The main land border crossing with Indonesia is at Mota'ain (or Motain), 115km west of Dili. The nearest East Timorese town is Batugade, 3km to 4km away. The nearest Indonesian town of consequence is the West Timorese town of Atambua. There are also land border crossings at Salele (near Suai) on the south coast, and into Oecussi at Bobometo (north of Kefamenanu on the Indonesian side) and Wini on the north-east coast of Oecussi.
As mentioned above, visa on arrival is not available at the land border for most travellers apart from Indonesian and Portuguese Citizens. See the Immigration Department's Tourist Visa link for details on how to apply for a "visa application authorisation" (which may be obtained via email before travel) or how to apply for a visa at an Embassy or Consulate should you want to enter at a land border crossing.
There is an East Timorese Consulate in both Bali and Kupang where you should be able to purchase visas.
Consulate General DEnpasar. Tel: +62 8133 855 8950.
Mr. Manuel Serrano
Consul General
Phone: +62 812 831 9741
Email: [email protected]
Mr. Paulo Ximenes
Second Secretary
Consulate Kupang
Office Address: Jl. Eltari II, Kupang, NTT, Indonesia
Phone: + 62 8133 9367 558 / 8133 9137 755
Mr. Caetano Guterres
Consul General
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +62 813 392 434 13
Mr. Manuel Matos
Staff of Consulate
Phone: +62 813 539 435 34
The same problem exists in the other direction -- even though people of many nationalities can get Indonesian visas-on-arrival when flying into Bali or other Indonesian airports, they cannot get them when traveling from East Timor to West Timor by land, and are required to have visas in advance.
However, for those going the other direction, Indonesian visas must be obtained beforehand as they are not issued at the border. Getting a visa at the Indonesian Embassy in Dili is possible; it takes one week to issue a 60 day tourist visa (return flight not needed!) and it costs US$35.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about East Timor
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in East Timor - updated Apr 2024
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East Timor Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
