Visas

Visa requirements to visit Myanmar change on a regular basis and it's best to check with the Burmese embassy in your country before making your travel plans. The safest approach is to assume you will need one. A tourist visa’s validity expires 90 days after issue and only allows a 28-day, single-entry visit. It officially costs $20 but sometimes runs to €25 in Western Europe. You’ll need three passport-sized photos for the process.

There are also 28-day business visas ($30) and 28-day special visas ($30) for former Myanmar citizens (these visas can be extended for three to six months once in Yangon). A multiple-entry business visa is $150. There is no longer an e-visa service or ‘meditation visa’ available.

Note that Myanmar doesn’t recognise dual nationalities.

Applications

Following the September 2007 protests, Myanmar mandated that visa applicants apply in person, meaning that, say, Kansas City residents would have to book a flight to Washington, DC or New York City to apply. Here’s hoping this will change before your trip. For what it’s worth, the situation may be different in Bangkok. Best advice is to check, before you apply, the Thorn Tree.

Myanmar’s embassies and consulates abroad scrupulously check out the background of anyone applying for a tourist visa. In particular, writers and journalists may have a difficult time obtaining visas. Therefore, it’s probably not a good idea to list your occupation as any of the following: journalist, photographer, editor, publisher, motion-picture director or producer, cameraperson, videographer or writer. Of course, plenty of journalists and photographers do get into the country – by declaring a different profession on the visa application.

Myanmar foreign missions may also be suspicious of anyone whose passport shows two or more previous visits to Myanmar in a five-year period. Obviously the government can’t believe anyone would want to visit Myanmar more than once or twice! In cases such as these you’ll need more of a reason than simply ‘tourism’ for receiving another visa. Be creative.

Extensions & Overstaying Your Visa

At research time, it was apparently no longer possible to extend a tourist visa. However, overstaying your visa is possible. At research time, Yangon Airport’s immigration allows visitors to overstay their visa for a charge of $3 per day, plus a $3 ‘registration fee’. We were told it’s OK ‘up to 90 days,’ but it’s probably wise to not push it more than 10 or 14 days. Many local travel agents and ex-pats shrug their shoulders on whether there’s an official policy. We’ve not heard of anyone having problems for short overstays. Have exact change ready (they’re not likely to change your $100 bill and they won’t take kyat) and arrive early enough to fill out a few forms in a nearby office (after which they may tell you ‘see you next time’).

Note, however, that once you’ve overstayed your visa, you may have difficulties with airport immigration if you’re planning domestic flights, particularly in far-flung airports (like Sittwe or Myitkyina). It’s wise to stick with land routes.