Bali is cracking down on immigration, and so-called ‘influencers’ are being warned that what they do is illegal. “brand collabs, comped stays and unpaid content shoots” are considered “illegal work on a tourist visa.”
Many of you will welcome this, out of general distate for influencer culture. The key point seems to be that:
- Creating content to promote local hotels and attractions is paid work, and you need work authorization for that.
- Even a comped stay in exchange for coverage is compensation for work.
- If you are doing that, you are not eligible for a (or violating the terms of your) tourist visa or visa on arrival.
The primary focus of the crackdown is visa overstays, but activity outside of the scope of immigration authorization is also a focus. And even writing content for a blog as a solopreneur may not just run afoul of tourist visa and visa on arrival rules, but may not even qualify for a remote worker visa.
Bali’s new Dharma Dewata Immigration Patrol task force, formed on April 15 with about 100 officers, detained 62 foreign nationals in three weeks and is using social media posts as evidence. The group patrols areas with significant activity by foreigners, in order to respond quickly to immigration violations.
Officers are focusing on the expat and digital nomad corridors everyone already knows: Canggu, Ubud, Seminyak, Kerobokan, Uluwatu. According to Felucia Sengky Ratna, spokesperson for the Bali Regional Immigration Office, authorities are monitoring social media accounts to identify potential violators before they even encounter a patrol.
Post a sponsored reel from a beachfront villa? Tag a brand collaboration from a rooftop bar in Seminyak? That content is now evidence.
The task force is not limiting its scope to obvious commercial activity either. DJ sets, yoga teaching, workshops, even volunteering can trigger enforcement if officials determine the activity creates economic value. The threshold is lower than most foreigners assume.
Indonesia’s Visa on Arrival allows 30 day stays for tourism, business with the government, shopping transit, and conference attendance. It doesn’t allow employment or attending events as a speaker. A 60-day tourist visa bans profit-making activity of any kind.
There’s a remote-worker E33G visa, but that requires carrying out assignments from an overseas company while in Indonesia. It requires:
- Minimum $60,000 per year income
- An employment contract with a company established outside of Indonesia.
An online creator with ad revenue or affiliate relationships only doesn’t really fit, unless they have their own company and a formal employment arrangement with that company – showing set payroll and written terms. There’s not really a clean path to ‘blogging from Bali’ within the law. And while many get away with it, the new emphasis on trolling social media for evidence of violating status creates challenges.
I like Bali. Much of it, if you get outside the resorts of Nusa Dua, is incredibly affordable. The food is good, people are friendly and much of it is beautiful. I don’t mind the drunk Australians. They’re in Phuket, too. But even though enforcement may be a long shot in any given case, and penalties usually a fine, maybe deportation, or even a potential future ban on re-entry which are all potentially manageable I don’t like the idea of violating immigration status in Indonesia so I’ll probably make my stays there brief and pre-write content for while I’m visiting.
YES, please do! This is the only way to push so-called ‘influencers’ off their pedestal. They contribute nothing to anyone’s lives and are just useless pieces of human existence.
@Mike P — Hurr durr… freedom of speech… hurr durr…
This is a very dumb policy in my opinion. As much as I often find the influencers to be annoying, it is also true that they drive tourism to Bali at a scale that it would not otherwise receive, due to its poor geography and climate (large and unpredictable waves, mediocre beaches compared to Thailand, the Philippines, or the Maldives, and oppressive humidity in coastal areas) and animals (aggressive monkeys and highly venomous snakes). The influencers typically are not competing with locals for jobs because they work in distinct labor markets (e.g. an Aussie yoga teacher making yoga videos for an Aussie audience is not really competing with local Balinese women).
If the Indonesian government’s concern is that Bali has become perenially overcrowded, worsening the quality of life for the locals (I somewhat agree) a better solution is to aggressively increase hotel and long-term visitor rental taxes and visa fees to account for the social cost of the congestion externality, and then rebate some or all of the proceeds directly to the local Balinese. The local government could also use zoning law to make some housing only available to citizens and permanent residents.This would reduce tourism and nomad numbers without dramatically reducing social welfare.