Indonesia: new visa policy starts in december

[george]

New visa policy starts in December

JAKARTA (dpa) - Starting December, Indonesia will grant 30-day tourist visas-on-arrival to only 21 countries and free visas on arrival to 11 others, news reports said Tuesday.

The more selective visa-on-arrival policy will replace Indonesia's existing practice of granting 60-day visas upon arrival for tourists from 48 different countries.

Under the new policy, which has been strongly criticized by the local tourism industry, visas-on-arrival will be granted to nationals from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, the United States, the United Arab Emirates and Taiwan, which is classified as a region not a country.

"The visa on arrival facility will last only for 30 days, but can be extended," Indonesian immigration spokesman Ade E. Dachlan told the state-run Antara news agency.

The visas must be paid for upon arrival.

The Netherlands, Indonesia's former colonial master, was excluded from the visa-on-arrival facility, meaning Dutch tourists must now seek visas from the Indonesian embassy before traveling to the country.

Countries that will continue to enjoy free visas-on-arrival include Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Morocco, Peru, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and the special administrative zones Hong Kong and Macau, on the basis of reciprocity.

The new visa policy, the brainchild of Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra, was supposedly devised to stop foreigners from abusing tourist visas to work in the country illegally.

--DPA 2003-10-29

[ovenman]

JAKARTA (dpa) - Starting December, Indonesia will grant 30-day tourist visas-on-arrival to only 21 countries and free visas on arrival to 11 others, news reports said Tuesday.

Sounds like the Indonesian tourism industry won a small victory here.  This is a more relaxed policy than what had been originally proposed, which was a straight reciprocal visa policy between Indonesia and other countries.  

The upshot of the original proposal was that if Country A allowed Indonesians to visit without obtaining a visa in advance, Indonesia would allow the same for citizens of Country A.  On the other hand if Country B required Indonesians to obtainin a visa in advance of visiting that country, Indonesia would require the same for citizens of Country B.  Since most Western countries do not allow Indonesians to visit without an advance visa, this original proposal would have affected pretty much all Western tourists.  Hence the outcry from the Indonesian tourism industry.

The new visa policy, the brainchild of Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra, was supposedly devised to stop foreigners from abusing tourist visas to work in the country illegally.

That may be one interpretation but I have never seen it written about as such and I've been following this story for a while now. The intent of the original policy reads like a tit-for-tat measure or a way to generate cash for the government thru revenue from visas that were previously not required.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

It is a much softer approach than the original announcement. Have they said what the fee will be ?

[dr_Pat_Pong]

The Indonesians evened up with the Dutch. They have to get a visa before arrival not on arrival