Bali Tourists Warned Of Simple But Costly Visa On Arrival Mistake 

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An Australian tourist has shared warnings with fellow Bali-bound travelers after she had to pay her visa-on-arrival fee twice.

The simple but costly mistake is an easy-to-make error for even the most experienced nomads. 

Indonesia’s visa-on-arrival and e-visa-on-arrival are the most popular and appropriate visas for holidaymakers, short-stay digital nomads, business visitors, and cultural visitors.

Tourists from 97 nations, including Australia, New Zealand, the US, and most European nations. The visa is valid for 30 days, and it is possible to extend it for a further 30 days.

The visa costs IDR 500,000 and can be arranged via the Indonesian eVisa website prior to arrival or paid for at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport and all other international airports in the country. 

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Melbourne-based Bali tourist Laura Devy has spoken to the media about a costly mistake she made during her preparations for her Bali vacation.

Keen to be as prepared as possible, Devy applied for her eVisa on Arrival prior to jetting off to Bali.

The online process is simple, easy to follow, and can be completed within a matter of minutes. Applying for the eVisa on Arrival also enables tourists to use the newly installed autogates at Bali Airport, making the arrivals process even more efficient. 

Devy explained how she’d learned a “big life lesson” after she input her passport number incorrectly while making her eVisa on Arrival application, which essentially made her application null and void.

Upon arrival at Bali Airport, she presented her passport and visa to the immigration official, who quickly noticed something was wrong. 

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Devy shared, “When he was checking my details to make sure they were 110 percent correct, he was like, ‘You’ve got to go pay another $50 because you’ve put in your passport number wrong’.”

She added, “I was like, ‘No, I haven’t, I’ve put all the numbers in correctly,’ and he was like, ‘You’ve missed the two front letters’.”

Devy continued, “My two front letters are PA, so all my life, I’ve thought the two front letters meant ‘passport number’, so why would I have to include them.”

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The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade introduced the R series of passports in 2022, which followed the P series passports that were first introduced in 2014.

Australian passport numbers are either eight or nine characters and can contain both letters and numbers.

Many countries have issued passports featuring alphanumeric passport numbers, including Canada, India, the UK, Ireland, and South Africa. 

Devy’s mishap meant that she was charged for another Visa on Arrival, costing a further IDR 500,000.

She’s come forward to help other tourists learn from her mistakes, though she admitted most travelers are “smart enough not to do this.” 

Devy is not alone in her passport-related mistakes at Bali Airport. Simple typing errors have been the downfall of plenty of tourists over the years, whether it is typos made on names, issue and expiry dates, and passport numbers. 

One of the most common faults found by Bali Immigration Officers is damage to passports.

Immigration teams in Indonesia are particularly strict on damaged passports and have been noted to go out of their way to check the condition of every last millimeter of travelers’ passports in ways that have been overlooked by immigration officials elsewhere. 

Tourists must be aware that passports must be in pristine, undamaged condition prior to arrival in Indonesia.

Immigration officers look especially for rips and tears in the spine fold of the passport book, as well as ink marks, stains, page folds, and bends.

Tourists attempting to enter Indonesia with a damaged passport will be denied entry to the country and held by immigration officials until they board a flight home at their own expense. 

Tourists must also have two empty pages in their passport and have at least 6-months of validity remaining on their travel documents.