There is an increased attention from Indonesia for its citizen to enjoy visa-free travel to Schengen area. At the moment Indonesia is listed under Annex I on Schengen acquis, meaning that its citizens are required to obtain visa . The hallmark was the visit of Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi to Brussels in July 2015 and met with the Vice-President of European Commission, and for the first time the official request to be listed in Annex II (visafree). Several efforts have been taken through diplomacy to address this challenge, including lobbying and convincing various European stakeholders that Indonesian are deserve the travel privilege. The justification for travel-free is believed to increase the mobility of Indonesian business community to Europe, to meet the demand from the general public for travelling without hassle to Europe, increasing Indonesia’s profile against the low rank of its passport and to implement the principle of reciprocity that Indonesia has given to European citizens. Bear in mind that visa policy is a political tool and become an agent for the country’s foreign policy agenda, therefore the consideration is heavily influenced by domestic political point of views as well as the dynamics of bilateral relations. The politics of visa of Schengen’s for Indonesia is believed to lies within the concern around Indonesia’s document security that hasn’t meet the EU standard and one of the tool to robust the request for visa-free is a greater economic partnership with the EU. A freer trade and investment regime between two parties is believed will creating a spill over effect for the need of a flexible people movement. Visa diplomacy in this issue is also being analysed with taken into consideration of EU institutional approaches and the political bargaining of Indonesia.

Keyword : Politics of visa, Visa diplomacy, Schengen