was able to access the payment link and make payment even after the countdown has expired. I received the e-VoA PDF shortly after. On my second trip though, everything went smoothly and I got my e-VoA within minutes of applying online.
Upon arrival at Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali, I was so grateful I took the time to apply for the e-VoA. There was a long line for a Visa on Arrival, while there was practically nobody at the immigration line. It took us less than 5 minutes to clear immigration. In the Jakarta Airport, however, there was practically no line for a visa on arrival when I arrived on a Friday afternoon, so I guess I didn’t really need to apply online for it.
And that’s all I know about Indonesia’s electronic visa on arrival. I hope it helps 🙂
Dear Melissa,
We are visiting Java and Bali with our 2 children aged 2 and 4 on 1st July. We have a journey of more than 30 days. Can we request an evoa on the same account or do we have to create a separate account for the children?
In addition, we hope that you can advise us on how and when we can best extend the visa to 60 days.
Stefan
Howdy, I’ve got a problem getting a EVOA online because I mucked up the first effort with the size of the pics, and on numerous attempts to re-apply, it won’t let me go ahead because it says my email already exists, even though the first attempt failed. It appears the system doesn’t wipe out the email even though I couldn’t get through the next stage of registering an account.
Any thoughts, Ray Wilson
Hey Melissa, Thanks for the helpful information.
One question for you what are we supposed to put in the “Immigration Office” field?
I have a trip coming up soon and will be landing at the Jakarta airport. But I am really unsure what is supposed to go on this line. Am I supposed to visit an immigration office here in the US before I go? Or what is supposed to go here?
Thanks!
Hi Melissa,
Sorry you’ve had so many questions but can I ask another please – I’m going to arrive in Indonesia in July and stay for 60 days. The eVisa says it “must be used within 90 days from the date of issue” – does that mean you must enter within 90 days from date of issue, but then you can have 60 days (I will be leaving Indonesia more than 90 days from now so just wondering how soon I can apply for the visa). Thanks so much!
Hey Issy, yes your understanding is correct. the 60 days will only kick in once you have entered Indonesia.
Hi Melissa,
I am unable to see MOLINA app on Iphone or Android, phone. Is this the real name or does it has another
name for app.
Hey Cynde. It’s not an app, it’s a website. Follow the link on my post to get there
Hello Melissa
Can you please explain how I can extend my e-VOA for Indonesia? Thank you very much in advance!
Hi there,
I’m trying to complete my eVOA and when I type 80363 as the postal code for Grand Hyatt Bali it keeps saying invalid, but that is the correct one. Everything else is grayed out so I can’t proceed with the application. What should I do?
Thank you!
Hey Mary, there is a section where I described how to fill in address above. Please try following the instruction I have written
Thank you, Melissa. I did follow your instructions however, for some reason, it’s only recognizing certain zip codes. The correct zip code for my location is 80363. If I type in 80361 which is a different village it recognizes it and populates the data based on that zip code. But 80363 does not recognize it and says invalid.
Wow that is so weird and frustrating 🙁 will you be staying at any other accommodation?
I’m having the same issue for the postal code (80363) in the e-VOA app. The webform validation/population is whacked…I’ve tried on 3 different browsers and 2 different devices. Kind of hoping it gets resolved before next week…
Hello,
Any luck? I have run into the same issue today and is super frustrating!!
Hi Melissa,
I cannot upload passport.
Always say error.. I did many time and different kind of picture, always follow criteria.
can you help me?
Hello – Thanks for the helpful post.
I am applying online and after asking for my date of arrival, it asks for a flight number – is this the flight I am arriving on or do they want to see I have booked a return?
Just want to make sure before I put the wrong details! 🙂
Thanks in advance
Hey Holly, this would be the flight you are arriving on
Hi, I try to signup and create an account but
are 2 days that when upload passport.. always error.. same error.. I think there is problem after update site May 8th.
Someone can help me?
thanks
Igor
Hi Melissa,
thanks for the provided information!
Just one question, with eVoa, do I need a return flight ticket within 30 days when entering (even though I’m planning to extend it to 60 days)? Or is a return ticket 60 days after arriving fine? If I need one at all?
Thanks in advance,
Niklas
Hey Niklas, I suppose it will depend on your luck. I have never been checked for a return flight when entering Indonesia, but I did hear they check sometimes. I think if you have a return flight you can just show it and explain that you plan to extend online. Be prepared to show proof (a page that says you can extend, your flight booking, hotel bookings, etc)
Same question here…any new informations?
Hello
First of all: your blog is really helpful. I didn’t even know that een e-VOA was possible! That’s so much easier!
I am going to Bali this summer for 1 month & 4 days, which is more than 30 days, so I need to extend my visa.
Can you please explain me how can I extend my e-VOA?
Thank you in advance.
Hi, Do you know how to trigger an account activation email? I have created my Molina account on the website, but have not received an email to activate my account, so therefore can’t login to apply for visa as I get a message saying account not activated. The same thing has happens to my partner. Have tried reaching out to immigrasi via email, Facebook and instagram message and have had no response.
Really need to apply for the eVOA as opposed to getting one in person on arrival – as we will be staying longer than 30 days so will need a 30 day extension which we want to do online rather than having to travel to an immigration office multiple time as we have plans to be moving around a fair bit during this time.
Thanks Fran
Hey Fran, have you checked your spam box? the email should come from [email protected]
Hi Melissa,
I am in the exact same situaton as Fran. We have tried many times as well to create an account. It seems all goes well yet we never receive the account activation email. No one ever replies from the visa website either.
Sorry to hear that Dana. Worst case, you can still do visa on arrival when you arrive in Indonesia.
The same thing happened to me 3 days ago. I tried emailing as well. I had someone from ingrasi write back asking for the email, to which i sent and then radio silence. Hope they get back to me soon.
Indeed it seems like something has gone wrong with the account creation for many people. Please do keep us posted whether it gets fixed!
Hi there
Same problem for me. I applied on 5 may but no activation email. I’ve emailed [email protected] with no response, and I just emailed the Sydney office of the Indonesian embassy at [email protected].
At least I know others are having the same problem, and its not that I mis-entered my email.
I will report back in if I hear back from the Sydney office.
And thanks Melissa for your excellent guidance!
Hi there – I received the following response from the Sydney office of the Indonesian embassy:
“If you encounter difficulties to apply eVoA, you can apply Visa on your arrival at the Indonesian Airport visa counter.”
So no online VOA for us and back to the old analog “go to the visa counter”.
Cheers
Hi Melissa,
I need to travel to Indonesia twice in the same month.
Do you know if I can re-enter Indonesia with the same visa, or would I need to apply another time?
visa on arrival is single entry, so you’ll need to apply for another one if you left Indonesia then came back
Hi Melissa,
Thanks for putting this together. We arrive in Bali in the next 2 days. While the e-VoA was no issue, on the eCD website, my full name doesn’t quite fit in the space they’ve given for it (I blame my parents more than the folks who designed the ecd website). Not sure how to proceed because of this. Would you know if it is better to ask for a hard copy to fill out at the time? Or is it ok to shorten the name or will cause any issues at the immigration counter?
Thanks and Regards,
Gopal
Hey Gopal, if I remember correctly there was no more physical copy customs to fill out at the airport. so I would just fill in whatever characters you can fit in but make sure your passport number is correct. Immigration doesn’t check custom, it is a step after that. Worst come to worse you could just refill the ecd based on the instruction given at airport.
Thank you Melissa for the prompt response. Will try this out.
Hi Melissa
Great article and info!
My problem is that, no matter which photo I try to upload, it keeps rejecting the photo and says I need a neutral facial expression. I’ve tried about 10 different pics.
Any suggestions?
It’s hard to say without seeing the photo but generally it needs to be a passport photo on plain background
Thanks Melissa. Yes, it is a passport pic. I’ve tried the original photo in my passport, as well as about 10 slightly different looks against a blank wall. Maybe I just look grumpy all the time! 🙂
Is there any way to contact Imigrasi? I tried the chat on their FB page, but no reply.
I had no luck contacting imigrasi unfortunately. Maybe you can try uploading again on a different day. One last question: did you crop the photo to be exactly 4:6 ratio?
Hi Melissa, we’re travelling quite a bit around Bali, Java, and Sulawesi, and have only booked the first couple of nights as it depends on trains and weather when we will be able to reach our next destination. Will it be okay to just put in the first night in Bali on the address part?
Thanks
Yeah I would just put the first night in Bali!
Hey Melissa,
Great information. I am attempting to create an account to get an eVOA and it asks for “mothers name”. Is this mothers full name of maiden name?
I put my mother’s full name
Hi,
I’m currently in the process of creating my Molina account, however it’s asking me for ‘Mothers name’. Not sure if I’m being oblivious, but what does it mean by this?
Thanks!
Hey Bella, I put my mother’s full name
Hi Melissa, great article. Once you have the evoa, which immigration lines do you use? The foreigner or visa on arrival line? Thanks
Hey Rio, I used the Visa on Arrival one but I think any one of them would have been fine. Whichever one had shorter line i guess!
Hello Melissa,
My wife and I are very grateful that we encountered your travel the world site.
You have made our Indonesia eVOA process so simple with the Google map hack to filing the residency part of the government web application.
It took us weeks to get hotels to get us the information that your solution resolved in minutes.
It should now be a smooth entry from Singapore!
If we encounter you out there somewhere, we owe you a couple of rounds 😎 🍻 😉
Hey Carlos & Katey! I’m glad I was able to help. enjoy your stay in Indonesia 🙂
My passport number keeps getting denied saying it’s 1 number too short. Has anyone else experienced this??
hey ava, which country is your passport from and how long is it?
Hi Melissa
Thank u for the Great Article.
Do you Know how to apply for a childrens evisa? We have created single accounts for all of our children and pictures and passports were accepted. But we are Not allowed to apply for the 60day e Visa, it says the passports arent eligiable… what can we do?
Hey Sarah, can they apply for e-VoA? you can extend it once to become 60 days if you need it to be longer than 30 days
Hi. We’re staying at 3 hotels. The first one for just a few hours (late arrival into Bali) then Sofitel (5 nights) and Club Med (6 nights). Do we put the first hotel (few hours) or put one of the other two do you think?
Hey Steve, I would put the Sofitel one!
I keep getting a denied message when I try to register. Does anyone else have experience with this and if so how did you fix it? Thanks!
Hey Christie, have you tried using a different browser or a different device? Or sometimes trying at a later time would do the trick. I experienced issues on my first visa application, but a few hours later it worked.
Hi, 3 of us are travelling to Bali in April. One of the group tried several times to upload photo of passport, but kept getting denied. Tried again today but uploaded the passport photo before the actual photo and and this worked. It’s a bit of a ridiculous issue where this glitch happens when the photo is actually fine but website just won’t accept it. Also clear the device (laptop/phone) cache for the site before trying again.
Hi Heather. Thanks for this information!
Hello Melissa thank you for all the information.
May I ask another thing, when filling in ‘ Full name ‘ do you put your given and middle name first and finally your surname ? or do you have to start with your surname ?
I put given name and then surname. As long as it matches your passport and your passport number is correct it should be fine.
Hello. I’m trying to apply for a eVOA, but I’m gonna be staying at three different hotels, and the application won’t allow me to add more than one address. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Just put the address of the first hotel
Thanks for this, sorry for my unnecessary question 🙂
Hoping you can help. When applying, it asked for my arrival date. I put in the arrival date, but when it came time to the option of paying, it shows my arrival date as a “depature date” Is that OK? I applied for the Tourism Single-Entry Visitor Visa 60 Days
Yeah the same thing happened to us. But it was okay since the visa was still issued correctly.
by the way this method is only for e-visa on arrival (e-VOA) and i think you will only be granted 30 days. It is extendable though.
Kindly advise if pav is in Bali now and already done the EVOA & ECD, and he is now going to Jakarta immediately after Bali, Must he reapply for EVOA & ECD again before going to Bali.
Hey Elvie, not sure who pav is but if he is just traveling domestically he doesn’t need to do evoa and ecd again.
Hi Melissa.
I got my e-visa 2 weeks ago, but do I need to fill out other, ie customs declaration?
Thanks.
Benita DeMeo
Yes, good point! you can fill out custom here
https://ecd.beacukai.go.id/
Hi Melissa
My partner has unfortunately applied for his visa with the incorrect expiry date of the passport which you can’t change.
Can he apply for another with a different email address?
Thanks in advance 🙂
Hm, they can try to apply with another email, but likely have to pay for another Rp 500,000 for the visa. are you absolutely sure you can’t change the passport expiry date? what about adding another passport (it’s been awhile since I logged in, so I dont know if you can). If you have time, i would also try to reach out to their support email.
Hi Melissa,
Thank you for your article! it’s very helpful.
One question:
I applied for a visa on arrival and got approved but the blue words say it is “visitor visa”. It is different from your “e-VOA”. Besides, I could not find the option for “e-VOA” but I paid the same total amount of fee as you mentioned above.
How do you find the option “e-VOA” in the system?
Hey Claire. I think if you have gotten approved for visitor visa, you should be fine. e-VOA is just the electronic way to apply for a visa on arrival, which was supposed to be on arrival at the airport but was creating long queue during peak time. But at the end of the day the outcome is a tourist visa. So, if you have gotten a visa it doesn’t matter what the method you use!
Hi Melissa, I’ve been trying to complete the online E-via application, however, even though I’m only staying on Gili T, there are no corresponding names in the drop down boxes for Province/City/District etc etc for the information I’ve been given by people on Gili (Hotel Manager)….very frustrating. How did you go completing this.
Trying to send email to Immigration to sort out.
Enjoy your travels.
Hey Brian, Gili T is part of Lombok – did you try looking there?
I had the same issue. It’s extremely frustrating! I’m staying at the St. Regis, and none of the info in the address of the hotel corresponded to the dropdowns on the visa application. I had to scour Google maps to figure out the district, village, etc. Once you figure out the city (in my case, Badung), it narrows down the options for the district and village. Thank goodness for Google.
Thanks for the post, Melissa! 🙂
Thanks Keira for this info! i’ll look into it more and see if I can provide more information.
hi, thanks for the tips regarding filling this out. I’m curious what is the best way to get A photo of the applicant – which needs to be in a 4:6 ratio and at least 400×600 pixels in size?
Can I just take a pic from my phone and resize it?
yup that’s what i did
Hi Melissa,
How big should be the upload file for the passport as I have tried multiple attempts to upload it but it keeps saying please wait and nothing happens.
Thanks,
Shoey
Hi. I am Jef and I would like to apply for Indonesia’s e-VOA too.
You wrote that you chose the wrong gender then you corrected it.
So, does it mean you had 2 softcopies of e-VOA? (one with incorrect gender and one with correct gender)
And, may I check if we should include a ‘comma’ in the name section? (Chinese passport has a ‘comma’ after the surname)