Kathie

The new Visa on Arrival for Burma will not be available from Sept 1 until (at least) Dec 1 due to the upcoming elections. So if you are headed to Burma in the near future, get your visa in advance.

NeoPatrick

I guess that applies to those "on the spot" visas for those simply traveling over the border at the Golden Triangle from Thailand for a few hours?

Kathie

Not clear, Patrick. Those are really not visas but more like entry permits (the border guard holds your passport while you are in town), and allow you to only venture a short way from the border. That border opens and closes on whim, so no telling what the status of that border will be as the time of the "election" draws closer. But it is reasonable to expect that the border there may close altogether for periods of time.

thursdaysd

Thanks for the update, Kathie. I'm not planning to be there until February, hope things will have settled down by then!

m_bran

Kathie,

Thank you for posting this update. I am headed to Burma in October and recently applied for the tourist visa through a service. I thought I was being overly cautious. Now I’m glad I did & have my fingers crossed.

Please let me take this opportunity to thank you for your beautifully detailed trip report. The account - along with your wonderful photos have been a tremendous source for my pre-trip research.

Kathie

I'm glad my report was helpful to you, m_bran. Enjoy your trip to Burma!

Carlux

We will not be in Burma until mid February, and so hope that the Visa on arrival will be back in force. If this is not so, am I correct in thinking that we can get this from a service?
http://www.myanmarvisa.com/index.htm

We don't live anywhere near an embassy, and will be travelling for the 3 months before we arrive in Burma, which makes it difficult to physically go to an embassy.

It seems to me from reading on myanmarvisa that I can email a copy of my passport to them, and then pick up a visa at the airport, but it wasn't clear on the site if they were referring to the new Visa on Arrival system, or to an older, pre-arranged Visa system.

Kathie

Carlux, from what I can tell, it looks like the website you give is for the old, pre-arranged visa.

Where will you be before you go to Burma? It is easy to get a visa in other Asian cities. Many people get the visa in Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur.

Carlux

We will be in Bangkok, but only the day before. I guess I'll have to keep investigating.

AlwaysOnTheRoad

I was visiting a visa company today as I put in our material for an embassy issued visa. They were very skeptical that the Visa on Arrival would be back anytime soon. Time will tell.