Facial Recognition Technology Will Speed Up Tourist Arrivals At Bali Airport 

Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport just received a major upgrade. New auto-gates featuring facial recognition have now been installed and will be ready for use in the coming days.

Indonesia’s Minister of Law and Human Rights, Yasonna Laoly, has visited Bali Airport to check the new immigration inspection facilities. During his visit, Minister Laoly was happy to see the new auto-gates installed and nearly ready for public use. He told reporters, “To monitor and secure immigration, Immigration has utilized face-based identification system technology or the Face Recognition Identification System.” This new facial recognition system will work in automation with the increasingly digitized immigration and visa process the Indonesian government is moving towards. Minster Laoly explained that with the new autogates in place, the immigration inspection process will be faster, more accurate, effective, and efficient, without compromising monitoring and security aspects. The system is already in place at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport and is proving to be a huge success for both traveler and immigration teams. So far 30 auto-gates units have been installed at Ngurah Rai Airport, with work starting back in October 2023. The auto-gates are set to be used by the first passengers this month once final systems checks have been completed. Within the first quarter of 2024, the plan is to add another 50 auto gate units, bringing the total to 80 units installed across the international terminal. Eventually there will be 50 auto-gates in the international arrivals terminal and 20 devices in the international departures area. Minster Laoly told reporters “We hope that this facility will have a positive impact on providing services to service users so that travel to and from Bali will be safer and more comfortable.” The auto-gates are in place to help speed up the arrival and departure process at Bali Airport, but they are not a replacement for staffed counters. With hundreds of thousands of tourists landing in Bali every month staffed immigration counters are still absolutely essential and having a completely automated arrivals process is still a long way away. In 2024 tourists planning their visit to Bali will be encouraged to make use of Indonesia’s online immigration services.

It is now possible for tourists to apply for a huge range of Indonesian visas completely online, and process extensions online too. For years the process of renewing or extending an Indonesian social visa has required at least three visits to an immigration office if completely the process independently, without a visa agent. Just this week the Director General of Immigration, Silmy Karim, confirmed that a whole new set of social visas can now be renewed and extended online. Karim told reporters “Immigration continues to improve services through digitalization strategies.”

He added, “We launched this new service to simplify and speed up the stay permit extension process, which previously required foreigners to present at the immigration office.” Bali lovers have been relieved to hear the Director General of Immigration annoyed that “There is no longer a need to stamp the stay permit on the passport because it is sent directly to the applicant’s email.” This process applies to Indonesia’s most popular visa categories, completely changing the game for Bali lovers and frequent travelers to Indonesia. Karim confirmed that online extensions can now be processed online for the following visas: Holiday, Family, and Transit Single-Entry Visitor Visa (index C1) Medical Treatment Single-Entry Visitor Visa (index C3) Foreign Government Official Trips Single-Entry Visitor Visa (index C4) Short Courses and Training Single-Entry Visitor Visa (index C9) International Exhibition Single-Entry Visitor Visa (index C11)

Travelers entering Bali on visas that have been applied for and granted online before arrival in the county will be eligible to use the automates. This included the e-visa on arrival and the newly launched D1 and D2 visas which allow tourists and business travelers multiple entry to Indonesia for up to 60 days at a time over the route of five years.