The retirement visa for Bali (60+): two routes, one income test

One year with a sponsor, or five years with a bank deposit instead — and what the stay permit does and does not do for a house.

The retirement visa (60+), from the regulation

Bali has been a retirement destination for decades, and the visa that serves it is in the same family as the second home visa. Two routes: one year with a sponsor, or five years with a bank deposit instead.

Two routes

The regulation lets the Director General of Immigration change these figures; a later decision may have done so, and we have not read the Director General's decisions. Check the current figure before relying on it. Changes to the income and deposit figures are set by the Director General after coordinating with the relevant ministries (Permenkumham 22/2023 arts. 61(4), 62(5)).

The stay permit runs at most 1 year, or at most 5 years (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 105(10)(d)). The retirement visa sits with the second home, special-expertise, world-figure and remote-worker visas in one family: second home, special expertise, world figures, people aged 60 or over, and remote workers employed by a company outside Indonesia (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 33(2)(j)). A retiree who can meet the second home’s higher deposit has a 5-year alternative there. The second home visa.

The visa and the house

A foreigner’s home requires a valid immigration document (PP 18/2021 art. 69(1)). The retirement stay permit is that document. What it does not do is change the land rules: the house is held as hak pakai, on someone’s land or the State’s, with its own term — 30 years first (PP 18/2021 art. 52(1)). A retiree’s permit renews by the year or the five years; the land right runs on its own clock. Planning both together is the point. What happens on death or exit.

What a retiree’s home can be

The land rules allow a foreigner a home — a landed house, or a strata unit (Permen ATR/BPN 18/2021 art. 185), under four limits (PP 18/2021 art. 72), one of them a residential designation (PP 18/2021 art. 72(d)) — a retirement home, not a rental business.

For a retiree the inheritance rule matters most: the home is inheritable, if the heir also holds one (PP 18/2021 art. 69(2)–(3)) — the heir needs a valid immigration document too. A child who does not live in Indonesia inherits a right they may not be able to keep. Hak pakai explained.

The sponsor

The one-year route needs a guarantee from a sponsor. The rule behind it is general: certain foreigners in Indonesia must have a sponsor who guarantees their presence (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 191(1)), with exemptions for foreigners married to Indonesians, foreign investors under the investment law, and nationals of reciprocal countries (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 191(2)). The five-year route is the regulation’s way out of that: no sponsor, but money in a state bank instead. A retiree married to an Indonesian is in the exemption list already. Married to an Indonesian.

Retirement or second home?

For a retiree with the capital, the second home trades the monthly-income test for a larger deposit; for one living on a pension, the retirement route’s smaller deposit is the point. Our comparison of the two articles, not advice on either.

A retiree who still works for a foreign employer is in a different slot of the same family: the remote worker, whose permit runs at most 1 year (Permenkumham 22/2023 art. 105(10)(e)). The retirement visa is for those who have stopped; the remote-worker visa for those who have not.

The figures are the regulation’s, and the regulation expects them to move: changes to the income and deposit amounts are set by the Director General after coordinating with the relevant ministries (Permenkumham 22/2023 arts. 61(4), 62(5)). A retiree budgeting from a blog post written before the latest decision may be budgeting on the wrong number — the immigration office’s current figure is the one that counts.

Renting rather than buying

Nothing in the retirement visa requires owning anything. A retiree on a one-year permit who leases a villa avoids tying a land right to a permit that renews by the year — the lease is a contract with the landowner, not a right that depends on immigration status. Our reading of the two regimes side by side. Leasehold explained.

This is commentary on the official text, not immigration advice. We do not arrange visas.

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