How to make a Myanmar Meditation Visa
A short guide to the application procedure
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If you are getting serious about your meditation practice, one of the best countries you can travel to is Myanmar (Burma). With the meditation visa (also called "religious visa") you are allowed to stay practically as long as you like in Myanmar, if you decide to extend it! It's an incredible gift and opportunity to go deeper in the Dhamma, and to get a first hand experience of a Buddhist culture. After reading basically everything there is on the web on this particular subject, I here would like to give others an easy and up-to-date guide on how to apply for the visa. May you succeed in seeking refuge in the "Golden Land" with the help of this guide!
Last updated October 2023, after a successful visa in Bangkok. Big thanks to Nam Nguyen for this latest information! (If you've managed to make a meditation visa in Bangkok after this date, please contact me and I can update the information here, if needed.)
Last updated October 2023, after a successful visa in Bangkok. Big thanks to Nam Nguyen for this latest information! (If you've managed to make a meditation visa in Bangkok after this date, please contact me and I can update the information here, if needed.)
The easiest way to get a Myanmar Meditation Visa?
The easiest way to get a Myanmar Meditation Visa?
In November 2019 I received my third meditation visa for Myanmar in my passport. All these visas I've made at the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, which seems to be one of the most straightforward and quickest places to get your meditation visa.
Alright, so where to begin? With the meditation center/monastery! If you decided where you want to go, you first need to contact them and ask for a sponsorship letter, which is an official invitation and sort of a guarantor for your stay in Myanmar. The sponsorship letter you receive should have your name and passport number on it. This letter is essential to be able to apply for a meditation visa, and if you can't get one online you might have to travel to Myanmar the first time to find a guarantor on the spot that wants to sponsor you.
If you are planning to stay and meditate for just a short time and to do some tourism as well, you don’t really need the meditation visa, and can now easily apply online for the tourist visa instead which is 28 days long (or short I may say). This could be a good start if you're not sure where you want to stay. Click here to apply for a Myanmar eVisa. (Visa-free travel is permitted for Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia and Laos passport holders for 14 days, or longer in some cases.)
But if you do decide to make a meditation visa, you will get a visa that lasts for 70 days, which you then are allowed to extend indefinitely. As of 2023 the 70-day visa fee remains unchanged, 2,000 bath (about $50-60 USD). The maximum length for one visa extension is one year, and it costs $200 USD. You can also pay extra for double-entry, allowing you to go abroad for some time and then come back again. You're allowed to travel and see some sights even with your meditation visa, but it's best to do that before or after your meditation, or ask for permission from your sponsor if you want to go out in the middle of a longer stay.
You can make the meditation visa with many other Myanmar embassies as well, but you need to plan long in advance. This is because all meditation visas need approval from the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Myanmar, and they can take between two to four months to process.
The duration at the moment for the visa in Bangkok is two or three weeks (up to four weeks). It is much longer than previous years, then only two or three days. If a person wishes to apply for the Meditation visa to Myanmar from Bangkok, he or she should therefore have a different plan than that of previous years, staying in Thailand for a few weeks while applying for the visa; or applying for the visa while still staying in your own country first.
From 1st of December 2016 the meditation visa has shrunk and is now 70 days long. Don't worry, you can then extend the meditation visa again and again, without leaving the country. I highly recommend you to decide and arrange about your first visa extension already from the beginning of your stay, since this process can take quite a long time (up to months). The fine for overstay is 2$ per day...
The Myanmar Embassy is located in the Sathon Area in central Bangkok and has this adress: 132 N Sathon Rd, Silom, Bang Rak, Bangkok 10500. Look where the Embassy is on Google maps here. It’s close to Surasak station on the BTS Skytrain (Silom line); head east on Sathorn Road for the new embassy building. The Embassy is also close to Saint Louis station on the BTS Skytrain. The public transportation is more easily accessed from Suvarnabhumi Airport rather than Don Mueang Airport, so choose the arrival at Bangkok at Suvarnabhumi Airport for better travel and cost saving.
There are six items you need to get the visa:
There are six items you need to get the visa:
1. A sponsorship letter from your meditation center/monastery.
2. A filled out visa application form. Business/meditation visa is only one page.
3. Your original passport.
4. Two passport-photos with a white background.
5. A copy of the passports ID-page.
6. A registration letter. This is an additional document when compared to previous years. The registration letter could be the print-out of ‘registration email to the meditation center or related monastery’ and the reply of acceptance by the meditation center or the monastery.
Both the passport-photos and the passport-copy you can get close by for a few dollars. Go to Thanon Pan (Pan road) which is the next street, if you come from the east. There on the road you will most likely find a small van supplying you with this service. 2019 it looked like this:
When you arrived inside the Myanmar Embassy, you will be handed the application form and a waiting number for the business visa counter, which also takes care of the meditation visas. Time to queue! They will also supply you with some glue for the photo and a clip for the extra photo to attach to your application.
The Embassy is open between 9-12 AM for submission of applications. The Embassy is closed at special Thai and Myanmar weekends and holidays.
Finally, to pick up your visa! Be there between 3.30-5.00 PM to collect it. Start queuing a bit earlier if you want a place in the front of the line, when they open 3.30 PM.
Good luck with the visa!
Thanks to all the people that helped me collect this information, and by that helped me succeed in getting my visas done nice and smoothly.
May your stay and practice in Myanmar be fruitful, wherever you go!
Note: If you don't know many places in Myanmar to meditate (or in Asia or the world in general), you might also want to check out the Meditation Map of the Dharma here on the site.
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