The move was made in a bid to spur more tourism and give travellers additional flexibility – but it’s expensive.

Indonesia has started offering a five-year visa policy which allows multiple entries with maximum stays of up to 60 days per visit, as Southeast Asia’s largest economy seeks to attract more visitors. The new policy, which took effect from December 20, offers visa holders multiple entries as part of the government’s efforts to boost the economy, said immigration chief Silmy Karim as cited by Antara news agency. The visa is valid for general tourism, among other purposes.

Foreigners now can apply online and pay with a credit card. The official site is evisa.imigrasi.go.id. (Malaysian nationals, of course, need not bother, as they are already afforded visa-free entry under the provisions of ASEAN membership.)

A regular tourist visa for Indonesia is valid for 30 days and one entry and visitors can extend it for another 30 days before it expires. The new visa option boosts individual stays to 60 days, and grants multiple entries during the visa period, which is offered in one-year, two-year, and five-year options.

According to the Indonesian immigration website, the five-year visa costs Rp. 15 million (about RM4,500), so it’s certainly not cheap. A similar visa valid for two years costs Rp. 6 million (about RM1,800), and a one-year multiple-entry visa is Rp. 3 million (about RM900).

The Indonesian immigration website also lists a requirement for “proof of living expenses” of at least US$2,000 (RM9,220) for visits to the country. It is not clear if this must be shown for each stay or just once at the time of application. (We suspect it is the latter.)

Worth noting is that a single-entry visa for Indonesia is currently priced at Rp. 500,000, or roughly RM150, so in order for the multiple-entry visas to offer any value to visitors – at least from a cost perspective – those travelling on them would need to visit Indonesia at least six times per year, every year.

The sheer cost of these multiple-entry visas will likely be off-putting to the average tourist, but time will tell. It could be that such a visa would have more appeal to a highly mobile digital nomad. Holders of this visa are prohibited from engaging in any employment relationship with an individual or company in Indonesia, but not prohibited from working remotely for a foreign-based company (or presumably for oneself).

Indonesia’s neighbours, such as Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore, have also been offering various visa incentives to attract international visitors, especially from emerging markets like China and India.

Indonesia for several years had waived visa fees, granting visa-free entry to nationals of a whopping 169 countries. As of June 2023, however, they cancelled that waiver for all but 10 ASEAN countries (Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, Brunei, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam).

At the time of its announcement, it was said to be a “temporary” suspension, but the introduction of these long-term paid visa options now suggests that the visa waiver suspension might just be a bit more permanent.

Indonesia stated that it suspended its visa-free visits policy for 159 countries on the concerns of “public order disruptions and the potential transmission of diseases.” The order to halt the visa-free visits policy was issued in June by the Ministry of Law and Human Rights.

Some observers have suggested that if tourism numbers suffer and the new five-year visas are not enthusiastically embraced, Indonesia could well revisit its visa policy once again.