Do I Need an Indonesia Arrival Card? (2026 Answer)

The short answer

Yes. If you are entering Indonesia as a foreign visitor, you need the All Indonesia Arrival Card, the digital form the government runs at allindonesia.imigrasi.go.id. It has been mandatory nationwide since 1 October 2025, it is free, and you submit it online within 3 days before you arrive. On this site we call it the Indonesia Digital Arrival Card (IDAC); it is the same form.

The rule is broad on purpose: the official portal states the card is required for all passengers entering Indonesia. Your nationality, your visa status, and your port of entry do not get you out of it. If you would rather not file it yourself, we are an independent application service and do it for $15 with your QR code emailed within 24 hours. The official form is always free to submit yourself.

Who needs the card, traveler type by traveler type

Here is the requirement mapped against the situations travelers actually ask about. Find your row.

Why visa-free and VoA travelers still need the card

Notice the pattern in the table: every row that involves entering Indonesia says yes. The card asks what entry permit you hold, which confirms the system expects every visa combination to arrive with a card attached. Our complete Indonesia arrival card guide covers the whole system if you want the full picture.

Travelers assume that entering visa-free means no paperwork at all, or that buying the Rp 500,000 Visa on Arrival must cover any form the government wants. Neither is true, because the card and the visa answer different questions. The visa or exemption decides whether you may enter and stay. The card records who is arriving, on which flight, staying where, with which health status and which customs goods.

Indonesia's own e-visa portal makes this explicit: it tells e-VOA applicants that an arrival card submission is still required for all travelers. So a US visitor landing in Bali files the free card and pays the VoA. A Malaysian visitor driving across the land border files the card and pays nothing. Two different paperwork stacks, one shared card.

The transit exception, precisely

You do not need a card if you remain in the international transit area: you do not pass an immigration counter, you do not collect checked bags to re-check them, and you board your onward flight from the transit hall. That is the only clean exemption, and it mirrors how most countries treat airside transit.

The line blurs in real airports. If your connection requires changing terminals through the landside, or your bags were checked only as far as Jakarta and must be collected and re-checked, you are effectively entering, and you need a card and, for most nationalities, a Visa on Arrival. Ask your airline whether your connection is truly airside before you decide to skip the card. When in doubt, submit one: it is free and takes about ten minutes.

Families, children, and group travel

Every foreign passport holder needs a card, including babies. There is no minimum age and no exemption for children traveling on a parent's booking. A parent or guardian completes each child's card using the child's own passport number, name, and date of birth.

For groups and families, one person can prepare the cards for everyone, and travel agents file them for clients routinely. The practical risk in group filing is mismatched data: each card must match its own passport exactly. That is the single most common error we see, and the reason our service verifies every field against every passport before filing. What the form asks for, field by field, is in our Indonesia arrival card requirements guide.

When you need to submit it

Once you know you need the card, timing is the next question. The rule: within 3 days before your arrival date, not earlier. The portal's calendar physically blocks dates outside the window. Arriving Saturday 5 December 2026 means the earliest submission day is Wednesday 2 December.

The practical sweet spot is one or two days before departure, once flights and hotels are final and your QR code arrives in time for check-in. The full walkthrough, including the portal's six form blocks and the retrieve function, is in how to apply for the Indonesia arrival card.

What if you skip it

Arriving without a card is not automatic entry denial. The common outcome is that officers make you complete the form on the spot, on your phone or at a counter, before processing you. You lose time, and at a busy Bali or Jakarta arrivals hall that can mean a long, sweaty wait behind everyone else.

The downside risk grows if other parts of your file are thin, because any extra friction invites scrutiny, and entry is always at the officer's discretion. Since the card is free and takes ten minutes, there is no sensible version of skipping it. Submit inside the window and the question never arises.

Frequently asked questions