A foreign national has been expelled from Bali after doing digital marketing and producing paid content for the travel agency The Bali Dream while holding a business visa. He has been barred from entering Indonesia for five years.
The Lithuanian citizen, identified by the initials BR, arrived in the country on May 7 and left in August. He was put on flight TG32 from Denpasar to Bangkok, with the rest of the route running through Frankfurt to Vilnius.
A business visa allows the holder to conduct negotiations, attend meetings, sign contracts, purchase goods and inspect them at the factory. It explicitly bars selling goods and services and receiving payment for work from individuals and companies in Indonesia — paid employment requires a work KITAS.
Paid content production and promoting someone else's business fall under this ban just as office work does. Legal Indonesia can help you choose the right visa for your specific activity and apply for it.
Officers came across BR after information about the agency circulated in public sources and the details were checked against immigration databases. The Bali Dream offered trip planning, wedding and honeymoon packages, and visa processing for holders of Israeli passports.
Immigration linked the website thebalidream.com and the agency's business WhatsApp number to BR, while the agency was found to have no physical office in Indonesia.
Two other foreigners appear in the same case: SG and AC, aged 30 and 28, both with German passports. By the time of the check, both had already left Indonesia.
Immigration set up a separate category for content creators — the C5A visa — back in June, but it has still not published the requirements for it.
Immigration may extend the five-year entry ban. The office added that it looks into every report of activity by foreigners that threatens public order.
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