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Did you know that every foreign arrival to Indonesia now has to file a digital form before landing? It’s called the All Indonesia Arrival Card. Here’s everything you need to know about it.
The All Indonesia Arrival Card replaced three separate paper and app processes back in October 2025. It’s one form, one QR code, and one scan at the exit gate. No more digging for a paper arrival card. No separate customs app. No separate health check.
In this article, we’re going to cover what the card actually asks for, when to fill it out, and the mistakes that still trip up repeat-entry expats a year later.
Disclaimer: Information in this guide is based on official sources and portal information as of September 2026. We’ll keep updating this article if the process changes.
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Key Takeaways
- Since October 1, 2025, the All Indonesia Arrival Card has been mandatory at every international airport, seaport, and land border in the country.
- It merges three old steps into one form: the paper immigration card, the customs e-CD, and the health declaration.
- You can only submit it starting 72 hours before you land. Not earlier.
- KITAS and KITAP holders aren’t exempt. You file a fresh one every single entry, no matter how long you’ve lived in Indonesia.
- It’s free. The only official site is allindonesia.imigrasi.go.id.
- Fake sites have charged travelers over US$100 for the same free form.
- Skip it and you won’t be turned away. You’ll just lose the autogates and clear immigration manually instead.
What Is the All Indonesia Arrival Card?
The All Indonesia Arrival Card is a single online form every foreign traveler has to fill out before landing in Indonesia. It covers your immigration arrival card, your customs declaration, and your health declaration, all in one submission. You get a QR code back, and that’s what gets scanned at the airport.
It’s not a visa. The arrival card doesn’t grant entry on its own. It’s a declaration, not a permit. If your Indonesian visa situation isn’t sorted, a perfectly filled-out arrival card won’t fix that at the gate.
It became mandatory nationwide on October 1, 2025. (Verified September 2026.) A trial ran at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport that July. By September it covered Jakarta, Bali, Surabaya, and Batam’s seaports too. A month later, it went nationwide.
Why It Replaces Three Separate Forms
Previously, four different Indonesian government agencies used to each want their own paperwork from you: Immigration, Customs, Health, and Quarantine. That meant juggling the physical arrival card, a separate customs declaration, and a health form. Each had its own login. Its own QR code. Its own queue.
Indonesia’s government pitched the merger as a service upgrade. At the launch, the immigration minister said the point was to cut friction across those four agencies at once, not pile on another form. Combining them into one submission means the four agencies now check your one QR code instead of four separate documents.
That’s what unlocks the payoff for you: Indonesia’s immigration autogates, the automated lanes that skip the manual passport-stamping counter entirely. Fill out the arrival card correctly and you’re eligible to use them. Most people finish the whole form in under three minutes.
Who Must File It
Every foreign national arriving by air or sea has to complete it. So do Indonesian citizens coming home from abroad. There’s no exemption by visa type.
- Tourists entering visa-free.
- Visa-on-arrival travelers.
- Long-term visa holders, including KITAS and KITAP.
- Children and infants traveling with parents (added to the parent’s submission, see below).
There are two narrow exceptions worth knowing about. Transit passengers who never actually clear Indonesian immigration may not need to file, but official guidance on this specific case is thin. If you’re only in transit, check with your airline before assuming you can skip it.
Do You Have to Fill It Out Every Time You Travel?
Yes. This is the part that catches repeat-entry expats. Even with a Multiple Entry Permit tied to a KITAS or KITAP, you file a new arrival card for every single entry. There’s no pre-registering once and forgetting about it.
Here’s why. The QR code is generated against one specific flight or voyage. It gets invalidated the moment you clear customs on that trip. A resident who’s lived in Bali for five years and a tourist landing for the first time go through the exact same 72-hour window, every single time.
Tip: If you travel often for work, build the arrival card into your pre-flight routine, the same way you check in online. Fill it out from the departure lounge, where the wifi is reliable. It beats fighting patchy arrival wifi with a queue forming behind you.
The 72-Hour Filing Window
The portal opens exactly three days before your scheduled arrival. It won’t generate a QR code any earlier than that. If you like your paperwork sorted weeks ahead, this is one thing you can’t get ahead of.
There’s no downside to filing at the last minute within that window. Plenty of frequent travelers wait until they’re already at the departure airport, once the flight details are locked in.
How to Fill Out the Arrival Card
The form runs across four steps: Personal Information, Travel Details, Mode of Transportation and Address, and Declaration. Let’s take a closer look at each one.
Go to allindonesia.imigrasi.go.id. That’s the only official portal, run directly by Indonesia’s Directorate General of Immigration. There’s also an official app on the major app stores if you’d rather do it on your phone.
Here’s how to do it step by step:
- Go to the site or app within 72 hours of your scheduled arrival. Check the URL ends in .go.id before you type anything.
- Choose “Foreign Visitor” from the service menu.
- Scan your passport’s MRZ, or enter your details manually.
- Fill in your travel details: flight number or vessel name, arrival date.
- Add your accommodation address in Indonesia.
- Complete the customs and health declaration.
- Submit and save the QR code that appears.
Step one, Personal Data, asks for the basics: your passport-issuing country, full name exactly as it appears on your passport, date of birth, place of birth, gender, passport number, and passport expiry date. There’s a “Scan MRZ” option that photographs the machine-readable zone at the bottom of your passport photo page instead of you typing it all by hand. Use it. It cuts down on the typo problem covered below.
Important: The whole process is free. No fee, anywhere in the official flow. Only URLs ending in .go.id are run by the Indonesian government. Any site asking for a card fee is a scam, no matter how convincing the branding looks.
Tip: Screenshot your QR code the moment it generates. Don’t count on re-opening the confirmation email or logging back into the app at the airport. Arrival hall wifi in Bali and Jakarta can be spotty right when you need it most.
What Happens When You Land
Officers scan your QR code at the exit point after baggage claim, not before. Fill it out correctly and on time, and you get the automated gates instead of the manual counter.
If you land without having filled it out, nothing catastrophic happens. You won’t be denied entry over a missing arrival card. What you lose is the fast lane.
Indonesia’s immigration minister put it plainly at the system’s launch. Without a prior submission, “travel will take longer because inspections have to be done manually at the counter.” In practice that means hunting for airport wifi, filling out the form on your phone in the arrival hall, then joining the manual queue instead of the autogate line. Budget an extra ten or fifteen minutes if you know you’ll be filing on arrival.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Filing more than 72 hours before your flight. The system just won’t let you.
- Using a fake, non-.go.id website that charges a fee.
- Typing your name or passport number slightly differently than your passport shows.
- Assuming a KITAS or previous arrival card carries over to your next trip. It doesn’t.
- Waiting until you’re already in the immigration queue with no wifi.
Fake Websites Charging a Fee
This is the big one. Australia’s official travel advisory, Smartraveller, has specifically warned travelers about fake sites charging for something that’s free on the real portal. Regional Australian news outlets reported travelers paying up to roughly US$150 for a form that costs nothing official. Review sites have flagged copycats like indonesia-arrival.com for exactly this.
Passport Data That Doesn’t Match
The system checks your entry against your passport’s machine-readable zone. Type your name, passport number, or dates even slightly wrong, and the submission can get rejected or flagged for manual review at the gate.
Mistakes happen, especially typing a long passport number on a phone keyboard. In the expat forums, this is the recurring complaint behind almost every “why did my form get rejected” post. Use the Scan MRZ option instead of typing by hand and most of that risk goes away.
Filing False Information
Treat the customs and health declaration like the legal document it is. Indonesia’s Customs Law imposes one to ten years imprisonment and fines from IDR50 million to IDR5 billion for false customs declarations. (Verified September 2026.) That’s separate from whatever consequences come from lying on the immigration side. Ticking “nothing to declare” when you’re carrying restricted or high-value items just isn’t worth it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the arrival card replace my visa?
No. It’s a separate declaration from your visa or visa exemption. You still need the correct visa arrangement sorted before you travel.
Can one person submit for the whole family?
Yes. The official portal has a group submission option. A parent traveling with kids can file one form covering everyone instead of submitting separately for each person.
Do KITAS or KITAP holders need to fill this out every time they travel?
Yes, every single international entry. The QR code is tied to one specific flight or voyage and gets invalidated once you clear customs on that trip. There’s no filing it once and having it carry over.
What happens if I submit the form more than 72 hours before I arrive?
It won’t work. The portal only opens submissions three days before your scheduled arrival.
Is there a backup if I don’t have a smartphone or internet access?
Yes. Kiosks and staff assistance are available at major airports for travelers who can’t complete the form digitally ahead of time. Filling it out in advance is still faster.
What if I make a mistake after I’ve already submitted?
Head to the arrival counter. Corrections after submission usually get handled there rather than by editing the form yourself. Double-check your entries before you hit submit to avoid this.
Is my personal data safe on the portal?
It’s run directly by Indonesia’s Directorate General of Immigration on a .go.id government domain. That’s a very different security posture from the third-party sites charging fraudulent fees for the same service.
Final Advice
The All Indonesia Arrival Card is a real time-saver once you know how it works. Just remember these three things:
- File it within 72 hours of your flight, ideally from the departure lounge.
- Double-check your passport number and travel details before submitting.
- Screenshot your QR code and keep it handy on your phone.
Safe travels.
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