also called multiple entry · MEV
A visa allowing you to enter and leave a country repeatedly within its validity.
A multiple-entry visa lets you leave and come back into a country as often as you like while it is valid. That is the freedom a single-entry visa does not give you, since that one is used up the moment you first leave. It means you can pop out for a trip or a visa run and return without starting a fresh application each time.
You are living in a country on a multiple-entry visa and hop over the border for a long weekend. You stroll back in on the same visa without a second thought, whereas a friend on a single-entry visa did the same trip and found her visa spent, stuck outside until she reapplied.
It lets you travel out and back without reapplying, unlike a single-entry visa that's spent on first use.
The difference is the whole point, so here is each one in a line.
The core confusion is that a visa's validity, meaning how long you can use it to enter, is not the same as your duration of stay, meaning how long each visit may last, which the permission to stay granted at the border actually sets.
A single-entry visa dies once you leave; a multiple-entry visa lets you come and go within its validity; a re-entry permit lets a long-stay holder leave and return without losing their status; and Indonesia's EPO does the reverse, cancelling a permit so the holder can exit for good.
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