Indonesia Arrival Card: The Complete Guide (2026)

The short answer for 2026

Yes. If you are entering Indonesia in 2026, you must submit the arrival card before you arrive, and that includes foreign visitors and Indonesian citizens alike. The official system is the All Indonesia Arrival Card at allindonesia.imigrasi.go.id. The form is free, it takes about ten minutes, and you get a QR code that immigration, health, and customs all scan on arrival. On this site we call it the Indonesia Digital Arrival Card (IDAC); the government's own name for it is the All Indonesia Arrival Card, and both names mean the same form.

One warning before anything else: this card is not a visa, and it is not the Visa on Arrival. Travelers mix these up constantly, and the mix-up is expensive. The arrival card is a free registration for everyone. The Visa on Arrival is a paid permit, Rp 500,000, that only some nationalities need. We untangle the two in full further down.

If you would rather not deal with the portal yourself, we are an independent application service: we prepare, verify, and file the card for you for $15 and email your QR code within 24 hours, with a full refund if we fail to deliver. The official form is always free to submit yourself, and we say that plainly because plenty of lookalike sites do not.

What is the Indonesia Arrival Card?

The All Indonesia Arrival Card is a single online form run by the Directorate General of Immigration of Indonesia. It tells the government who is entering the country, on which flight or ship, staying where, whether they have any health symptoms, and what they are bringing through customs. When you submit it, the system issues a QR code. That one code is your proof for all three checks at the airport.

The system went live on 1 September 2025 at the three biggest international gateways: Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta (CGK), Denpasar-Bali (DPS), and Surabaya (SUB). Since 1 October 2025 it has been mandatory nationwide, at every international airport, seaport, and land border crossing.

It replaced three older requirements at once. Before September 2025, you filled a paper arrival and disembarkation card handed out on the plane, a separate SATUSEHAT Health Pass, and a separate customs declaration, the e-CD, on the customs website. The All Indonesia platform rolled all three into one submission. If you read older articles from 2023 or 2024 talking about the e-arrival card, the e-HAC, or filling three separate forms, that world is gone. There is now one form and one QR code.

Who needs an Indonesia arrival card?

Everyone who enters Indonesia. The official portal states it directly: the card is required for all passengers entering the country. That splits into two streams on the site itself: Indonesian Citizen and Foreign Visitor. Yes, Indonesian citizens returning from abroad must submit it too, which surprises people. Foreign visitors submit through the Foreign Visitor stream.

Your visa status does not matter. US, UK, Australian, and Canadian travelers, who mostly enter on a Visa on Arrival, need the card. ASEAN nationals who enter visa-free need the card. Travelers holding long-term permits need the card. The card asks what entry permit you hold, so the system expects every combination.

Children are not exempt either. Every foreign passport holder needs a card, including infants. A parent fills it in on the child's behalf, using the child's own passport details.

The only clear exemption is transit: if you stay in the international transit area, do not pass immigration, and do not collect bags to re-check them, you do not need a card. The moment you clear immigration, even for a few hours in the city, you are entering Indonesia and you need one. If your connection forces you to change terminals through the landside, check with your airline whether it counts as airside; assume you need the card if unsure.

When to submit: the 3-day window

The official rule, published by Indonesia's immigration e-visa portal, is that all travelers must submit the arrival card within 3 days before arrival in Indonesia. Not earlier, and not after you have landed. The booking calendar in the form enforces this: dates more than three days out are simply not selectable.

Here is the window worked out for sample arrival dates. Count three days back from your arrival date, and that is your earliest submission day.

Timing tips for the 3-day window

Two timing tips from filing these cards every day. First, wait until your flight and hotel are final, because the form asks for both, and the address field is one of the most common mistakes. Second, the sweet spot is one or two days before you fly: your details are locked in, and your QR code is sitting in your inbox at check-in, where some airline staff ask to see it.

A word of caution on the exact cutoff: official guidance says within 3 days before arrival, and the portal calendar enforces the early side. Travelers also report the window stays open on arrival day itself, when airports let you file on the spot. Do not plan to use that fallback. Submitting inside the window, before departure, is the safe path.

What the form asks for

Nothing needs to be bought or applied for in advance. You need the raw information, and your passport open beside you. The form walks through six blocks. Our full requirements guide breaks down each block field by field; the short version:

The six blocks of the All Indonesia Arrival Card form

• Personal data. Passport number, full name as printed in the passport, nationality, and date of birth. The portal can scan your passport's machine-readable zone with your phone camera, which beats typing 9-digit numbers by hand.
• Travel details. Arrival date, planned departure date, purpose of travel, and your entry permit type: visa-free, Visa on Arrival, e-VOA, or another visa.
• Transport and address. Whether you enter by air, sea, or land, your entry point, your flight or vessel details, and the full address where you will stay in Indonesia.
• Health declaration. Whether you currently have symptoms such as fever or cough, and which countries you visited in the past 21 days.
• Customs declaration. How many bags you are carrying, whether you bring animals, plants, or restricted goods, and electronic device details where IMEI registration applies.
• Submission and QR code. You review everything, submit, and the system issues your Arrival QR code. Save it on your phone; printing is optional.

Nothing to upload, nothing to pay

That is the whole form. No payment, no photo upload beyond the optional passport scan, no printing. If a website demands more than this, or demands payment, you are not on the official portal.

Arrival card vs Visa on Arrival vs visa: the confusion killer

This is the single most common mix-up in Indonesian entry paperwork, so here is the full picture in one place. The arrival card, the Visa on Arrival, and a regular visa answer three different questions. The card asks who is arriving and where are they staying. The visa asks whether this person may enter and stay. You can need both, one, or, if you are an Indonesian citizen, only the card.

What this means for your nationality

Now the practical combinations. A US traveler landing in Bali needs the free arrival card plus the Rp 500,000 Visa on Arrival, which can also be bought in advance as an e-VOA. A Singaporean traveler entering visa-free needs only the free arrival card. An Indonesian coming home needs only the card. The card never replaces the visa, and holding an e-VOA does not remove the card: the official e-visa portal itself reminds all travelers that the arrival card submission is required.

One cost note, worded cautiously: the VoA fee has been Rp 500,000 for years, but in 2026 Indonesian immigration proposed raising it, with figures of Rp 750,000 for the e-VOA and Rp 1,000,000 at the counter circulating in the news. No start date has been confirmed as we update this page. Check evisa.imigrasi.go.id close to your travel date for the current price. The arrival card, by contrast, has always been free and stays free.

Arriving at Bali (DPS) and Jakarta (CGK)

Denpasar's Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS) and Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK) were the first two airports where the card became mandatory on 1 September 2025, so the process there is the most settled. After you land, you show your QR code at the immigration checkpoint, where the officer scans it against your passport. The same code covers your health and customs declarations, so there is no second paper form to hunt for at the customs exit.

If you are one of the nationalities using the Visa on Arrival, budget time for the VoA counter or, better, buy the e-VOA in advance so you skip the payment queue. Bali adds one more charge that trips people up: the Bali tourist levy, Rp 150,000 per person, which is separate from both the arrival card and the VoA, and is paid through the provincial Love Bali system. Three different things: card free, visa Rp 500,000, Bali levy Rp 150,000. For walkthroughs of each terminal, see our DPS arrival card guide and CGK arrival card guide.

What happens if you arrive without a card

Let us be precise, because this question attracts guesswork. There is no published fixed fine, and denial of entry is not the standard outcome for an otherwise-documented traveler. The realistic outcome at DPS, CGK, and other major airports is friction: officers direct you to complete the form on your phone or at a counter before they process you, while the queue waits behind you. The customs side of the QR code gets checked as you exit with your bags, so a missing code can hold you up a second time.

The real risks pile up when a missing card combines with other gaps, such as no proof of onward travel: officers then have more reasons to scrutinize you, and entry is always at their discretion. The cheap insurance is submitting inside the 3-day window, which costs nothing. Airlines generally do not block boarding over a missing card, but some check-in desks ask for the QR code, and having it keeps the line moving.

Filing it yourself vs using a filing service

The honest comparison, in one table:

Which should you choose

The official form is always free to submit yourself, and we mean it. If you have your passport, flight, and hotel details ready, most travelers manage fine. We exist for the people who would rather not fight a government portal at midnight, the group leader filing for nine others, and the traveler who wants a human to check every digit before it reaches immigration. Fees and turnaround are detailed on our fees and processing time page, and the step-by-step portal walkthrough is in how to apply for the Indonesia arrival card. Still deciding whether you need one at all? Start with do I need an Indonesia arrival card.

Your 2026 checklist

Indonesia's entry paperwork is simple once it is sequenced. Confirm whether your nationality needs a visa or enters visa-free, and buy the e-VOA in advance if it does. Then submit the All Indonesia Arrival Card within three days before arrival, one per traveler, children included, after your flights and hotel are final. Save the QR code on your phone, and pay the Bali levy separately if Bali is your destination. That is the entire system.

Start my application if you want it filed for you: $15, confirmation within 24 hours, full refund if we fail to deliver. Or submit it yourself, free, at allindonesia.imigrasi.go.id. Either way, do it before you fly.

Frequently asked questions