The remote worker (digital nomad) visa for Bali, from the regulation

An income floor, a foreign employer, a one-year term — and no route from it to permanent stay.

The remote worker (“digital nomad”) visa, from the regulation

Bali is where Indonesia’s remote-work visa is most talked about. The regulation calls it a limited-stay visa for a remote worker in the second-home family, and it sets three things: an income floor, a foreign employer, and a one-year term.

The conditions

The application needs a passport valid at least 6 months, proof of income, proof of living costs, a photo, and the employment contract (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 63(1)). The guarantee is salary or income of at least US$60,000 a year (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 63(2)); the purpose document is an employment contract with a company incorporated outside Indonesia (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 63(3)). Changes to the income figure are set by the Director General after coordinating with the relevant ministries (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 63(5)) — check the current figure; we have not read the Director General’s decisions. The living-costs proof is a separate figure, also set by the Director General (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 63(4)) — the regulation itself does not print it.

The contract requirement is the one freelancers trip over. The text names employment with a company incorporated abroad; a self-employed person invoicing clients is not described. Our reading of the article, not of how any office applies it.

A one-year permit, and what it does not lead to

The stay permit runs at most 1 year (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 105(10)(e)). The permits that can be converted to permanent stay are worker, clergy, foreign investment, family reunification, repatriation and the second-home family (second home, special expertise, world figures, 60+) (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 173) — the remote worker is not one of them. A remote worker who wants a path to a KITAP has to move to a route that has one.

The remote worker sits in the same family as the second home and retirement visas (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 33(2)(j)), but it is the only one of the three with an income test instead of a deposit and the only one with no road to permanent stay. Someone who can afford the second home’s deposit and means to stay is on the wrong visa as a remote worker. The second home visa.

Tax: when a remote worker becomes resident

Immigration and tax residence are separate tests. For income tax a resident is an individual, Indonesian or foreign, who lives in Indonesia, is in Indonesia more than 183 days in 12 months, or is in Indonesia in a tax year intending to live there (Income Tax Law art. 2(3)(a), as amended by Law 6/2023 art. 111); a non-resident includes a foreign national in Indonesia for not more than 183 days in 12 months (Income Tax Law art. 2(4)(b), as amended by Law 6/2023 art. 111). A remote worker on a one-year permit can cross the 183-day line. A resident foreigner may be taxed only on income from Indonesia, if they have certain expertise, for 4 tax years from becoming resident (Income Tax Law art. 4(1a), as amended by Law 7/2021 art. 3) — a rule written for people with certain expertise, which may or may not describe a given remote worker. Where a treaty applies, residence in both countries is settled by its tie-breaker, as in the Australian treaty: a permanent home, then habitual abode, then closer economic and personal relations (Australia-Indonesia DTA art. 4(3)). The Income Tax Law.

For someone who is self-employed rather than employed — and so outside the remote-worker visa’s text anyway — the treaties set their own day counts for independent work: the Australian treaty more than 120 days in any 12 months, or a fixed base there (Australia-Indonesia DTA art. 14(1)), the UK treaty 91 days or more in any continuous 12 months, or a fixed base there (UK-Indonesia DTA art. 14(1)). Those are limits on when Indonesia may tax the work, not permissions to do it on a tourist or remote-worker permit. The Australian treaty.

Reporting while you are here

Every foreigner must give identity information and report every change of civil status, citizenship, work, sponsor or address to the local immigration office (Immigration Law art. 71(1)(a), as amended by Law 6/2023 art. 106) — including a change of address from one rented villa to the next.

Living in Bali on it: renting or buying

The permit is a valid immigration document (PP 18/2021 art. 69(1)) for the land rules’ purposes — the land regulation’s elucidation counts a visa, a passport, or a stay permit as such documents (PP 18/2021, elucidation to art. 69(1)). But a hak pakai home held on a permit renewed year by year carries the risk the inheritance and ownership rules attach to losing the permit; for a one-year stay, a lease is the instrument built for it. Our reading. Leasehold explained. Tax treaties and working from Bali.

This is commentary on the official text, not immigration or tax advice.

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