When applying for the tourist visa in Australia the Indonesian consulate here require a copy of tickets/itinerary of flights including your return flight
If the return ticket date is more than 60 days they may well advise you that yes it is necessary to have a sponsor & you must apply for a Social Visa not a tourist visa
Best to check the Indonesian Embassy in London (if that's where you are applying) for clarification as it is possible they may deny the visa
You can:
Arrive on a VOA - return ticket needed
About a week before this is due to expire , you can extend it for another 30 days.
You can do this in person (which can be a bit time consuming , but cheaper) or you can employ an agent to do it
(Recently read someone paid 750000rp for this service with an agent)
After this 60 days you will be required to leave Indonesia
Arrive on a Tourist Visa (return ticket needed)
This will give you 60 days
You or an agent can extend this visa before the 60 days is up but it will now require a sponsor
An agent generally acts as that sponsor - if you employ an agent
or you can find your own sponsor
You will be told that the tourist visa is not able to be extended - including by some Indonesian consulates (as by an outdated law strictly speaking this is true)
However as the Visa is a 211 (same as Social Visa) it can and will be extended in Bali
This gives you a total of 180 days (including the initial 60 days)
After the first 60 days it is extended each month
After the 180 days you must leave Indonesia
Cost to apply is £ 35.00
Arrive on a Social Visa (return ticket neeeded)
This requires a sponsor when applying
It will give you 60 days
You can extend it a month at a time after this for a total of 180 days (including the first 60)
On extension it is better to stay with your original sponsor
Your sponsor must be from where you are extending eg Bali
You can use an agent for your sponsor
You will have to leave Indonesia after the 180 days
Cost to apply is £ 35.00
After the 180 days many do a visa run & apply again
If you want to stay 7 months you can leave after the 180 days & re-enter on a VOA which will give you 7 months
As for the 'red mark' on your passport, the application form only asks if you have been denied entry into Indonesia before
Tourist visa
This is also listed as a requirement..
4 Must be UK Resident (with at least one month exceeding the validity of the requested visa
All the information for the 3 types of visas & the forms to download are on the Indonesian Embassy London website
(sorry unable to link you directly as I don't have enough posts yet