Indonesia's Golden Visa: 1 Year Rewind

The eye-watering $1MM golden visa announced by the Trump administration has caught a lot of political flak. It will, if other programs are any indication, also catch a lot of wealthy investors. Indonesia recently summarized the impact of its Golden Visa program after about a year of execution:

• 1,012 Golden Visas issued by September 23, 2025
• Rp48 trillion (~$3.0-3.2 billion) in total investment
• Rp12.96 billion (~$810,000-865,000) in state revenue (non-tax revenue/PNBP)
• Visa holders come from 61 different countries

Indonesia's Golden Visa program offers residence permits to foreign nationals in special categories including investors, people with specialized skills, world figures, and former Indonesian citizens and their descendants. The visas are valid for 5-10 years and provide benefits like:

• Priority airport lanes
• Streamlined immigration services
• Legal certainty for investing and working in Indonesia

That $3B amount is hard to ignore. Even if most of it accrues to corporations, assuming the tax benefits are well managed the windfall can be a gigantic boost to infrastructure, healthcare, etc. across the country.