Foreign Nationals Busted in Surabaya Love Scam Syndicate Operation

Indonesia Automates Border Checks Nationwide — What Expats Must Know

Indonesia Deports Three Chinese Nationals for Visa Fraud

Seoul's Dessert Wave Reaches Indonesia's Expat Palate

Phuket vs Bali: The Property Investment Battle Foreigners Get Wrong

Indonesia's 15% Global Minimum Tax: The End of the Tax Holiday Era?

Consulting in Bali: The First Door to Close (KBLI 70209)

"I'll just set up a consultancy." It is the most reflexive sentence in the Bali expat playbook — the fallback for the marketer, the strategist, the ex-corporate fixer who wants a clean, asset-light PMA without a kitchen, a pool, or a warehouse. Pure advice. What could be lower-friction than that?

How to Read a KBLI Like a Pro

Most foreigners treat a KBLI code as a label — a five-digit sticker that says "restaurant" or "consulting" or "villa." That is exactly the mistake that ends in a wrong registration. A KBLI entry is not a label; it is a small legal document with parts, and each part answers a different question. Lear

Jewelry & Wholesale: Low-Risk = Blocked (46494)

Here is a sentence that should not make sense, and yet perfectly captures how Bali works right now: your business is blocked because it's too safe. Not too dangerous, not too sensitive, not reserved for some strategic reason — too low-risk. Wholesale jewelry is the cleanest illustration of this upsi

Minimarket Is Closed to Foreigners

Every few months a hopeful email lands in our inbox with the same plan: a small chain of tidy minimarkets, foreign-funded, "just like the ones on every corner." The math looks beautiful on a spreadsheet. The problem is that the spreadsheet is illegal before the first shelf is stocked.

Your KBLI Is Open Nationally — and Blocked in Bali

There is a specific kind of silence that falls over a Seminyak consulting office the moment a foreigner discovers the gap. They arrive with a printout. The printout is correct. The national investment list says, in plain ink, that their chosen business is one hundred percent open to foreign ownershi

Paid-Up vs Investment: The Rp 10bn Myth

There is a number tattooed on the Bali expat brain: ten billion rupiah. Repeat it in any co-working space and heads nod. "You need 10 billion to open a PT PMA." It is the single most-quoted figure in foreign company setup — and it is quoted so loosely that it has hardened into a myth that misleads m