Moving to Indonesia: Visas, Tax, Housing and Cost of Living
Moving to Indonesia as an expat: which permit comes first, where to live, health cover, what Jakarta costs, and when you start paying Indonesian tax.
- UU No. 6 Tahun 2011 tentang Keimigrasian, Article 122 — up to five years for a foreign national who deliberately misuses a stay permit, and the same penalty under Article 122(b) for anyone who gives them the opportunity to do so
- UU No. 1 Tahun 2026 (Penyesuaian Pidana), in force 2 January 2026, Lampiran I row 83 — restates the Article 122 penalty as up to five years and/or a fine of up to category IV, which is IDR 200,000,000 under the Criminal Code, UU No. 1 Tahun 2023, Article 79(1)(d)
- UU No. 6 Tahun 2011 tentang Keimigrasian, Article 75(2) — the administrative actions available, including entry on the Pencegahan or Penangkalan list, cancellation of a stay permit, and deportation
- UU No. 36 Tahun 2008 as amended by UU No. 6 Tahun 2023 (Income Tax Law), Article 2(3)(a) — the three alternative tests that make an individual a resident tax subject: residing in Indonesia, presence of more than 183 days in twelve months, or presence in a tax year with the intention to reside
- UU No. 5 Tahun 1960, the Basic Agrarian Law (UUPA), Article 21(1) — freehold (Hak Milik) may be held only by Indonesian citizens
- PP No. 18 Tahun 2021, Articles 69, 71 and 72 — a foreign national with the required immigration documents may own a house on Hak Pakai or an apartment unit, within limits the Minister sets
- Kepmen ATR/BPN No. 1241/SK-HK.02/IX/2022, signed 12 September 2022 — minimum prices by province; the home may be inherited, mortgaged, and sold or transferred
Moving to Indonesia is four arrangements, and only one of them is about a visa: permission to be here in the right form, somewhere to live, medical cover that works at a private hospital, and a tax position that begins counting from the day you arrive.
The order matters more than the paperwork. Most of what goes wrong for arriving staff is not a rejected application — it is a bank account that cannot be opened because the permit is not issued yet, or a tax residency that started months before anyone thought about it.
Employed by an Indonesian company
Your employer sponsors both the work permit and the stay permit. You cannot arrange this yourself, and the company has obligations of its own before it can.
Learn more →Setting up your own company here
A foreign-owned company is the vehicle, and it has to exist before it can sponsor you. That sequence is the part people underestimate.
Learn more →Your foreign employer has no Indonesian entity
Somebody has to employ you locally to sponsor a permit. An employer of record is how that happens without incorporating.
Learn more →Staying long enough to be taxed here
Indonesian tax residency is not a choice you make. It follows from where you live and how long you are here.
Learn more →Family coming with you is a separate permit again, and so is a dependant’s right to stay — which is not the same as a right to work. If you are arriving as an investor rather than an employee, the investor route attaches your stay to the company you own.
The order things have to happen in
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Settle which permit, before anything else
Everything downstream — the lease, the bank, the school place, your family's status — depends on which permit you hold and who sponsors it. Arriving to work it out on the ground is the expensive version.
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Address, then cover, then bank
A local bank account generally needs the stay permit and proof of an address, so it cannot be the first thing you do. Have medical cover in force before you land rather than after.
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The day count starts on arrival
Nobody sends a notice when tax residency begins. It is worth knowing which of the three tests below is likely to apply to you before it does.
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Permanent stay becomes a question
Long-term residents on a limited-stay permit eventually reach the point where a permanent permit is worth examining. It is a different application, not a renewal.
Where you land changes the answer
Jakarta
The business centre, and where most sponsored employment sits. Expatriate housing concentrates in Sudirman, Kuningan and Kemang — high-rise apartments close to the central business district, or houses further out at the cost of a longer commute.
Private hospitals and international clinics are the norm for expatriate families. International schooling is well established: Jakarta Intercultural School and British School Jakarta are among the long-standing options, teaching the International Baccalaureate, Cambridge or American curricula. Fees are substantial and are usually the second largest line in a relocation budget after housing.
Bali
Villas and serviced apartments in Canggu, Ubud and Sanur, and a population that mixes families with people working remotely. Housing is taken on longer leases more often than in Jakarta, which changes what you commit to up front.
Green School Bali is the best known of the international schools, though the choice is narrower than Jakarta’s. Medical care is the real difference: serious cases are commonly moved to Jakarta or Singapore, so cover that includes emergency evacuation matters more here than it does in the capital.
Surabaya and Bandung both have modern facilities and cost considerably less than either, and they suit people whose work is already there rather than people choosing a city.
When you become an Indonesian taxpayer
This is the part of a move that most often surprises people, because it does not involve an application and nobody tells you it has happened.
It is three tests, not one — and any of them is enough
Article 2(3)(a) of the Income Tax Law makes you a resident tax subject if any one of these is true: you reside in Indonesia; you are present for more than 183 days in any twelve months; or you are present during a tax year and intend to reside here. They are alternatives, and the law setting them out is published in full by the Directorate General of Taxes. Planning a stay around the 183-day count alone leaves two of the three tests unconsidered, and intention is judged on the circumstances — a family, a lease and a job here say something about intention whatever the day count says.
What follows from residency is the part worth planning for: it changes the basis on which you are taxed, not merely the rate. Anyone whose position is not obvious should settle it before the first filing rather than after, and it is worth settling alongside your personal tax position rather than in isolation from it.
Working here
Bahasa Indonesia is the official language. English carries in business in Jakarta and in the international schools; it stops carrying at a local government office, with most landlords, and fairly quickly outside the largest cities.
In our experience business here runs on relationships and on seniority. Meetings usually open with unhurried conversation that is not small talk and is not delay — it is the part where the working relationship is established, and treating it as an obstacle is the most common error we see newly arrived managers make.
Employers taking on foreign staff carry obligations of their own around sponsorship and reporting. Those sit with the company rather than the individual, and are worth confirming before an offer is made.
What catches people out
What usually goes wrong
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Jakarta traffic is not predictable from a map
What helpsJourney times bear little relation to distance and change hour by hour. Ride-hailing apps are used by nearly everyone, and a motorbike booking will beat a car across the city centre. Plan two meetings across town in a day, not four.
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The same document is asked for more than once
What helpsProcesses are document-heavy and different offices want the same paper in different forms. Keep certified copies and clean scans of passports, marriage and birth certificates, and qualifications from the outset, rather than assembling them under time pressure.
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English stops working sooner than expected
What helpsEnough Indonesian to handle a taxi, a market and a building manager removes most daily friction, and the effort is noticed. For anything official or contractual, work from an Indonesian text rather than a translation of it.
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Directness reads differently here
What helpsIn our experience a flat no is uncommon, and hesitation, deferral or agreement without commitment often carries that meaning. Asking a question a second way, later and privately, gets you a clearer answer than pressing for one in the room.
Questions people ask before moving to Indonesia
Can I work in Indonesia without a KITAS, the limited-stay permit?
What does it cost to live in Jakarta?
Can foreigners buy property in Indonesia?
Is health insurance necessary?
Is Indonesia safe?
What this means in practice
The permit decides the sequence, the sequence decides how smooth the first month is, and the tax position starts whether or not anyone has looked at it. Those three are worth settling before a flight is booked. Everything else — the city, the school, the apartment — is a choice you can revisit, and most people do.
If a tourist visa is the route you were considering for a first look at the country, what gets those refused is worth reading first, because using one for the wrong purpose is itself a ground for refusal.