Moving to Indonesia

Cheap, warm and increasingly organised about visas — but foreign work is fenced in on purpose.

Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world and one of the least immigrant-dense. Foreigners are a rounding error in the population, and the legal framework reflects that: immigration rules are written to protect Indonesian jobs first and to admit foreigners second, in defined categories, for defined periods, usually at the request of an Indonesian company.

The practical consequence is that there is no general skilled-migration route. Almost every employment permit begins with an employer, not with the applicant: the company obtains approval for a foreign worker placement plan, pays a monthly levy for each foreign worker it employs, and only then can a limited stay permit be issued. Several occupations are closed to foreigners outright, and every foreign hire is expected to have an Indonesian counterpart being trained to take the role over.

What has changed since 2022 is the arrival of routes that do not depend on an employer. A second home visa, a remote worker visa, and a tiered investor framework marketed as the golden visa were introduced in quick succession and revised repeatedly, and older summaries of their thresholds are frequently out of date. Read the terms on the immigration service's own pages rather than the numbers circulating in expatriate forums.

Region	Southeast Asia
Capital	Jakarta
Population	around 285 million
Foreign-born residents	well under 1% of residents
Official language(s)	Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia)
Currency	Indonesian rupiah (IDR)

Why people move to Indonesia

• Living costs are very low by the standards of any high-income country, particularly outside central Jakarta.
• Employer-sponsored permits are administratively heavy but broadly predictable once a company commits to sponsoring.
• Non-employment categories now exist: remote worker, investor, retirement and second home permits do not require a local job.
• Long stays are legally possible for years through renewable temporary stay permits, and eventually through a permanent stay permit.
• Spouses of Indonesian citizens have their own permit route and reach permanent stay faster than most other applicants.
• Indonesian is comparatively approachable: no tones, no cases, and a Latin alphabet.

What to know before you commit

• Working on a tourist or visa-on-arrival entry is illegal, and enforcement has escalated, with detention, fines, deportation and re-entry bans reported in Bali in particular.
• Indonesia does not permit dual citizenship for adults, so naturalisation means renouncing your existing nationality.
• Whole categories of work — including personnel and certain legal, human resources and safety roles — are legally closed to foreigners.
• Foreigners cannot own freehold land; only right-of-use and right-to-build style arrangements are available, and nominee ownership through an Indonesian name is unenforceable.
• The headline terms of the second home and golden visa routes were revised more than once after launch, so published thresholds move.
• Serious medical cases are commonly evacuated to Singapore at the patient's expense, which makes evacuation cover a practical necessity rather than an optional extra.

The eight guides

Official sources

• Directorate General of Immigration
• Indonesian e-visa portal
• Ministry of Manpower

Checked against these pages in September 2026. Fees and processing times change without notice — confirm before you act.