Jayapura to Vanimo overland- PNG visa

thanks to everyone who has posted earlier about this... insight and tips were extremely helpful.

arrived in jayapura yesterday (wednesday morning), went to the PNG consulate on jalan raya argapura and was told that a tourist visa requires

1 typed letter to Consul-General stating intentions in PNG
2 passport photos
tourist visa fee of 225,000
copy of ticket out of indonesia. (i have an airasia ticket to malaysia from bali)

processing time is normally 3-5 days.

visa application acceptance hours
M-Thurs 9-12,1-4

they told me to come back Friday morning.

met an American lady doing the same thing.

jayapura is an expensive place. hotels are pretty bad for the price you pay.
i'm staying at hotel ajung in Hamidi which is about 200 meters from the Consulate PNG
cheapest room is 100k rupiah...other rooms are 150K and higher.

hope this helps anyone doing the same thing. i'll update if anyone is interested.

back from PNG. loved it. definitely planning to return. only had time for vanimo and madang. diving in madang was great. there are about 6 wrecks you can dive...

anyhow, from Abepura, Indonesia to border costed me 200k rupiah by private charter.

I got stamped in and out on both indonesian and PNG side. their hours are 8-4 or so-- at least, that's what i've been told. no problems or bribes or whatever.

mini-bus from border to Vanimo is 10 kina or about 30,000 rupiah if you don't have any kina like me.

Vanimo only has Visa ATM access. if you have mastercard like me, you'll need to exchange money.

to return, indonesia visa takes about 1-4 hours to get in vanimo depending on when you submit application. they require 1 photo and 70 kina and open at 9a.m. they closefor lunch and close at 4.

to get mini-bus to border, go to the empty lot near the air niguini office and ask and then wait. 10 kina...

from border to abepura, it's a bit more expensive. i negotiated 150k on an ojek. the car drivers wanted 400k rupiah which is highway robbery... i would walk to the village and try to get something better from there if you don't have a lot of bags.

not too many tourists in PNG, but it's always nice to talk and chat when you do see them. (hi hannah!)

Hi onemorestep,

this information is very valuable for me, because I'll be entering PNG from jayapura in a few days. I take note of the visa requirements, but I have two questions. Do you think is it possible to get the visa for PNG without the ticket out of Indonesia? This I say because I am not planing to go back to Indonesia (and I have to say, still I don't understand why they ask a ticket out of Indonesia and not out of PNG...).

The other question is about transport. How did you get from Vanimo to Madang? I am really excited about PNG. I travel by bicycle and I think that this country is going really to test the bike (if not finish it completely...). Will see.

Thanks for the info. Looking forward to hearing more!

Whenever the PNG consulate in Jayapura smells a tourist only wants to go to PNG to renew his or her Indonesian visum, they will charge 1.800.000 Rp for a business visum instead of the 225.000 Rp for the tourist visum.

I suspect the copy of the airplane ticket out of Indonesia is an extra indication you are just making a visum-run.

To avoid the business visum:
1. Make an elaborate description in your letter of what you plan to visit in PNG.
2. Dont give any indication you are in a hurry. If your Indonesian visum expires in a few days, this is an extra indication to charge the business fee. Try to come to the consulate on time. 3. Dont plea for a meeting with the consul to make an exception to the
3-5 day processing time. If you do not stress you are in a hurry, you should get the visum the next day. If you do stress you are in a hurry, they will make you wait until you pay the business fee.