Indonesia only lets a phone connect to its mobile networks if the phone's IMEI is on a national register, and a phone bought abroad is not on it. Bring one in, put a Telkomsel or Indosat SIM in it, and it will work for a while and then stop, unless you have done one of two things: had the operator register it for a 90-day tourist allowance, or registered it with customs (Bea Cukai) and paid any tax due above a $500 allowance. A phone on a foreign SIM, roaming or a travel eSIM, is outside the rule altogether. This guide sets out the rule as Bea Cukai publishes it, the two routes and what each costs, the 60-day deadline that catches people who leave the airport without registering, and how to check whether your IMEI is already on the list.

Quick answer: On your home SIM or a travel eSIM, nothing to do: Bea Cukai says inbound roamers need no IMEI registration. If you want an Indonesian SIM for a stay of up to 90 days, the operator's shop registers your IMEI against your passport for 90 days, free. For longer stays, register with Bea Cukai at the airport before you leave the terminal, where the first $500 of value is duty-free; leave the terminal first and you have 60 days to register at a customs office with no allowance at all. Umi's Indonesia eSIM runs on Indosat and Tri 4G/5G at $3.55/GB pay as you go, or 10GB for $21.55, with no registration, and the balance never expires.

Does a foreign phone work in Indonesia?

Yes, with a condition that depends on which SIM you put in it. Indonesia has run an IMEI whitelist since 2020 (Permenkominfo No. 1/2020): every phone sold in the country is registered by its importer or manufacturer, and a phone that is not registered is blocked from local networks. A phone bought in London, Sydney or Singapore is not registered, so three cases follow:

• You keep your home SIM on roaming, or use a travel eSIM. The phone works normally and Bea Cukai's guidance says no IMEI registration is needed.

• You buy an Indonesian SIM for a visit of up to 90 days. The operator's outlet registers the IMEI for 90 days against your passport; no customs registration and no tax.

• You are staying more than 90 days on an Indonesian SIM, or living in Indonesia. The phone has to be registered with Bea Cukai, within the deadlines below, with tax on any value above $500.

The register is national, so the block applies to every operator (Telkomsel, Indosat, XL, Tri, Smartfren) at once.

What are Indonesia's IMEI rules?

Two agencies run them. The Ministry of Communications (Komdigi, formerly Kominfo) keeps the whitelist and tells operators which IMEIs may connect. Bea Cukai, the customs service, decides which travellers' phones go onto it and what they pay. The rules below are from Bea Cukai's own IMEI registration page, read in October 2026.

Two things are easy to get wrong. The $500 exemption is only available if you register at the airport on arrival; walk out of the terminal and the same registration a week later is taxed on the phone's full value. And the exemption is per passenger across everything in your bags, not per phone, so a $1,000 phone has $500 of taxable value even if it is the only thing you declare.

Does a travel eSIM start the clock?

No, and this time the regulator says so directly. Bea Cukai's page states that a visitor using a home-country SIM through roaming does not need to register the IMEI, and a travel eSIM is a foreign profile roaming onto Indosat or Tri in exactly the same way. The IMEI register only matters when an Indonesian SIM is activated in the phone, which is what triggers the whitelist check. If you never put an Indonesian SIM in the phone, the 90-day operator route and the Bea Cukai route are both irrelevant to you.

That is a cleaner position than Turkey, where the 120-day rule counts any SIM including roaming, and cleaner than Egypt, where the exemption for foreign SIMs rests on guidance rather than regulation. The one way to end up on the wrong side of it is to buy a cheap local SIM for a few days without the operator registering the phone properly; if the SIM works at first and then dies, that is the whitelist catching up.

How do I get the 90-day tourist registration?

This is the route for a holiday or a short work trip where you want an Indonesian number. It is done by the operator, not by customs, and it is only for foreign passport holders.

1. Dial *#06# before you fly and note the phone's IMEI. Dual-SIM phones show two; the eSIM slot has its own.

2. Fill in the IMEI section of the All Indonesia Arrival Card online before landing. It has replaced the paper customs form since 1 October 2025 and produces a QR code.

3. On arrival, go to an official operator outlet (Telkomsel, Indosat, XL or Tri at the airport or in town), not a kiosk reseller.

4. Show your passport and the phone. The outlet registers the IMEI for a 90-day allowance and sells you a tourist SIM against the passport.

5. Keep the receipt and the SIM's number. The allowance runs from registration, not from your visa date, and cannot be extended at the outlet; after 90 days the phone needs the customs route to keep working on local SIMs.

Returning Indonesian citizens cannot use this route; Bea Cukai has said the 90-day option is for foreign nationals only.

How do I register with Bea Cukai if I am staying longer?

Do it before you leave the arrival terminal; that is the whole trick.

1. Before landing, submit the IMEI registration through the arrival card or the form at beacukai.go.id (or the Mobile Beacukai app). You get a QR code.

2. At arrivals, find the Bea Cukai IMEI desk (Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta and Bali Ngurah Rai both have one) and show the QR code, your passport, your boarding pass and the phone. Have the purchase invoice if the phone is recent.

3. If the phone's value is under $500, the officer registers it on the spot. Above $500, customs assesses the value and bills duty of 10%, VAT of 11% and income tax of 10% or 20% on the amount over $500, payable in rupiah at the counter or through the official channels. Assessment can take up to 5 days for high-value devices.

4. Put in your Indonesian SIM. Komdigi's standard is activation within 48 hours; if nothing after that, call 159.

5. Check the status at any time at beacukai.go.id/cek-imei.html with the 15-digit IMEI.

Missed the desk? You have 60 days from arrival to register at the nearest customs office (KPPBC), but the $500 allowance is gone and the full value is taxed. After 60 days there is no route left except buying a locally sold phone.

As a worked example, a phone valued at $1,000 registered at the airport has $500 of taxable value: $50 duty, then 11% VAT and 20% income tax on the duty-paid amount, roughly $220 in all. The same phone registered at a customs office on day 30 is taxed on the full $1,000, roughly $440. Use the official calculator or ask the officer for the exact figure; the rates are fixed but the assessed value is customs' call.

Local SIM or travel eSIM for Indonesia?

Telkomsel has the widest coverage outside Java and Bali and a tourist SIM is cheap per gigabyte, at the price of the passport registration, the IMEI step, and the 90-day cap on the phone. A travel eSIM skips all three.

Umi prices are from the live Indonesia page on 30 October 2026. Airalo's Indonesia eSIM, for comparison, is sold as "unlimited" on Indosat from $11 for 3 days to $69 for 30 days, with a daily high-speed cap its page does not state (see unlimited data eSIM caps) and no mention of the IMEI rules. For a two-week trip through Bali and Lombok, Umi's 10GB Plan at $21.55 covers maps, messaging, photos and a few video calls with nothing to register; for a month of heavy use a Telkomsel SIM is cheaper per gigabyte, and the 90-day operator route makes it painless as long as you stay under the limit. Whatever Umi balance is left when you fly on carries to the next country, as explained in eSIM data that never expires, and the same Universal eSIM covers Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand on the way through.

Indonesia is one of several countries with a rule that catches visitors' phones. Turkey counts 120 days on any SIM, roaming included; Egypt charges 38.5% after 90 days on a local SIM; Russia puts every foreign line through a 24-hour block on arrival. Our best travel eSIM guide covers the field.

Heading to Indonesia? Install your Universal eSIM before you fly and leave the IMEI desk to the people staying a year.