GlobeQuest

Myanmar visas and residency

Who can visit Myanmar without a visa, and the 2 long-stay routes that let you actually live there.

Short stay

Visiting Myanmar, by passport

How the 198 passports we track get in. A visitor entry is never permission to work, study or settle — that is what the routes further down are for.

United Statese-VisaUnited Kingdome-VisaIndiaVisa on arrivalCanadae-VisaAustraliae-VisaGermanye-VisaFrancee-VisaNetherlandse-VisaIrelande-VisaSpaine-VisaItalye-VisaPortugale-VisaPolande-VisaSwedene-VisaSwitzerlande-VisaSouth Africae-Visa
Long stay

How you actually move to Myanmar

Work / sponsoredMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Business visa + stay permit + Foreigner Registration Certificate

Foreigners working for or with a Myanmar-registered entity — in practice mostly employees of international companies, UN and humanitarian agencies, embassies and a small number of long-established foreign businesses.

What you need
  • A business visa, obtained as a business e-Visa, from a Myanmar embassy, or as a business visa on arrival — sponsorship or an invitation from a Myanmar company is normally required
  • A recommendation letter from the relevant ministry or a State/Region officer to support a stay extension
  • Company documentation for the sponsoring entity
  • A Foreigner Registration Certificate (FRC) once you intend to stay 90 consecutive days or more
  • A Multiple Journey Special Re-entry Visa if you need to leave and return without losing your stay permission
How long it lasts
A business visa permits a stay of up to 70 days per entry. The stay permit granted on top of it removes that 70-day ceiling and runs for 3, 6 or 12 months, renewed thereafter.
Path to permanent residence
None that is realistically available. Myanmar has a permanent-residence framework on paper but it is not an ordinary route for foreign employees and should not be planned around. Assume indefinite renewal, not settlement.
Cost
The business e-Visa is USD 70. Stay extensions filed through the government's eStay portal are USD 62 for three months, USD 114 for six and USD 217 for twelve. FRC and re-entry visa fees are charged separately.
Processing time
The eStay portal states five working days from acknowledgement of receipt, excluding weekends and gazetted holidays. Getting the underlying ministry recommendation letter is usually the slow step.
Worth knowing
  • The 70-day limit belongs to the visa; the stay permit is what lifts it. People routinely conflate the two and end up on visa runs every ten weeks when a stay permit would have solved it. The eStay service handles extensions for all business-visa categories, including embassy-issued, visa-on-arrival and e-Visa.
  • The FRC has a fixed expiry, not a rolling one: it is issued for the year and lapses on 30 November regardless of when you got it. Failing to register within 90 days of arrival is an immigration offence and can stop you leaving the country.
  • Tourist visas cannot be converted or meaningfully extended. If your purpose is work, you must arrive on the business category.
  • Banking is the constraint people underestimate. Myanmar operates strict foreign-exchange controls and international sanctions touch a significant part of the banking and state-linked corporate sector, so inbound and outbound transfers, correspondent banking and card acceptance are all unreliable. Assume you will need cash reserves and a functioning account outside Myanmar.
  • Check your own government's travel advice before committing. Several Western governments advise against all or all-but-essential travel to Myanmar, which in turn voids or restricts most ordinary travel and health insurance — including medical evacuation, which is the cover that actually matters here.
Sources:Myanmar eVisa — Ministry of Immigration and PopulationMyanmar eStay — online stay extension (Ministry of Immigration and Population)Luther — Memo: Immigration in Myanmar (business visa, stay permit, FRC)
InvestmentLow confidenceVerified August 2026

Investor and SEZ-sponsored stay

Investors and their foreign staff attached to a company registered under the Myanmar Investment Law or operating inside a special economic zone such as Thilawa.

What you need
  • A Myanmar company registration, and where applicable an Investment Commission permit or endorsement
  • For SEZ investors, sponsorship through the zone's management committee, which administers a one-stop service for visas and stay permits
  • A work permit, but only in this lane: Myanmar's work permit system reaches companies holding a Myanmar Investment Commission permit and companies set up under the Special Economic Zone Law, issued by the MIC or by the zone's One Stop Service Centre respectively. Ordinary Myanmar-registered employers are outside it, which is why the mainstream route above turns on the visa and stay permit rather than on a permit to work
  • The same business visa, stay permit and FRC stack as any other foreign worker — a work permit does not replace any of them, and does not by itself let you stay beyond the 70-day visa ceiling
How long it lasts
Stay permits of up to one year, renewable while the investment and the sponsoring entity remain in good standing. SEZ frameworks provide for longer multiple-entry arrangements for investors.
Path to permanent residence
None; investment does not confer permanent residence in Myanmar.
Cost
Government fees are modest relative to the underlying investment; the corporate compliance burden is the real cost.
Processing time
Weeks, and dependent on the sponsoring entity's own approvals.
Worth knowing
  • There is no passive property-purchase residence programme. Foreigners cannot own land in Myanmar, and condominium ownership is limited under the Condominium Law to units above the ground floor with a cap on foreign ownership per building — buying does not create any immigration right.
  • Sanctions due diligence is not optional. Ownership and control of Myanmar counterparties changed substantially after 2021 and several banks, conglomerates and state entities are designated. Get specialist advice before signing anything.
  • The published English-language material on the MIC and SEZ work permit route is old — the most-cited secondary guide has not been substantively revised since 2017 — and Myanmar's investment administration has changed since 2021. Treat the mechanics above as the shape of the system rather than a current procedural checklist, and confirm with the zone's One Stop Service Centre or the MIC directly.
Sources:Myanmar eVisa — Ministry of Immigration and PopulationMyanmar eStay — online stay extension (Ministry of Immigration and Population)ASEAN Briefing — employment permits for foreign workers in Myanmar
On the ground

Where you'd land in Myanmar

Yangon

Myanmar's commercial capital: a colonial downtown, a degraded grid, and constraints that shape every day.

Full Yangon guide

Myanmar at a glance

Capital
Nay Pyi Taw
Population
54.9M
Languages
Burmese
Currency
MMK