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Indonesia woos digital nomads with 5-year remote working visa
by
Ryan Randall
https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3180589/bali-woos-digital-nomads-5-year-remote-working-visa-and
Hey Indies 👋🏻. I'm currently based in Jakarta on business visa, so this is a great news for me. During my time here, I've been on a very low budget and building http://stepbook.co. Stepbook will be your best friend when moving to Indonesia and city of Jakarta. Anyways, let me tell few things from my 8 months experience here:
Cons:
Pros:
Just name tons. But overall I would definitely recommend Indonesia. Check out http://stepbook.co for more info.
Just FYI your website does not have https enabled.
Hi there. Thank you for mentioning, yes I'm aware. I'm trying and we'll move to https soon. Come check out again maybe next week 😉
I tried the nomadic lifestyle for a while but I found it more difficult to maintain the same productivity levels that I had when I was working from home. I always felt like I was just on holiday. Has everyone felt the same way? Or ideally, managed to find a way to work productively whilst living somewhere comparatively exotic to their hometown?
For me I always made sure to find a good coworking space. This was always the first thing I checked before going to a new location. Then I got a condo/hotel nearby and could be just as productive as at home.
Indonesian regulations do not clearly regulate this type of remote working. As a result, digital nomads are finding themselves in a grey area. This grey area makes it risky for digital nomads to work on a visa exemption, visa on arrival, single or multiple entry visa in Indonesia.
https://editorsmodapk.com/
"The visa would allow its holders to stay for as long as five years without paying taxes if they don’t earn their income within Indonesia."
^^ This is an amazing benefit! I'm genuinely considering working from Bali for a few months later this year. Have any Indie Hackers been living out there for a while, and if so, what were your reasons for moving out there in the first place?
Yeah, definitely! I haven't lived in Bali myself, but I've heard great things. I also hear Portugal is a popular destination for digital nomads through its NHR Scheme (Non-Habitual Residency).
tbh, I saw this and am super interested as well. As someone living in CA, the opportunity to pay no taxes is massive given the rates here.
Does anyone know how that works in practice? I.e. if you get this visa and live/work in Bali for 3 months in a year, do you report your taxes in Bali for those 3 months alone and the remaining 9 months in your home residence (in my case, CA)? Or is it something else?
In Germany you declare all of the taxes in the country where you spent at least 187 days of the year in (just more than half a year).
Super interesting, thanks for the heads up! Are you thinking of / already tried the digital nomad life?
Yeah, I'm definitely up for trying the nomad lifestyle! I did it once for a few months, but not enough to save on taxes. Right now I'm just looking for a new project to work on.
Classic, timeless, ageless game, the kind of game you can play over and over and over again!
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This comment was deleted 3 years ago
It sounds like this is not an official announcement. It is still just a rumor.
https://coconuts.co/bali/news/no-concrete-plans-yet-for-bali-digital-nomad-visa-official-says/
Wow! Waiting for more countries in long digital nomad visa list!
If I ever decide to go and work from Bali I’d plan for at least a month or two of drinking beer on the beach, bar hopping, wandering around Seminyak, Kuta, Legian, Ubud, Canggu, going East to the dive spots, going West to see what’s over there and North for some more authentic Bali etc etc, plus seeing all the various sights in between before I even considering sitting down at a computer to do any serious work…
TBH a 5 year visa sounds pretty great.
That is rather cool. I have seen plenty of videos about digital nomads the paradise of BALI. hope it includes stay on the island there.
Government officials are reporting this is a rumor and nothing has been decided yet. Be careful of what you read in the international media on Indonesian rules adjustments.
https://coconuts.co/bali/news/no-concrete-plans-yet-for-bali-digital-nomad-visa-official-says/
As an Indonesian, I can confirm this news. It is still currently a proposal, and not yet in effect unfortunately
Awesome for someone in my team!
Bali is already crowded by tourists from all around the world. It feels nice for some weeks or a month but after that it's same old story.
Better to explore less popular destinations.
There are many options for you doing nomads in Indonesia, cities like Surabaya, Malang, or Jogja are nice to try. There are many people working remotely there, I think you shouldn't worry about the internet.
Why does popularity matter?
It matters when you want to enjoy nature by sitting at beach and realised it so crowded that you will not even get place to sit.
Fair enough.
I don't usually mind crowds and would prefer to have nice things like good internet, affordable food and goods etc.
the past two years it's been a ghost town.
I think this is going to become a larger trend as time goes on. Countries are starting to see the benefit of digital nomads, especially compared to tourists who often stay for only two weeks and leave trash behind. I'm excited to see where this trend will go!
This is really neat. Too bad I'm too far from Indonesia. Curious to hear any experiences from people here who worked there.