Bali Visa Guide
Indonesia’s New Visa Codes Explained: 2026 Guide
Indonesia’s new visa codes come from Ministerial Decree M.IP-08.GR.01.01/2025 on visa classification, which cut the system from 133 indices down to 110 and files every visa under six letters — A (visa-free), B (30-day VOA), C (single-entry), D (multiple-entry), E (limited-stay/KITAS) and F (7-day VOA). The letter sets the visa’s purpose; the number narrows it to your exact activity.
The classification and fees on this page are checked against the official portals imigrasi.go.id and evisa.imigrasi.go.id, and against the published decree of the Kementerian Imigrasi dan Pemasyarakatan. Immigration rules evolve — confirm against official sources before you apply.
Why Indonesia renamed every visa
If you learned the Indonesian visa system before 2025, you learned a jumble: B211A for a long tourist stay, index 211 for a social visit, three-digit codes for every flavour of stay permit, and a fresh acronym for each new government scheme. It was 133 indices deep and nobody outside an immigration office could hold it in their head.
The 2025 reform — the Indonesia new visa classification issued as Ministerial Decree M.IP-08.GR.01.01/2025 by the Kementerian Imigrasi dan Pemasyarakatan (the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections created in late 2024) — replaced that jumble with a clean letter-and-number grammar and trimmed the count to 110. This is the kementerian imigrasi visa policy that now governs every application you file in 2026. The visas themselves mostly did not change; their names did. Read this page once and the label on any Bali visa quote — yours or a competitor’s — becomes self-explanatory.
How the letter system works (the visa index list A/B/C/D/E/F)
Every Indonesian visa now opens with one of six letters. The letter is the category; think of it as the shelf your visa sits on. Here is the full visa index list A/B/C/D/E/F, in plain English:
| Letter | Category | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| A | Visa exemption | Visa-free entry for eligible nationalities (ASEAN and a short reciprocal list). No visa, no fee, limited stay. |
| B | Visa on Arrival — 30 days | The paid IDR 500,000 Visa on Arrival and its online twin, the eVOA. Tourism and light business, extendable once. |
| C | Single-entry visit visa | Apply-before-you-travel visas for one entry: tourism, business, creators, social visits, training and more. |
| D | Multiple-entry visit visa | One visa, many entries over 1–5 years — frequent travellers, business and pre-investment. |
| E | Limited-stay visa (KITAS-type) | The long-stay visas that convert into a KITAS/ITAS residence permit: work, investment, family, retirement, remote work. |
| F | Visa on Arrival — 7 days | A short 7-day arrival visa for brief limited-stay guests, mirroring some B activities on a tighter clock. |
Two quick myths to kill. First, “A and B are the free ones” is wrong — only A is visa-free; B is the paid VOA. Second, the letter alone rarely finishes the job: the number and sub-letter after it (C1, C5A, D12, E33G) is what pins your visa to a specific permitted activity. Get the number wrong and you hold the right shelf but the wrong book.
The single-entry C visas that actually matter
The C letter is where most visitors and businesses live, because it covers everything you apply for online before flying in for a single stay. The 2025 decree consolidated dozens of old sub-indices here, so a few codes now cover what used to be a sprawl. These are the C-index visas you will actually meet, verified July 2026 against the official portals:
| Code | Purpose | Plain-English use case |
|---|---|---|
| C1 | Tourism, family visit, transit | The long-stay tourist visa — the former B211A. 60 days, extendable. Details in our C1 tourist visa 2026 guide. |
| C2 | Business (non-hands-on) | Meetings, negotiations, factory and site visits. No technical work or supervision. |
| C5A | Content creator | Social-media creators and influencers — separate from journalists and filmmakers, who need their own permits. |
| C6 | Social, humanitarian, voluntary | Merges the old C6/C6A/C6B into one social visit visa. The C6 social & volunteer visa is the correct route for volunteering. |
| C7C | Arts & culture | Performing or demonstrating a skill — performances, showcases, cultural events. |
| C9 | Short courses & training | Non-degree training and short courses. |
| C10 | Invited speakers & presenters | Speaking at a conference or event on invitation (fan-meeting-style events are excluded). |
| C11 / C11A | Exhibitions & MICE | Exhibitions and MICE activity. The Indonesia MICE visa C11A is the sub-index for exhibitors from “calling-visa” nationalities that face extra vetting. |
| C15 | Emergency work | Urgent short work; unusually, it now permits receiving compensation from an Indonesian source. |
| C20 | Technical work | Installation, repairs and technical tasks that a C2 business visa does not cover. |
That is not the entire C range — the ministry’s 110 indices still include niche sub-codes for cases most travellers never touch — but it is every C visa a tourist, creator, volunteer or business visitor is likely to need. If your activity is not clearly on this list, that is precisely the moment to ask before you apply, because the penalty for guessing is a refusal or, worse, an enforcement problem after arrival.
D-codes and E-codes: multiple entry and long stay
Beyond the single-entry C shelf sit the two categories for people who come and go, or who come and stay.
The D visas are multiple-entry — one document, many trips, typically 60 days per visit over one, two or five years:
- D1 — tourism, family, meetings, conventions and exhibitions, multiple entry.
- D2 — business, multiple entry (site visits yes; technical work no).
- D12 — pre-investment, the newly introduced index for feasibility studies and site surveys, with longer per-visit stays. It is the natural first step before forming a company — see our D12 pre-investment visa page.
The E visas are the limited-stay class — the ones that become a KITAS (now issued as a digital ITAS) once you land and complete biometrics. If you plan to live in Bali, this is your letter. The codes you will hear most, all managed end-to-end through our KITAS service:
| Code | Long-stay visa | For |
|---|---|---|
| E23 | Working KITAS | Employees sponsored by an Indonesian company. |
| E28A | Investor KITAS | Shareholders and directors of a PT PMA. |
| E31 / E31A | Family / Spouse KITAS | Dependants of a KITAS holder, or spouses of an Indonesian citizen. |
| E33F | Retirement KITAS | Retirees aged 55+ with qualifying passive income. |
| E33G | Remote Worker (Digital Nomad) KITAS | Remote workers earning from foreign companies. |
| E33 (E33E) | Second Home Visa | Five-to-ten-year residency backed by a state-bank deposit or qualifying property. |
The old-name crosswalk that trips everyone up: the headline change is B211A → C1 for tourists. Beyond that, the old index 211 social visit is now C6; old business visit codes map to C2 (single) or D2 (multiple); and the old three-digit KITAS stay-permit indices now live under the E letter (work under E23, retirement under E33F, and so on). If a guide still says “B211A” or quotes a bare three-digit index, it is describing a real visa under its retired name — match it to the letter code above and you are looking at the same product.
New and changed codes to watch in 2027
The 2025 decree is enacted law and in force now. What comes next is, honestly, a mix of confirmed adjustments and reported proposals — and we label them as such rather than dress rumour as rule:
- Sub-index fine-tuning (likely, ongoing). The ministry has already added and merged sub-codes since the decree took effect; expect further tidy-ups within the existing A–F letters rather than a new letter.
- Tighter activity definitions (enacted, still bedding in). Codes like C2, C10 and C20 now draw sharper lines around what is “business” versus “work.” The category exists; the enforcement interpretation is still hardening in 2026.
- Financial screening at entry (proposed, not enacted). Reported plans to screen tourists’ proof of funds are policy signals, not a new visa code. We track what is actually announced on our Bali visa changes 2027 page and update it as rules land.
The safe posture: build your plan on the enacted letter system above, and treat any “2027 visa” headline as something to verify against the official portals before you act on it.
Which visa code do you need? A 60-second decision tree
Start at the top and stop at the first line that fits:
- Coming for a holiday of 30 days or less and your nationality qualifies? The B Visa on Arrival (IDR 500,000) is enough.
- Staying 30–60 days as a tourist, or want to skip the extension queue? You want the C1 — see the C1 guide.
- Here for business meetings or site visits, no hands-on work? C2 for one trip, D2 if you will return repeatedly.
- Creating content for social media? C5A. Volunteering with an organisation? C6. Performing? C7C.
- Exploring an investment before committing? D12 pre-investment.
- Planning to live in Bali — work, invest, retire, join family or work remotely? You are in the E family (E23/E28A/E31/E33F/E33G), which becomes a KITAS after arrival.
Not sure which line is yours? That is normal — the codes are cleaner than the old system but the choice between, say, a C6 and a working KITAS still turns on details a wrong guess makes expensive. Browse every option on our visa services hub, or send us your plan and we will name the exact code in one reply.
FAQ
What is Indonesia’s new visa classification decree?
It is Ministerial Decree M.IP-08.GR.01.01/2025 on visa classification, issued by the Kementerian Imigrasi dan Pemasyarakatan. Effective in 2025, it replaced the previous framework, reduced the number of visa indices from 133 to 110, and reorganised every visa under six letters — A, B, C, D, E and F — each with numbered sub-indices for specific activities.
What do the visa letters A, B, C, D, E and F mean?
A is visa-free entry; B is the 30-day Visa on Arrival; C is a single-entry visit visa; D is a multiple-entry visit visa; E is a limited-stay visa that becomes a KITAS residence permit; and F is a 7-day Visa on Arrival. The number after the letter — C1, D12, E33G — defines the exact permitted activity.
Is the B211A visa gone?
The name is retired, not the visa. The long-stay tourist visa formerly called B211A is now the C1 single-entry visit visa: same 60-day, extendable, apply-before-you-fly product under a new code. Many blogs still write “B211A” out of habit — if you see it, read it as C1 and check the current rules on our C1 tourist visa guide.
What is the C11A MICE visa?
C11A is a single-entry visit visa sub-index for exhibitors taking part in MICE activity — meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions — specifically for nationals of “calling-visa” countries that require extra security clearance. General exhibition attendance falls under C11; C11A adds the vetting layer for those particular nationalities.
Which visa code do digital nomads need?
Remote workers earning from foreign companies use the E33G Remote Worker (Digital Nomad) KITAS — an E-class limited-stay visa valid for one year that becomes a digital ITAS after arrival. It is not a tourist code: working remotely on a B VOA or C1 tourist visa is a visa violation, so the E33G is the compliant long-stay route.
Do these new codes change how much a visa costs?
The reclassification renamed visas; it did not, by itself, change government fees. Official rates such as the VOA’s IDR 500,000 and overstay penalty of IDR 1,000,000 per day still apply under the new letters. What changes is clarity — the code now tells you and immigration exactly which visa you hold and what it permits.
Get the right code the first time
The new system is simpler, but “simpler” still isn’t “obvious” when your plans sit between two codes and a wrong pick means a refusal or a border run. Tell us what you’re coming to Bali to do and we’ll name the exact visa index for your case — message a licensed consultant on WhatsApp for a free eligibility check and a written USD quote. For the two most-searched codes, start with our C1 tourist visa guide or the full visa services hub. Bali Visa Trusted has filed through the official immigration portals since 2015 — under every code, old name and new.