Extending your tourist Visa in Bali

             When you enter Bali you must pay a fee for a one-month tourist visa at the airport. It costs US$25. That gives you 30 days upon entry; if you decide to stay you can extend without leaving the island. We thought that this would be difficult but found it very easy. 

           The Office you want to extend your Visa is on Jl. By Pass Ngurah Rai in between Kuta and the airport on the west side and next to a gas station (we are looking for the address as we spent a long time looking for the wrong place! Sorry for the vague instructions!) On the first day you show up to the immigration office, be sure to bring your passport. You will also need to make copies of the page that your passport was stamped in on and also the photo page of your passport. They have a photocopying place next door to the office though so don’t be worried if you can’t find somewhere to go. You will also need to fill out some paperwork. The paperwork is easy enough, the only thing that might trip you up is that it asks for your sponsor, this section doesn’t need to be filled out if you are extending just one month. The only other thing that you must bring is copies of your departure tickets, these are easy to get as you can just book the flights without actually paying for them and printing off the booking page. 

           So once all of these things are done you take a ticket number, and wait in line! Once your number is called, you go to the desk and hand in the folder they have given you and they replace it with a receipt and a date for you to return. Usually it is 3 days later. At the end of your first day you will have turned in your passport, copies of your passport and onward journey, and a basic questionnaire.

            When you return the next time, you must sit in the waiting area until your number is called again. At that point you go to the little window and pay your extension fee, RPH250,000. They only accept cash so make sure you have some. Once this is done you will be handed another receipt with another date to come back and collect your passport. We were told to come back in 3 working days. On the next visit you come back to wait in the line again until you are called, you then collect your passport and are free to go with your new 30 day visa. We were told that it can be expedited but we were never given that option. There are also Travel/Tour agencies that will do this whole show for you but they will charge you an extortionate amount on top and it still takes the same amount of time, but is less hassle for the traveller who has the money to do so. We extended only once but we heard that you could extend it a few times, however we read that it could only be done that one time.