Bali Arrival Card and Tourist Levy: What's the Difference
The Bali arrival card and the Bali tourist levy are two separate things. What each one is, who owes it, when it happens, and why one never covers the other.
If you are flying to Bali, two different things are waiting for you, and travelers merge them constantly. The All Indonesia Arrival Card is a national digital declaration: no-cost, mandatory, and required of every single arriving traveler. The Bali tourist levy is a regional contribution charged by the province of Bali to foreign visitors. Completing one does not satisfy the other.
- Arrival card: national, no-cost, mandatory for everyone, submitted online within the 3 days before arrival. Produces a QR code.
- Bali levy: regional, paid, foreign visitors to Bali only. Amount and payment channel are set by the Bali provincial authorities.
- They are not linked. Two systems, two records, two proofs. Doing one does not register the other.
- Island hopping: the arrival card is per international entry — Bali to Lombok, Gili or Nusa Penida does not need a new one.
- Our site handles the arrival card declaration only. We never collect the Bali levy.
The confusion, in one sentence
Search results, travel forums and airline emails use the phrase "Bali arrival card" loosely, and it ends up describing two unrelated things at once.
There is no such thing as a Bali-specific arrival card. The declaration is the same one used for Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan or Batam — the All Indonesia Arrival Card, run by the Directorate General of Immigration on allindonesia.imigrasi.go.id. Landing in Denpasar changes nothing about the form.
What is Bali-specific is the tourist levy: a contribution introduced by the provincial government, applying to foreign visitors, used for cultural and environmental programs on the island. It is a payment, not a declaration.
Quick summary: the arrival card is national and no-cost; the levy is regional and paid, and only the levy is a Bali thing.
What the arrival card is
The arrival card merges three former paper forms — the immigration arrival card, the customs e-CD, and the health declaration — into one online submission. When you send it, the system issues a QR code.
The rules that matter:
- No-cost. Submission on the official portal costs nothing, and there is no account to create.
- Everyone. Any nationality, any age, any purpose. Infants with a passport need their own declaration and their own QR code.
- Within 3 days before arrival. Not earlier — the system will not take an entry date further out.
- Not a visa. If your nationality needs a visa or e-VOA, that is a separate process, compared in our guide to the arrival card versus an Indonesian visa.
The full walkthrough of the form, field by field, is in our step-by-step guide to completing the arrival card, and the document checklist is in arrival card requirements.
Quick summary: one no-cost national declaration, one QR code, submitted in the three days before you land.
What the Bali tourist levy is
The levy is a separate regional charge collected by the Bali provincial government from foreign visitors to the island. Indonesian citizens are not the target of it, and it has nothing to do with immigration clearance.
Two honest cautions here. First, the amount and the accepted payment channels are set by the Bali provincial authorities, and they are the only reliable source for the current figures — check their official channel before you travel rather than trusting a blog, a driver, or a hotel WhatsApp message. Second, be wary of any site that offers to "bundle" the levy with your arrival card. They are administered by different bodies and produce different proof.
Pay a levy only through a channel published by the Bali provincial government itself, and treat unsolicited payment links, QR codes handed over in car parks, or messages claiming your arrival card "requires" a levy payment as red flags. The arrival card never asks you for money.
Quick summary: a regional payment for foreign visitors to Bali, with amounts and channels set by the province — verify before you pay.
Side by side
| All Indonesia Arrival Card | Bali Tourist Levy | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Declaration of your travel data | Regional financial contribution |
| Authority | Directorate General of Immigration (national) | Bali provincial government |
| Cost | No-cost | Paid — amount set by the province |
| Who | Every arriving traveler, all nationalities and ages | Foreign visitors to Bali |
| Where it applies | All of Indonesia | Bali only |
| When | Within the 3 days before arrival | Before or on arrival in Bali, per provincial rules |
| Proof | QR code from the immigration portal | Separate payment receipt or voucher |
| Covers the other? | No | No |
The bottom row is the whole article. Two systems, two records. A levy receipt will not get you through immigration, and an arrival card QR code is not evidence that a levy was paid.
Quick summary: different authority, different cost, different proof — and neither substitutes for the other.
Arriving at Ngurah Rai (DPS): the actual sequence
Denpasar's international terminal moves in a predictable order, and knowing it removes most of the anxiety.
- Disembark and walk to immigration. If your nationality requires a visa on arrival, you settle that first, at the e-VOA or VOA counters, before the passport control desks.
- Immigration. Your passport and your arrival card QR code are checked here. Have the QR ready on screen or on paper — not buried in an email you cannot open.
- Baggage reclaim.
- Customs. The customs portion of your declaration travels inside the same QR code, so the officers scan the same thing again at the exit channel.
- Levy checkpoints. Where the province operates levy verification, it is a separate point staffed by provincial officers, not immigration.
The practical takeaway: you may present a QR code twice, and it is the same arrival card QR both times. Keep it available offline — see our notes on saving and presenting your QR code.
Quick summary: immigration and customs both scan the one arrival card QR; the levy, where checked, is a separate desk.
Reaching Bali on a domestic connection
Plenty of travelers land in Jakarta or Surabaya first and continue to Denpasar on a domestic flight. This changes where your obligations happen, but not what they are.
Your international entry — and therefore your arrival card scan — occurs at the first airport where you clear immigration. If that is Soekarno-Hatta, you are checked in Jakarta. By the time you reach Denpasar you are a domestic passenger, and there is no immigration desk on that leg.
Two details worth getting right:
- Point of entry on the form is your first international arrival airport, not Denpasar.
- Address in Indonesia should be your first accommodation. If you spend a night in Jakarta before flying on, that is the address to declare.
Timing gets awkward on long routings, and the three-day window is measured from arrival in Indonesia — the edge cases are worked through in our guide on when to submit the arrival card.
Quick summary: declare your first international airport, not Denpasar, if you arrive in Bali domestically.
Island hopping: do you need another arrival card?
No. This is the second most common question after the levy, and the answer is clean.
The arrival card is tied to an international entry into Indonesia, not to a domestic movement. Once you have cleared immigration, travel within the country needs no new declaration:
- Bali → Lombok by ferry or flight: no new arrival card.
- Bali → the Gili Islands by fast boat: no new arrival card.
- Bali → Nusa Penida or Nusa Lembongan: no new arrival card.
- Bali → Labuan Bajo, Yogyakarta, Jakarta: no new arrival card.
The one situation that resets everything is leaving Indonesia and coming back — a hop to Singapore or Kuala Lumpur mid-trip, for instance. That return is a fresh international entry, so it needs a fresh declaration submitted within three days of that new arrival date.
Note also that domestic boat operators may run their own manifests and small local fees. Those are unrelated to both the national declaration and the Bali levy.
Quick summary: one declaration per international entry; domestic island hops need nothing new.
Practical mistakes people make in Bali
Most trouble here is not legal, it is logistical.
- Assuming a paid levy covered the arrival card. It never does, and the discovery usually happens at the immigration desk.
- Assuming an arrival card QR is a levy receipt. Also no. They are issued by different bodies.
- One QR for the whole family. Each traveler, including babies, gets an individual declaration.
- Submitting three weeks early. Rejected — the window opens three days before arrival.
- Declaring DPS as the entry point when you actually cleared immigration in Jakarta.
Those and the rest of the usual suspects are catalogued in our guide to common arrival card mistakes, and the wider background sits in the complete All Indonesia Arrival Card guide.
Quick summary: the expensive errors are conflating the two systems and mis-declaring your point of entry.
The official arrival card has no cost and you can submit it yourself on the government portal. If you would rather have a second pair of eyes, our optional assisted service reviews your details against your documents and helps you keep the QR code safe. It is a paid convenience covering the arrival card declaration only — it is never required, and it has no connection whatsoever to the Bali tourist levy, which we do not collect, handle, or process.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a separate Bali arrival card? No. Bali uses the same All Indonesia Arrival Card as every other point of entry in the country. Only the tourist levy is specific to Bali.
Does paying the Bali tourist levy replace the arrival card? No. They are separate systems run by different authorities. You need the arrival card regardless of whether you pay a levy.
Does the arrival card cover the Bali tourist levy? No. The arrival card is a no-cost national declaration and includes no payment of any kind.
How much is the Bali tourist levy? The amount and the accepted payment methods are set by the Bali provincial authorities. Check their official channel shortly before you travel rather than relying on third-party figures.
Who has to pay the Bali levy? It applies to foreign visitors to Bali. The arrival card, by contrast, applies to every traveler entering Indonesia including Indonesian citizens.
Where is my arrival card QR code scanned at Ngurah Rai? Typically twice: at the immigration desks and again at the customs channel after baggage reclaim. It is the same QR code both times.
I fly into Jakarta and then to Bali. Where do I declare? Your arrival card covers your international entry in Jakarta, so declare Soekarno-Hatta as your point of entry. The domestic leg to Denpasar needs nothing extra.
Do I need a new arrival card to go to Lombok, the Gilis or Nusa Penida? No. The declaration is per international entry into Indonesia. Domestic travel between islands does not require a new one.
What if I leave Indonesia and come back during my trip? That is a new international entry, so you submit a new arrival card within the three days before that return date.
Do children need their own arrival card in Bali? Yes. Every traveler with a passport needs an individual declaration and their own QR code, infants included.
Last updated: 20 July 2026. This guide is independent traveler information and is not affiliated with any government body. The arrival card declaration can be completed at no cost at the official All Indonesia portal of the Directorate General of Immigration. The Bali tourist levy is administered separately by the Bali provincial government; confirm current amounts, payment channels and rules through their official channel before travel.