Border control at Indonesia airports: what happens to travellers and their data

Arriving: the steps at the border

Indonesia's official e-Visa site says all travellers must submit an arrival card within three days before arriving ⁵. The declaration goes through All Indonesia, a single platform that combines immigration, customs, health and quarantine declarations ⁷.

The Directorate General of Immigration said on 16 October 2026 that 29,119,141 international passengers had used All Indonesia. From that day, passengers who complete the declaration can follow a link in the platform to book the Whoosh high-speed train to Bandung or Karawang ⁷.

The deal with the rail operator, PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC), covers exchange of passenger data and information to support immigration supervision. The directorate said this would take account of data security and personal data protection ⁷.

At the border, a visa on arrival applicant needs a passport valid for at least six months and a return or onward ticket ¹. The e-Visa site says a visa does not guarantee entry. The immigration officer at the port of entry decides ⁶.

Entry permission: e-VOA, visa exemption and fees

The immigration FAQ, last updated on 30 September 2026, lists 97 countries and territories eligible for the electronic visa on arrival (e-VOA). They include Australia, China, India, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, the UK and the US ¹. A separate immigration page lists 97 countries and territories for the visa on arrival ².

Travellers apply for an e-VOA on the official e-Visa portal. One e-VOA application can cover up to five people. The portal says visa fees can be paid through the SIMPONI state payment system or by Mastercard, Visa or JCB card. Approved visas are sent by email ⁵.

Holders of an e-VOA must enter at listed checkpoints. The immigration website names 16 airports, including Soekarno-Hatta and Halim Perdana Kusuma in Jakarta, Ngurah Rai in Bali, Juanda in East Java, Kualanamu in North Sumatra and Yogyakarta. It lists 11 land border posts and dozens of seaports ⁴.

Visa-free short visits are open to nationals of Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, Singapore, Myanmar, Laos, Timor Leste, Suriname, Colombia, Hong Kong, Turkey, Brazil, Peru, Kazakhstan, Macau and Belarus. Singapore permanent residents can use the exemption at certain checkpoints ³.

The e-Visa site FAQ says its visitor visa costs IDR 500,000. It is valid for 90 days from issue, and the holder may stay 30 days from arrival ⁶.

Biometrics and autogates

On 3 January 2024 the Directorate General of Immigration opened 78 new autogates at Soekarno-Hatta Airport. Terminal 3 got 52 arrival gates and 16 departure gates, and Terminal 2 got 10. The gates link face recognition cameras to the Border Control Management (BCM) system. A check takes 15 to 25 seconds ⁸.

Foreign nationals need an electronic passport and an e-VOA or e-visa to use the gates. At the time of the January 2024 launch, visa-exempt ASEAN nationals had to register for the visa exemption on the e-Visa portal to use them ⁸.

The traveller scans the passport photo page and faces a screen for face recognition. The gate compares passport data with the traveller's e-VOA, e-visa or visa exemption record ⁸.

In the first quarter of 2024 the directorate ran 78 autogates at Soekarno-Hatta and 30 at Ngurah Rai in Bali. An official said in March 2024 that children aged 14 and under could not use them. The gate stays shut and shows red if a traveller has invalid documents or a criminal record ⁹.

Indonesian Customs links its passenger analysis system to a facial recognition system fed by surveillance cameras at strategic points in airports, according to a 2025 article by the agency ¹⁰.

Passenger data: API and PNR

Indonesian Customs started electronic exchange of advance passenger information (API) with airlines in 2009 and of PNR in 2015 ¹⁰.

A project to bring API and PNR into one platform began in 2017 and was finished in 2019. Most airlines in Indonesia send API through the SITA network, and some use local providers. Customs worked with three global distribution system providers for PNR ¹⁰.

Customs said international passenger numbers reached 23 million in 2024. Passenger analysts work at major airports including Kualanamu, Soekarno-Hatta, Juanda and Ngurah Rai. Units that track drug smuggling and transnational crime use the same system and support the National Counter-Terrorism Agency and the National Narcotics Board ¹⁰.

Customs reported gaps. Some smaller airlines do not send data on time, and some refuse to share PNR, citing passenger confidentiality ¹⁰.

Watch lists and checks

The immigration directorate said in January 2024 that its border system is connected to the Interpol database and to its own cekal database of people barred from entry or exit. It said the link aims to keep out foreign nationals involved in crime ⁸.

Customs analysts look for odd itineraries, luggage that does not fit the length of stay, unusual payment methods and suspect travel agencies. The system flags passengers with incomplete data and compares PNR records to find links between passengers. A fraud detection tool uses machine learning to compare cases with past patterns ¹⁰.

Your data: the law and how to ask for records

Indonesia's Personal Data Protection Law is Law No. 27 of 2022. The legal database of the Supreme Audit Board lists it as enacted, promulgated and in force from 17 October 2022 ¹¹.

Customs said its API and PNR work follows a 2014 regulation on protection and confidentiality of passenger data, Ministry of Finance data governance and information security rules from 2019, and customs guidelines on API and PNR governance from 2021 ¹⁰.

The official pages reviewed for this guide did not give retention periods for arrival declarations, autogate images or PNR. Questions about e-VOA accounts go to [email protected], according to the immigration FAQ ¹.

Who runs the systems

The Directorate General of Immigration, part of the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections, runs the e-Visa portal, visa on arrival, autogates and All Indonesia ^5,78. Customs runs the API and PNR analysis system ¹⁰.

The immigration FAQ tells e-VOA applicants with failed payments to contact their bank first and then the payment provider Finnet ¹. Indonesian Customs said most airlines send API through the SITA network ¹⁰.