My experience in April is consistent with hockey's. I was in the front of the KLM flight from SIN that landed at DPS in the evening. I paid the $25 and went through immigration with only minor waiting, probably less than 30 minutes from touchdown to I was in the car. While rushing to beat the rest of the people in the plane helped, there were others in the queue already from other flights. My impression is that the last person off the plane still made it through immigration formalities without an unreasonable wait. That is, I don't think people are waiting 2 hours anymore.

Apparently immigration at DPS has now adopted requirements for fingerprinting and a photo of all tourist arrivals. Allegedly this has led to immense lines. A few hours to get through immigration. Also, the VIP services now have canceled their service due to these requirements. On our last trip we used the VIP services and all went very quickly, very smoothly.

Has anyone passed through DPS in the past week or so? Thanks.

There is a forum thread with first hand experience on Trip Adviser, (ilab, I think). Does not sound good.

If it truly is going to take a few hours to get through immigration at DPS, and if Bali is not your only destination in Indonesia, it might be worth considering planning a trip that enters Indonesia at an intl airport that fewer foreigners or non-Apec members use, such as Surabaya or maybe Yogyakarta, then either domestic flight or land-ferry over to Bali. Connection to these cities is usually pretty easy via SIN or KUL. I'd avoid CGK assuming they have similar entry requirements. Apparently having the visa already doesn't exempt you from this.

Thank you for that feedback.

There are now some reports that the requirement of finger printing and photos have been lifted, due to the chaos it created. Let's hope they fix this.

I am going into Solo in July via Singapore. I should have no problem.

We are headed into DPS in about 10 days, so I have been watching this thread closely. We are staying at the InterContinental, and when I got an email about our arrival times for transport to the hotel I emailed back asking if they knew anything about the new immigration process. Below is the response I got:

Though they suggest things are running more smoothly, it sounds like the same process is in place, and the suggested "2 minutes per person", as discussed here, can aggregate to several hours with multiple planes landing at the same time.

We're flying in on TG in J from BKK, so we'll probably just plan to try to hustle off the plane and be as front-of-the-line as we can, and, since we live in DC, may bother to stop by the Embassy to get our visa in advance if it sounds like that may save a few minutes.

But, I'd still love to hear anyone else's experience in the meantime, because if the wait is several hours, and Bali Concierge can significantly expedite that (which doesn't sound like the case thus far), it would be money well spent.

Thanks for the information you provided from the hotel. I will be there in 7 days and staying at the Conrad and will try and post my experience on this.

Do you know of any reputable Bali Concierge that would help in expediting the process?

On May 3rd the fingerprinting and photo requirements were suspended "until further notice" due to long delays(up to 3 hours) and passenger complaints.
They will be reintroduced when" adequate equipment and personnel can be put in place".

If you do happen to get that Visa before you depart from DC please let us know how that works. We are in NYC and thinking of doing the same thing from the Indonesian consulate here. Thanks.

In short, I looked at the website (http://www.embassyofindonesia.org/co.../visitvisa.htm) of the Indonesian Embassy and it looks like more trouble than it's worth. Granted, I glanced at it quickly when I was headed out of the office, but it looks like there are several more requirements for an in-person advance tourist visa, than for a visa on arrival. For example, the list of documentation required includes a Letter of Employment and Recent Bank Statements. On top of that, the fee appears to be $45.

If anyone else has done one of these in advance and has anecdotal evidence that it isn't as onerous as it sounds on the website I'd be interested. Otherwise, we'll probably just wait it out on arrival at DPS.

We just went through immigration yesterday in Denpasar. We landed around 2:20 pm and were among the first off the plane. We hustled to purchase our visas (as that was the delay last time) and were met with no lines. Then we saw the immigration lines. OMG. I have traveled the world extensively in a number of developing countries and have NEVER seen anything like these lines. Until now, Moscow airport was my all-time worst delay - 45 mins.
We spend OVER TWO HOURS IN LINE. The lines would go for 3-7 minutes without moving at all, then would move up an inch.

They are NOT doing the fingerprinting or the taking pictures of visitors - they just don't have enough people to handle the rush periods, and the people they do have are "new" according to one official and amazingly slow. On top of that, the line has little air conditioning; at one point, a small child was carried out by her parents from fainting - the immigration officials gave her a bottle of water and hustled them through.

The immigration lines in the non-tourist visa area seemed much shorter - if I had it to do over again, I would go get a regular Indo visa.

Be warned and prepared... bring cold water and lots of patience. And stick towards the middle of the queues instead of the far right or far left. They seem to have more people handling each line in the middle.

I'd appreciate further clarification re your advise re obtaining "a regular Indo visa".

Looking at the Indonesia Visa application form, the type of visa choices are: Transit, Single Visit, Multiple Visit, Limited Stay. Under "Purpose of Visit", the choices are: Tourism, Convention, Family Visit, Sports, Study, Arts, Commercial, Others. Under "Purpose of Limited Stay", the choices are: Work, Joint Family, Social, and Others.

Which of these are you propsing would result in a faster immigration line?

Sorry - I'll clarify. There are special lines for "visa on arrival' meaning you buy visa at the visa counters before immigration. Those lines are a nightmare. The regular immigration lines, over to the right, for visa you apply for in advance, seemed much faster to me. Anything has to be better than 2 hours! Good luck!

My worst experiences during the two past immigration processes. Indonesia
does not offer a welcome if they raised the visa fee to 25 US $ - even for
a short stay. They offend visitors with their sluggish immigration procedures,
manning far too few counters and leaving tourists waiting for hours.
Although I love this island and its people I decided not to visit for the time
being. I am fed up !
The only VIP service offered was by Intercontinental Executive Club. If this
arrangement was suspended - even worse.
The worst happened to me when I arrived with Singapore Airlines around noon. It coincides with the arrival of two Russian low-cost carriers. They
did not distribute entry cards in the plane, so these people without practically no knowledge of English and filling in a card with Indonesian and English only were left to themselves. You can imagine what this means. Tried to help several people, but without speaking Russian, hopeless. They could not read Latin, only Kyrillic. The whole thing was aggravated by the authorities as they couldn't care less and sent people back to fill in the forms.
My subsequent visit was even worse. Coincided with the arrival of a big
Australian airline full of families. The aircon did not work and we had to stand
in line like sweatshop cattle waiting for two hours until they opened two
additional counters. Australians with kids started to fight for a place in line. Very unpleasant.
I do not want to sound politically incorrect, but do the Muslim authorities
in Jakarta punish this island because of its Hindu faith ? How stupid to
diminish tourism by increasing entry fees and having the most unpleasant
immigration !