Steps to move a business to Indonesia

Moving or expanding an existing business into Indonesia is a different project from a first-time startup. You already have operations, staff and revenue — so the goal isn’t just “set up a company,” it’s to land a working operation that your people can run from day one. That means sequencing the entity, the premises, the visas and the compliance correctly. Here are the steps.

Step 1 — Decide the entity

For a foreign-owned operation, that’s a PT PMA. If you’re expanding rather than relocating headquarters, you might also consider a representative office (KPPA) for non-revenue market exploration — but the moment you trade, hire and invoice locally, you need the PT PMA. Start with the KBLI and ownership check for your activities.

Step 2 — Incorporate under the 2026 rules

The setup path runs name reservation → notary deed → legal-entity approval → NPWP → NIB on OSS → bank account, in roughly 4–8 weeks. Budget for IDR 2.5 billion paid-up capital with its 12-month lock-up, and an investment plan over IDR 10 billion per KBLI per location. Full walkthrough: how to open a foreign-owned company.

Step 3 — Solve premises (physical or virtual)

Your registered address must comply with local zoning (zonasi) — a residential villa in Bali generally won’t qualify as a business address. Options:

• Virtual office — a compliant registered address for service businesses that don’t need a storefront. Fast and cost-effective.
• Coworking / serviced office — address plus a place to put people.
• Physical lease — for retail, F&B or operations needing space; confirm zoning before signing.

Step 4 — Move your people

Relocating a team is usually the long pole. Each foreign person needs the right permit:

• Investor KITAS for shareholders/directors, based on the shareholding — no work-permit levy.
• Work KITAS for employed staff, via an approved RPTKA and the DKP-TKA levy. See Work KITAS.

Plan these in parallel with incorporation, because the work-permit chain reads from a healthy OSS company profile.

Step 5 — Stand up compliance

From your first quarter you’ll file LKPM, and you’ll have corporate-secretary and tax obligations ongoing. Relocating businesses often bring assumptions from home that don’t map to Indonesian rules — building compliance in from the start avoids the automated OSS sanctions that catch companies which go quiet.

The bundle

Relocations are exactly where a single coordinated provider pays off: entity, office, visas and accounting moving together rather than as disconnected errands. Tell us what you’re moving and how many people, and we’ll map the whole sequence — PT PMA Company Setup.