The minister set no timetable for deporting Mr. Jacobson and indicated that the authorities were still investigating whether he had broken any laws. Since his release on Friday, Mr. Jacobson has been free to move around the city of Palangkaraya, where he was arrested, but not to travel outside the city.

“We will try to just deport him soon if he didn’t commit any other crime,” Mr. Mahfud said.

A State Department spokesman said the United States Embassy in Jakarta had been in frequent communication with Mr. Jacobson since he was first contacted by Indonesian immigration authorities and that it was following his case closely.

A story posted on Mongabay’s website said that Mr. Jacobson had been moved from the jail, where he had shared a cell with five other prisoners, to “city detention.”

“We are grateful that authorities have made this accommodation and remain hopeful that Phil’s case can be treated as an administrative matter rather than a criminal one,” said Mongabay’s founder and chief executive, Rhett A. Butler.

Indonesia requires visiting foreign journalists to obtain a journalist visa, a cumbersome and lengthy process that allows the authorities to question an applicant’s reporting plan, deny a visa without explanation or take no action at all.