The Directorate General of Immigration evaluates the rules regarding visa-free for tourists who wish to visit Indonesia.
His party is currently studying which countries can benefit from the visa-free policy.
There are three guidelines used to determine visa-free countries, namely:
- Reciprocal in nature: Visa-free must be applied by both parties
- Profitable and beneficial
- Safety factor
“The third one is the security factor because we have to protect Indonesia from influences such as terrorism or any kind of world crime. Today, there’s a lot of scamming and new crimes which of course must be anticipated here,” explained Director General of Immigration Silmy Karim on the sidelines of the IMIFEST 2023 event in Denpasar, Bali on Tuesday, 18th July 2023.
So far, the countries that have definitely received a visa-free visit to Indonesia are ASEAN countries.
“Are we going to add more (countries)? We are conducting a study. Then we will compile it into a Presidential Regulation regarding visa-free visits. The President himself said that it is being evaluated,” he explained.
Previously The Minister of Law and Human Rights Yasonna Laoly suspended visa-free visits (BVK) for 159 countries.
The countries whose visit visas were revoked include the United States, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Australia, Austria, China, Denmark, India, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Canada, South Korea, Maldives, Nepal, Norway, Palestine, Panama, France, Qatar, Russia, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, Vatican Holy See, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Greece, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
This policy is contained in the Decree of the Minister of Law and Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia Number M.HH-GR.01.07 of 2023 which was ratified on 7th June 2023.
These countries are included in the 169 countries stipulated in Presidential Regulation Number 21 of 2016 as recipients of visa-free visits along with 10 ASEAN countries.
Referring to the Ministerial Decree, the granting of visa-free visits has an impact on aspects of life as a nation, including disturbances to public order and the spread of diseases from countries that have not been declared clean or free of certain diseases by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Therefore, the number of recipients of the policy is reset.