Review about Immigration Office Labuan Bajo for extending Visa on Arrival

On Monday around 1.30 pm we started to visit the office. It was a quite big spacey building with enough number of personals who can help you actually. We were the only one guests there.

Sadly it was a strict procedure. Though I am sure that they have a “printer with the function” to make a copy of Eva’s German Passport. Still Pak Don had to go and find a way to make a copy on his own for our behalf. Surely we would pay the copy service directly there but they didn’t open any way for us to get that service there.

It seems they wanted the “agents” to have a living for that kind of really simple tasks.

So after Pak Don came back with the copy, we filled the requested forms and submitted it. We got an invoice that we have to pay directly either in a Bank (we may choose any bank there in the city) or the postal office. They told us to come back again a day after for the taking of Eva’s photograph, her finger prints and her signature.

Pak Don made the payment and came back and I asked the officer to proceed with the activities that shall be available a day after because the payment already made and the receipt was also given as a proof. Still the officer refused and mentioned that their system is digital and need a day time to get payment confirmation. So the further activities were only able to be done a day after.

Alright. We left the building and just around 10 minutes afterwards, I received a notification by email that the payment already received by them.

Logically we could have Eva’s further activities be done directly because now I have proof that the immigration office system got the payment already. Well this specific office (or maybe all other governments offices) only play by their given books and rules.

I really hope that in the near future they want to be smarter and more efficient to minister unto the foreigners, that surely will spread the “good news” about their improvements if they change their rules by activating their logic.

We came again a day after and the process for Eva took only around 5 minutes to get it done.

But still we have to wait for Friday (3 days after) to be able to get the passport of Eva back on our hands. So much time? I thought the digital improvements already enable them to work faster?

We believe it’s all a wanted concept for the governments to nourish the local businesses such like hotels and restaurants and other recreations options so the foreign visitor must spent 5 days in Labuan Bajo (or within Flores) to get their extension visa or their passport back.

Yes, it all about costs on our side but profits on their side!

Gladly we had Pak Don, who is willing to get the passport back on this friday, since we are already away on that specific day toward Ruteng and Tangkul and we will stay there longer than just friday.

We will get that passport back when we are heading down again to Labuan Bajo later on.

If you are a foreigner and want to spent time in Indonesia nowadays. Then you only get a 30 days visa on arrival (not more than that). It costs IDR 500k.

If you want to stay longer than that, then you can extend it by visiting directly immigration office nearby but make sure to have 5 days for the process as I explained before. It costs another IDR 500k.

This extension process can only be done ONCE! That means after that the person must go out of Indonesia (for example: Singapore) and get into Indonesia again by paying IDR 500k for the “new” processed visa on arrival 😅.

If you want to get longer visa then you have to apply for “visiting visa” but only applicable at the Indonesian embassy at your departing country. You can only get a 60 days permit.

Within Indonesia you will again need help from “agencies” in Bali or Jakarta (not in Labuan Bajo, since these agencies don’t exist there) who gladly gives their company names as sponsor to get you another 60 days staying permit. Yes, it will cost you more than IR 500k or even 1mil, I believe.

Conclusion: Indonesian bureaucracy makes rooms for any kinds of service businesses. Tax incomes are wanted, right?