Following a Cabinet meeting with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Monday, Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno told reporters that the golden visa could be a “game changer” in Indonesia’s efforts to attract more foreign workers and investments, which in turn is hoped to create more job opportunities.

“The golden visa is a new policy that we will soon launch to attract quality talents in the field of digitalization, health, research and technology,” Sandiaga said. “[The policy] will be a game changer that will bring in more foreigners, including digital nomads and entrepreneurs, to invest in Indonesia.”

He said under the golden visa program, foreigners could be granted a permit to stay of up to 10 years, although the technical details of the policy remain unclear as they are still being hashed out with the Law and Human Rights Ministry’s Immigration Directorate General.

“We hope this will make Indonesia the epicenter of economic growth going forward, while also [making Indonesia the epicenter] for sustainable [development], since we are the largest archipelagic country with the ability to absorb very large carbon emissions.”

The golden visa program is mainly a scheme to permit residency by investment, according to the Cabinet Secretariat website in April, which will possibly grant foreigners a longer stay, streamlined immigration service, eligibility to purchase assets in Indonesia and a fast-track route for citizenship.

Worldwide, over 60 countries have applied a similar scheme, with smaller countries like Saint Kitts and Nevis setting their investment prices from US$150,000 to larger nations like the United States at $1.05 million.

It remains unknown how much a foreigner will have to invest in Indonesia to get the visa, but Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia suggested on Wednesday that the starting number for investments may be from Rp 30 billion ($2 million).

“This is an instrument to pull in investors to stay for a longer time in Indonesia. Say, if they would invest 30 to 40 billion rupiah, we would give them a visa for five to 10 years,” he said.

But Bahlil added that it was not only investors who could enjoy the program, as the government would grant the same scheme for selecting high-skilled foreigners and high-earning retirees.

Despite this recent enthusiasm to attract more foreigners to Indonesia, there have been concerns about negative implications from introducing the golden visa program, such as tax evasion and money laundering.

As such, the Law and Human Rights Ministry is currently vetting the scheme before it is officially launched.

Currently, a large number of digital nomads and expatriates residing in Indonesia are using temporary permits (KITAS), which last up to a year unless renewed for anywhere between Rp 750,000 to Rp 12 million, or less than $805.

The golden visa program will be the second visa policy the government has launched in recent months, after previously introducing the second-home visa program in October 2022, primarily aimed at well-off elderly foreigners who were looking to retire in Bali or in other popular tourist destinations in the country.

The second-home program, which came into effect at the start of the year, allows foreigners to apply for a stay permit of up to 10 years, if they have an existing visa and provide proof of funds of either Rp 2 billion ($128,559) in a personal Indonesian bank account or proof of ownership of a luxury property in the country.

But it is also this hefty proof of funds that sparked concerns among the expat pensioners community already living in Indonesia, many of whom do not have the funds needed but were required to transition into the second-home visa nonetheless.

Initially, the second-home visa would act as a replacement for the existing retirement visas. But the government issued another circular that reneged on that arrangement and instead allows current retirement visa holders to still maintain their visa status pending further decisions.