Indonesia · Southeast Asia
Moving to Surabaya
Surabaya quick facts
Indonesia at a glance
East Asia & Pacific
Economy
World Bank · 2025Religion
% of populationCIA World Factbook / national censuses
Cost of living in Surabaya
Can you move to Indonesia?
Pick your passport to see whether you can enter Indonesia — and what it takes to stay.
Entry rules come from github.com/imorte/passport-index-data, updated 17 February 2026. They change without notice — confirm with the official immigration service before booking.
Getting set up in Indonesia
Stay permits: employer sponsorship, two immigration offices, and the SKTT
The route into Surabaya is almost always the same one: an Indonesian employer obtains an approved foreign-worker plan (RPTKA), applies for your work visa on the national e-visa portal while you are still abroad, and you convert it into a limited-stay permit (ITAS, universally called KITAS) with biometrics after you land. Two things then differ from Jakarta or Bali. Surabaya is served by more than one immigration office and which one handles you depends on your address rather than your convenience. And because the metropolitan area spills into Sidoarjo and Gresik, the civil registry that issues your SKTT residence certificate may not be Surabaya's at all.
Read the full step-by-step guideDriving and riding: the SIM, the plate prefix, and no metro to fall back on
Surabaya has no MRT, no LRT and a bus network that covers a fraction of the metropolitan area, so unlike Jakarta there is no realistic car-free life here — you will either drive, ride a motorbike, use ride-hailing constantly, or have a driver. A short-stay visitor uses an International Driving Permit carried with the home licence, and only for the vehicle categories that licence already covers. Once you hold a KITAS you apply for an Indonesian SIM at a Satpas: SIM A for cars, SIM C for motorbikes, after a psychology screening and a health check. There is no odd-even plate restriction here. What does catch people out is the vehicle side: plate prefixes and annual vehicle tax follow the regency the vehicle is registered in, and since 2025 that tax has been split between the province and the regency.
Read the full step-by-step guideBanking: the payroll account, QRIS, and thinner English at the counter
The rules are national — a stay permit plus proof of a local address opens a standard account — but the experience is different from Jakarta. Fewer branches here have processed a foreigner recently, English support at the counter is thinner, and branch-level discretion consequently bites harder. The overwhelmingly best route is to let your employer open a payroll account at their own bank, which removes the discretion problem entirely. Before that exists, a Wise or Revolut card plus QRIS covers you. QRIS in particular does more work here than a card does: one national QR standard accepted at warungs, market stalls, parking attendants and toll-road kiosks.
Read the full step-by-step guideHealthcare: the referral hospital for eastern Indonesia, and your assigned clinic
Foreigners working in Indonesia for six months or more must be enrolled in BPJS Kesehatan, with the employer contributing 4% and the employee 1% of wages on a capped base. BPJS is referral-gated from a first-level clinic assigned near your registered address, so the address on your SKTT determines where you must start for anything that is not an emergency. Surabaya's advantage over most Indonesian cities is depth: RSUD Dr. Soetomo is the top public referral hospital for eastern Indonesia and the teaching hospital of Universitas Airlangga, and the private sector — National Hospital, Premier Surabaya, Siloam, Mitra Keluarga — is genuinely good. The practical risks here are heat, dengue and road trauma rather than anything exotic.
Read the full step-by-step guideMobile, home internet and the IMEI rule
Every Indonesian prepaid SIM must be registered before it activates — against your passport as a foreigner — and one identity may hold only a limited number of lines per operator. Coverage across greater Surabaya is good on all four networks, so choose on price and packaging rather than reach; the Telkomsel-or-nothing advice written for Bali and the outer islands does not apply here. The trap that catches long-stayers is the handset, not the SIM: a phone bought abroad is blocked at hardware IMEI level after roughly 90 days unless registered with customs, and swapping SIMs does not help.
Read the full step-by-step guideIncome tax, the NPWP, and East Java's regional layer
You become an Indonesian tax resident either by spending more than 183 days in the country in any twelve months or, earlier, by being present with the intention to reside — and a twelve-month KITAS, an Indonesian employment contract and a year-long lease all count as evidence of that intention. Residents are taxed on worldwide income at progressive rates from 5% to 35%, need an NPWP (now the same sixteen-digit number as the NIK), and file an annual return by 31 March through Coretax. In greater Surabaya the regional layer matters more than it does in Jakarta, because the property and vehicle taxes you pay depend on whether your address is in Surabaya, Sidoarjo or Gresik.
Read the full step-by-step guideEach guide has verified costs, timelines, required documents, and the non-obvious gotchas — sourced from official government pages. Last verified August 2026.
Essential Indonesian phrases
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What to know before you go
Find out which of the three administrations you are actually living in
CriticalThe Surabaya metropolitan area runs continuously across the city of Surabaya, Sidoarjo regency to the south and Gresik regency to the north-west, and the boundary is invisible on the ground. It is not invisible administratively: your civil registry office for the SKTT, your minimum wage, your regional taxes and often which immigration office handles you all follow the boundary rather than the built-up area. Juanda airport is in Sidoarjo. Confirm the kelurahan and the regency on the lease before you sign, not after.
Your KITAS almost certainly belongs to your employer here
CriticalUnlike Bali, Surabaya has essentially no self-sponsored foreign population — the foreigners here are engineers, shipping and logistics staff, plant managers, teachers and medical specialists, on employer-sponsored permits tied to an approved foreign-worker plan. That means resigning is an immigration event, not just an HR one: the old sponsor is expected to close the permit and the new one to start again. Negotiate the handover explicitly in any resignation letter.
It is genuinely hotter here than in Jakarta, and there is no cool season
ImportantSurabaya sits low, flat and close to the sea on the eastern side of Java and routinely runs several degrees above Jakarta. The dry season from roughly May to October is more pronounced than Jakarta's and brings the worst of it. Plan around it: air conditioning is a fixed cost rather than a luxury, outdoor activity happens before eight or after six, and the electricity bill in a poorly insulated house will surprise you.
Expect much less English than in Jakarta or Bali
ImportantThis is a working Indonesian city, not an international one. Bank branches, clinics, government counters and landlords will mostly deal with you in Indonesian, and the assumption that someone will switch to English does not hold outside the multinationals and the international schools. Learning functional Indonesian is not a nice-to-have here; it is the difference between living well and depending permanently on a colleague.
The city drains better than Jakarta — and that is not an accident
Good to knowSurabaya invested heavily over two decades in pump houses, box culverts, drainage and public parks, and it shows: the same rainfall that shuts Jakarta down usually clears here within hours. Flooding still happens, particularly in low-lying eastern and northern districts and where drains are blocked, so it is still worth asking about a specific street. But do not import Jakarta's assumptions wholesale.
Surabaya's directness is a dialect feature, not an attitude
Good to knowSuroboyoan Javanese uses the plain ngoko register far more freely than the courtly Javanese of Yogyakarta and Solo, and Surabayans are proud of the bluntness. Expect to be asked your salary, your religion and your marital status early and without malice. The exception people notice is the local expletive used as a term of affection between friends — hear it, understand it, and do not be the newcomer who starts using it.
Top industries & employers
Shipping, ports & logistics
Pelindo, Tanjung Perak and Teluk Lamong terminals, Meratus, Samudera Indonesia
Tanjung Perak is one of Indonesia's busiest ports and the gateway for eastern Indonesia — everything moving between Java and the islands to the east passes through here.
Manufacturing & industrial estates
SIER Rungkut, Unilever Indonesia, Maspion, Wings, PT Sampoerna
The Surabaya Industrial Estate Rungkut is one of Indonesia's oldest planned industrial estates, and manufacturing rather than services is what the city's economy is built on.
Heavy industry & shipbuilding
PT PAL Indonesia, Dok dan Perkapalan Surabaya, Barata Indonesia
PT PAL builds naval vessels and submarines at Tanjung Perak and is the reason Surabaya has a genuine marine engineering labour pool.
Petrochemicals, cement & smelting (Gresik)
Petrokimia Gresik, Semen Indonesia, the JIIPE special economic zone
Gresik, half an hour north-west, hosts fertiliser, cement and — since 2024 — a very large copper smelter at JIIPE, and is where a great many of Surabaya's foreign engineers actually work.
Healthcare & medical referral
RSUD Dr. Soetomo, Universitas Airlangga, National Hospital, Siloam, Premier Surabaya
Dr. Soetomo is the top referral hospital for eastern Indonesia, which gives Surabaya a depth of medical specialism you would not expect from its size.
Higher education & engineering
Universitas Airlangga, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS), Universitas Negeri Surabaya
ITS is one of Indonesia's strongest engineering institutions and feeds the shipbuilding, energy and manufacturing employers directly.
Where to go in Surabaya
Tugu Pahlawan & Jembatan Merah
Landmark · Central / north Surabaya
The Heroes Monument and the Red Bridge, at the centre of the November 1945 battle that gave Surabaya its name as the City of Heroes.
Local tip: The underground museum beneath the monument is better than the obelisk above it. Come on 10 November, Heroes' Day, when the whole city marks the anniversary — it is a genuinely national event and it belongs to Surabaya.
Ampel quarter
Culture · North Surabaya
The tomb and mosque of Sunan Ampel, one of the nine saints credited with bringing Islam to Java, inside a dense Arab-Javanese trading quarter.
Local tip: Approach through the covered lane of traders rather than driving to the mosque — the alley of dates, perfume, prayer beads and Yemeni food is the experience. Dress conservatively; this is a working pilgrimage site, not an attraction.
House of Sampoerna & the old town
Culture · Kota Lama, north Surabaya
A Dutch colonial complex housing a clove-cigarette museum and a working hand-rolling floor, in the middle of Surabaya's restored colonial quarter.
Local tip: The upstairs gallery looks down onto the rolling floor, where the speed is remarkable. Combine it with a walk through Kembang Jepun and the old Chinatown, which has been progressively restored and is best in the early evening.
Darmo & Tunjungan
Neighborhood · Central Surabaya
The colonial-era residential boulevard and the shopping street that was the city's commercial spine, both revived over the last decade.
Local tip: Jalan Tunjungan is closed to traffic on some evenings and has become the city's favourite hangout. The Darmo villas behind it are Surabaya's most desirable old housing and almost never come onto public portals.
Rujak cingur, lontong balap and rawon
Food · City-wide, best at the old warungs
Surabaya's three defining dishes — a fruit and cow-snout salad in black shrimp paste, a soupy bean-sprout and fried-tofu plate, and East Java's black beef soup.
Local tip: Rawon is the safe entry point and it is superb. Rujak cingur is the test, and the correct answer is to eat it at a warung that has been doing one thing for forty years rather than at a mall.
Wonorejo mangrove forest
Hidden gemNature · East Surabaya
A boardwalk through tidal mangrove on the city's eastern edge, with a boat run out to the estuary and a lot of birds.
Local tip: Almost nobody visits, which is the point: half an hour from Tunjungan and you are in silence on a boardwalk over the mudflats. Go at first light for birds and before the heat, and bring repellent — the mosquitoes are serious.
Emergency numbers in Surabaya
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