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You can now get a ten-year visa to stay in Bali – but there’s a pretty big catch

Indonesia’s new visa will let you stay in the country for up to ten years, so long as you have a substantial amount of cash saved up

Ed Cunningham
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Ed Cunningham
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With its picture-perfect beaches, thriving local and expat communities and dazzling tropical ecosystems, Bali is definitely the kind of place we can picture ourselves spending the next decade. And the Indonesian government has just announced a new visa that’ll let you do just that. From later this year, arrivals will be able to get a visa that will let them stay in Indonesia for up to ten years.

Which is pretty generous, to say the least. The visa (which is available from December 25 2022) is explicitly aimed at travellers and it’s part of a move to entice people back to Indonesia after the pandemic. For context, some of the current longest tourist visas on offer come from Georgia and Albania, which both give travellers one year to explore their countries. And as Indonesia’s offering is still technically a tourist visa, you wouldn’t have to pay tax to the Indonesian government while you’re there.

As you can probably imagine, there’s a catch to Indonesia’s ten-year visa scheme – and it’s a pretty huge one. To qualify for the visa, you’ll need to have at least two billion Indonesian rupiah in your bank account. That amounts to around £111,000 or $128,500 in savings – which is, to most people, a heck of a lot of money. 

But if you don’t have that much money in the bank, don’t fear. Most arrivals in Indonesia get a visa that is valid for 90 days, while so-called ‘digital nomads’ can stay in the country tax-free for up to five years. If you’re a remote worker looking to move abroad, in fact, there are plenty of options open to you: loads of countries around the world are currently trying to cash in on the post-pandemic digital nomad trend for remote working. So you don’t have to be some kind of high-roller to relocate to paradise – honest.

Did you see that these are all the countries where you can live and work remotely?

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