Bali Visa Guide
Bridging Visa Indonesia: Stay Legal While You Wait
A bridging visa — officially the Izin Tinggal Peralihan (Transitional Stay Permit) — lets a foreigner stay legally in Indonesia while switching from an expiring permit to a new one, such as a pending KITAS conversion. It runs 60 days, is non-extendable, onshore-only, and is voided the moment you leave Indonesia.
Rules on this page are checked against the official portals imigrasi.go.id and evisa.imigrasi.go.id. Immigration policy is YMYL and changes — always confirm your specific case against official sources before you rely on it.
What the bridging visa actually is
“Bridging visa” is expat shorthand, borrowed from Australia, for a permit Indonesia calls the Izin Tinggal Peralihan — the Transitional Stay Permit, sometimes abbreviated BRG. It is not a marketing invention: it is an official mechanism introduced under Permenkumham No. 11 of 2024 (effective 1 April 2024) and fully operational in 2025 and 2026, administered by the Directorate General of Immigration through evisa.imigrasi.go.id.
The name describes the job. When your current stay permit is about to expire but the next one — usually a KITAS obtained by converting your visit visa in-country — has not been issued yet, the bridging permit spans that gap. It keeps your status legal for the days between “old permit ending” and “new permit granted,” so you are never sitting in Indonesia with an expired permit while the paperwork catches up.
Its official character is deliberately narrow. The permit is a bridge, not a destination: 60 days, single use, non-extendable, and valid only while you remain physically inside Indonesia.
Who actually needs a bridging visa
Most tourists never touch this permit — and that is the first honest thing to say, because a good number of the people who Google “bridging visa Indonesia” do not need one. The BRG mechanism exists for a specific transition problem: your permit type is changing, and the new permit isn’t ready before the old one dies.
The classic scenarios are:
- Visit-visa-to-KITAS conversion. You entered on a C1 or another visit visa, decided to stay long-term, and are converting to a KITAS onshore. If the conversion runs long and your visit permit is expiring, the bridging permit holds your status.
- Switching between permit types. Moving from one KITAS category to another, or from a stay permit into a different residence route, where there is a genuine gap between the two.
- An application that has outrun its timeline. Sponsor documents, biometrics scheduling, or an immigration query can stretch a conversion past the expiry date of the permit you’re currently on.
Who does not normally need it? Someone doing a straightforward same-type extension — a VOA extension, or extending a C1 — filed on time. In those cases your legal stay continues during processing; you are not accruing overstay just because the office is still working. The bridging visa is for conversions and permit-type changes, not routine renewals. The distinction matters enough that we spell it out again below, because it is exactly where anxious travellers overspend or under-protect themselves.
Cost and timeline: the premium-versus-cheap reality
Here is where the market gets murky. The bridging permit is applied for through the official e-visa system; on top of any government charge, agencies add a service fee, and those service fees vary wildly. One Bali agency openly advertises a 60-day bridging service at a flat IDR 3,000,000 all-in — a useful public benchmark, and more transparent than most. Many others quote a single number in a chat bubble with no breakdown at all.
That opacity is the risk. When an agent won’t separate the government fee from their own margin, you cannot tell what you’re paying for — and a bridging case, by definition, is already time-critical. Bali Visa Trusted takes the opposite approach: we quote the government fee and our service fee separately, in writing, in USD, before you pay anything, so a permit you need fast never becomes a permit you overpaid for in a panic.
On timing, the numbers below are verified July 2026 against the official portal and current practice:
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Official name | Izin Tinggal Peralihan (Transitional Stay Permit / “bridging visa,” BRG) |
| Legal basis | Permenkumham No. 11 of 2024, effective 1 April 2024 |
| Length of stay | Up to 60 days |
| Extendable? | No — single, non-extendable permit |
| Where valid | Onshore only — inside Indonesia |
| On leaving Indonesia | Automatically void |
| Where to apply | evisa.imigrasi.go.id |
The 60 days is a ceiling, not a target. In a clean conversion the bridge is often much shorter — it simply covers you until the KITAS lands. But because it cannot be extended, the file behind it has to be right the first time; there is no comfortable second run if the underlying application stalls.
Can you stay while your extension or conversion is processing?
This is the anxiety question, and the answer genuinely depends on your scenario — so treat these as two different worlds.
Scenario 1 — routine, same-type extension filed on time. If your extension is a standard renewal of the same visa (VOA, C1) and you lodged it before expiry, you are generally covered during processing. Your permit doesn’t “expire while the extension is processing” in a way that makes you illegal — immigration is working a validly filed request. You usually do not need a bridging visa here at all.
Scenario 2 — conversion, or a permit-type change, where the old permit lapses first. This is the case the bridging visa was built for. If you’re converting a visit visa to a KITAS and the conversion isn’t granted before your current permit ends, the Izin Tinggal Peralihan is what keeps you legal in the gap. Without it, you can slide into overstay even though your KITAS is “in progress” — because the in-progress KITAS is not yet a valid stay permit.
The practical rule: identify early whether your case is a renewal or a transition. A renewal usually carries you; a transition may need a bridge. Getting that classification wrong is the single most common reason people either waste IDR 3,000,000 they didn’t need or, far worse, quietly overstay while assuming they were covered.
Can you leave Indonesia while your KITAS is pending?
Short answer: not on a bridging permit. The Izin Tinggal Peralihan is onshore-only and becomes void the moment you exit Indonesian territory — this is written into the rule, not an agency interpretation. If you leave Indonesia while your KITAS is pending under a bridge, you don’t just interrupt the permit; you generally collapse the onshore conversion itself, and you’d be looking at restarting from abroad with a fresh entry visa.
So if a family emergency, a work trip, or a wedding falls inside your pending window, raise it before you commit to the onshore route. Sometimes the right move is to sequence the whole application differently — completing the conversion first, or choosing a path that tolerates travel — rather than book a bridge you’ll have to abandon at the airport. This is precisely the kind of sequencing question worth asking an agent before, not after, you’ve paid.
Pro tip: if there is any chance you must leave Indonesia during a pending conversion, say so on day one. A bridging permit that voids on exit is worthless to someone with a plane ticket — and rebuilding a collapsed onshore application from overseas costs far more time than planning around the trip would have.
The overstay risk if you do nothing
The reason the bridging visa exists at all is that Indonesia does not forgive gaps. If your permit expires and you are neither on a valid extension nor bridged, you are overstaying — and the fine is IDR 1,000,000 per day, per person, accruing quietly while you assume “the KITAS is coming.” A conversion that drifts two weeks past your old permit’s expiry, unbridged, is IDR 14,000,000 in penalties before anyone even flags it.
Prolonged or unpaid overstay escalates beyond money into detention, deportation and re-entry bans — the outcomes detailed in our Bali overstay guide for 2026. Against that, a correctly filed bridge is cheap insurance. The mistake is never the permit; it is the silence — the days spent hoping the timeline holds instead of protecting the gap. If you’re also weighing a longer stay, our KITAS renewal guide covers how far ahead to start so a bridge is never needed in the first place.
FAQ
Do I need a bridging visa while my KITAS extension is being processed?
Only in transition cases. A routine same-type extension filed before expiry usually keeps you legal during processing — no bridge required. But if you’re converting a visit visa to a KITAS and your current permit expires before the KITAS is granted, the bridging visa (Izin Tinggal Peralihan) covers that gap. Identify which case you’re in early.
Can I leave Indonesia while my KITAS is pending on a bridging visa?
No. The bridging permit is onshore-only and becomes void the instant you leave Indonesian territory — that is written into Permenkumham No. 11 of 2024. Leaving while your KITAS is pending typically collapses the onshore conversion too, forcing a restart from abroad. If you may need to travel, plan the sequence differently before you apply.
How long is the BRG bridging visa valid, and can I extend it?
The bridging visa is valid for up to 60 days and is non-extendable — a single bridge, not a renewable stay. In a clean conversion it often runs shorter, covering only the days until your new permit is issued. Because there is no second run, the underlying application must be prepared correctly the first time.
What happens if my visa expires while my extension is processing?
For a valid same-type extension filed on time, you are generally covered while immigration works it. For a conversion where the old permit lapses first, an expired permit with only an “in-progress” KITAS is overstay — the pending KITAS is not yet a valid stay permit. That gap is exactly what a bridging visa protects against.
How much does a bridging visa cost in Bali?
It varies by agency. One Bali agency advertises a 60-day bridging service at a flat IDR 3,000,000 all-in; others quote a single figure with no breakdown. Bali Visa Trusted separates the government fee from our service fee, in writing and in USD, before you pay — so a time-critical permit never becomes an overpriced one.
Is the bridging visa an official Indonesian immigration permit?
Yes. The Izin Tinggal Peralihan is an enacted mechanism under Permenkumham No. 11 of 2024, effective 1 April 2024, and is applied for through the official portal at evisa.imigrasi.go.id. It is a genuine Directorate General of Immigration permit — not an agency product — designed specifically to bridge an expiring permit to a new one.
Bridge the gap before it becomes overstay
A pending KITAS is not a licence to relax — it is a countdown. If your permit is expiring before your new one lands, tell us your visa type, your expiry date and whether you need to travel, and message a licensed consultant on WhatsApp for a written USD quote and an honest read on whether you even need a bridge. If your case is really a conversion, start with our in-country visa conversion service; if the clock has already run out, our 2026 overstay guide is the first thing to read. Bali Visa Trusted has filed through Indonesia’s official immigration portals since 2015 — including the transitions nobody warned you about.