**Foreign shareholders and directors of a PT PMA in Bali usually need one of three permits: an investor KITAS if you hold qualifying shares and sit on the board, a work KITAS if you draw a salary as a director or employee, or a dependent KITAS for accompanying family. Your role in the company — not your nationality — decides which.**
What is a KITAS, and why does your company role decide the type?
KITAS stands for Kartu Izin Tinggal Terbatas, a limited-stay permit card. It is not a single product but a family of permits, each tied to a purpose: investment, employment, family, retirement, study. For foreigners building a PT PMA — Perseroan Terbatas Penanaman Modal Asing, Indonesia’s standard vehicle for foreign-owned companies, overseen by BKPM under the Ministry of Investment — three of them matter.
The permit you qualify for follows your function inside the company. A PT PMA needs at least two shareholders (at least one foreign), one director, and one commissioner, according to Indonesia-Investments. The director must reside in Indonesia, and that residency rule is what forces the KITAS question in the first place. A passive foreign shareholder who lives abroad may need no KITAS at all; a resident director cannot operate without one.
What are the three KITAS types that apply to a PT PMA?
| KITAS type | Typical index (2026, subject to change) | Who it is for | Lets you earn a salary in Indonesia? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Investor KITAS | E28A | Shareholders who also sit as director or commissioner | No — it permits you to invest and direct, not to be employed |
| Work KITAS | E23 | Directors, managers or specialists employed and paid by the PT PMA | Yes — it is a work permit with a salary attached |
| Dependent KITAS | E31-series | Spouse and children of a KITAS holder | No — family stay only |
The single most common mistake is assuming the investor KITAS lets you work. It does not. It lets you own and govern — drawing a salary is a separate permission with its own permit.
What does each permit let you do day to day?
- Investor KITAS holder: may enter and leave Indonesia freely, hold a board seat, sign as director, own shares, and open personal banking — but may not take a salaried job, including a paid role inside their own PT PMA.
- Work KITAS holder: may be employed and paid by the sponsoring company, perform the specific job named in the RPTKA, and sponsor dependents — but is tied to that one employer and that one position.
- Dependent KITAS holder: may live in Indonesia, open a bank account, and enroll children in school, but may not work or earn income without first converting to a work KITAS.
Who qualifies for an investor KITAS?
The investor KITAS suits a foreign founder who puts capital into the PT PMA and takes a board seat but does not want to be a paid employee. Its appeal is cost: it avoids the monthly foreign-worker levy that comes with a work permit, and it can run for up to two years per issuance. Many founders bundle it with incorporation through a company plus KITAS package, because the investor KITAS is issued off the same corporate documents — the deed of establishment, the NIB from OSS-RBA, and the shareholder register — that the company setup already produces.
Immigration practice, as of 2026 and subject to change, generally expects the applicant to be both a shareholder and a member of the board, with a personal shareholding many practitioners cite at roughly IDR 1 billion or more inside a company that meets the standard capital rules. Those company-level numbers are fixed: a PT PMA carries a minimum investment plan of IDR 10,000,000,000 and minimum paid-up capital of 25% of that — IDR 2,500,000,000. According to Emerhub, that IDR 2.5 billion paid-up floor is set by Article 26(10) of BKPM Regulation No. 5 of 2025. Confirm the current personal-shareholding figure with licensed counsel, because immigration thresholds move more often than the company-capital ones do.
When do you need a work KITAS instead?
If you will actively manage the company day to day and take a salary — as a director, a country manager, or a technical specialist — you need a work KITAS, not an investor one. The company sponsors it, and the process runs through an RPTKA (the foreign worker utilization plan) plus the DKPTKA levy, commonly USD 100 per month per position as of 2026 and subject to change. A work KITAS obliges you to hold a personal NPWP tax number and pulls you fully into Indonesian payroll tax.
A foreign director who is also a shareholder can, in principle, choose between the two routes: invest and govern on an investor KITAS, or be employed and paid on a work KITAS. The trade-off is money in versus money out — capital commitment against salary and monthly levy.
Which KITAS matches your role?
| Your role in the PT PMA | Living in Indonesia? | Likely permit |
|---|---|---|
| Passive foreign shareholder | No | No KITAS required |
| Shareholder who is also director or commissioner | Yes | Investor KITAS |
| Director or manager drawing a salary | Yes | Work KITAS |
| Foreign spouse or child of the above | Yes | Dependent KITAS |
| Resident director, no salary, qualifying shares | Yes | Investor KITAS |
What does residing in Indonesia do to your taxes?
Here is the part founders underestimate. Once you live in Indonesia for more than 183 days in a twelve-month period, you generally become an Indonesian tax resident — taxed on worldwide income and required to hold an NPWP from the Directorate General of Taxes (DJP). A resident foreign director sits squarely inside this net; the same KITAS that lets you stay is what triggers the tax registration.
At company level, a PT PMA with annual turnover under IDR 4.8 billion can qualify for the 0.5% final turnover-tax regime; above that, normal corporate income tax applies, and after-tax profits can be repatriated as dividends. Residency also carries a reporting tail: Indonesia participates in the automatic exchange of information (CRS) with Australia, Singapore, the United States and EU jurisdictions, so a KITAS-holding director’s accounts are visible across borders. Treat every figure here as as-of-2026 and confirm it with a registered tax consultant.
What a KITAS will not do
A KITAS is an immigration permit, not a shortcut around company law. It will not manufacture the IDR 2.5 billion in paid-up capital your PT PMA still has to inject, and it will not legitimize a nominee arrangement. Using an Indonesian nominee to “hold” shares or a directorship so you can dodge the capital rules is risky and, in practice, effectively unenforceable — the nominee is the legal owner on paper, and that is the honest reality this site keeps returning to.
The clean sequence is the unglamorous one: pick your KBLI codes and confirm foreign-ownership limits, set the company up correctly through OSS-RBA, inject the real capital, then apply for the KITAS that fits your actual role. This article is information, not legal or tax advice; for your own situation, take the KITAS and shareholding questions to licensed Indonesian immigration counsel and a registered tax consultant before you file anything.