Myanmar passport

Myanmar passport
The front cover of a contemporary Myanmar passport.
Bio data page
Issued by	Burma
Type of document	Passport
Purpose	Identification
Eligibility requirements	Myanmar citizenship
Expiration	5 years

The Burmese passport or the Myanmar passport is the passport issued to citizens and nationals of Burma (officially called "the Republic of the Union of Myanmar").

In 2002, Myanmar began issuing electronic passports. Burmese passports contain a microchip embedded in them that carries identifying information about the passport holder.

In 2014, authorities opened 15 new passport issuing centres in Myanmar in addition to the existing two offices in Yangon and Mandalay. The new offices were opened in each seven states and seven regions of Myanmar, and also in the country’s capital Naypyidaw.

In April 2010 the Myanmar passport was upgraded from hand-written to machine readable passport.

Previously, three types of passport are issued by Ministry of Home Affairs. Government officials are issued with a green passport. Diplomats are issued with a blue passport. All other citizens receive a red passport.

In 2016, The Myanmar passport board has announced that nine types of passports in different colours were issued to Myanmar citizens.

The nine types are:

A red passport will be issued for citizens, a blue passport for diplomats and a green passport for governmental officials. The red passport is valid for 5 years and the green passport for three.

In 2016, Myanmar citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 42 countries and territories, ranking the Myanmar passport 95th in the world according to the Visa Restrictions Index.

As of January 2018, Myanmar ordinary passport holders can travel to Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam without a visa. They are permitted to enter and remain in those countries for not more than 14 days without visa except Singapore which permits to stay upto 30 days in the country.

Visa on Arrival for Myanmar citizens is available in Maldive and Macau while eVisa is available to enter India. The Transit Without Visa (TWOV) is applicable at KLIA and KLIA2 airport for Myanmar citizens holding ordinary passport for a maximum of 120 hours stop-over in Malaysia.