How to extend Indonesian 60 days tourist visa?

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I went to a traveling agency here in Indonesia, they said I would need an invitation from an Indonesian, a "sponsor" they call it (someone that vouches for you).

Although it seemed to be possible in 2010. See this thread http://www.travelfish.org/board/post/indonesia/18404_60-day-indonesian-visa---how-to---

A week or so later...

After discussing further about my issue with a couple of expats living here. They told me that "whatever the law says you can always find an agency with 'special connections' who will work it out". Their advice was to simply go to a few agencies that are in bigger cities & see if they can make it happen.

So that's what I did. And here is what I was proposed those agencies:

the agency can provide a sponsor for me (see above for explanations)
fee for a regular visa extension
have a biometric picture taken by the immigration office. This happens 4 business days after applying for the visa
once the biometric picture is taken, the waiting time is around 6 business days

Depending on the visa extension agency, the total cost varies between 650'000 IDR and 1'275'000 IDR. The "advertised" total waiting time also varies depending on the agency, some are probably better at doing this (& some are probably over optimistic in order to attract more customers), but 10 business days (2 weeks) if there is not any public holidays seems to be common.

My experience is: just give a call to lots of agencies, it's the fastest & most effective way to have a knowledge on your options. See resources for agencies below.

An article confirming all this

This travel blog article from lashworldtour.com written in 2013 on "How to Extend an Indonesian Tourist or Social Visa" confirmed all the info provided by the agency & added even further info/tips.

To extend either a Tourist Visa or Social Visa, you must have an Indonesian citizen as a ‘sponsor’. That can be anyone – guest house owner or staff, a friend or acquaintance. [...]

If you arrive in Indonesia with a Tourist Visa, you will arrive without a sponsor. (since a sponsor is not required to get the visa) After arrival you must find a sponsor in order to get an extension. You have some flexibility, if you’re going to extend several times, in that you can have a different sponsor each month. If you’re traveling around the country and applying at different immigration offices, you’ll need new sponsor each time – a local. [...]

The sponsor usually has to be a resident of the particular immigration office’s jurisdiction. For example, if you’re in Lombok, you will apply for your extension at the Mataram Immigration Office. [...]

How to find a sponsor in a place you’ve never been before? Ask at your guest house or hotel. One of the staff or perhaps one of their friends will do it or they’ll know someone who speaks English, who’s done a sponsorship before and is willing to help you out. You’ll probably have to pay them to do so! 100,000-250,000 rp is normal (Actually, 100,000 rp is very very low. They’d be doing you a huge favor at that rate). [...]

Regardless of which visa type you have, you have two methods to extend that visa once you’re in the country. Each visa extension, regardless of visa type, currently costs 250,000 rp / about $25-27 US per month.

Hiring a Visa agency to do it for you - Give the money for your extension to the agency, along with their fees. Usually total cost is 450,000 – 650,000 rp. That is almost double to triple the price of the doing extension itself. But you’ve seen how much work is involved in making an extension each month. The agency will have to visit the immigration office all those times instead of you.

Indonesian 60 days tourist visa is extendable 4 times!

Good news came along with this research, both the agency & article discussed above mentioned the fact that I can extend my Indonesian 60 days visa 4 times 30 days! Which means I can stay a total of 180 days (60 + 4x30) in Indonesia.

Resources for agencies

Here is a list of web pages providing the details of some visa extension agencies (or freelance agents), you can easily find more by doing some googling: