Getting a Myanmar VISA in Seoul

Getting a Myanmar VISA in Seoul is surprisingly easy, though you wouldn't know by looking at their website. To be fair, you wouldn't know much of anything about the VISA process by looking at their website. About the only thing you can get there is the VISA application form. So this post is the nuts and bolts of applying for a VISA for Myanmar from the Embassy in Seoul. First things first... WHERE DID WE GO?

The Myanmar Embassy is a ten to fifteen minute walk from the Hangangjin stop of subway line 6. You could walk from the Itaewon stop, but it takes closer to thirty minutes. You have to wind down a hill and cross a fairly busy road, but there are pedestrian bridges to help you out. The embassy itself is right across from a fairly large school.

WHEN DID WE GO?

The Myanmar Embassy only accepts VISA applications on weekdays from 9am to 11am.

WHAT DID WE NEED TO BRING?

• Passports
• At least one passport sized photo per person applying to attach to the application
• ₩25,000 per person
• a print out of our airline travel itinerary including when we would enter the country and when we would leave
• an itinerary of where we would be going once in Myanmar (this can be written out by hand)
• a completed VISA application form, which must include an address where we would be staying while in Myanmar (we used the hotel we would be staying at in Yangon)

You can print a copy of the VISA application off their website and fill it out in advance, or you can obtain one when you go to the Embassy and fill it out right there.

We have read that we had to bring our Korean ID's to apply for the VISA, but we did not need them in this instance.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

We dropped off our applications on a Wednesday morning. We had to return to pick up our VISAs the following Monday.

Completed VISAs can only be picked up on weekdays between 3pm and 4:30pm. They will generally tell you when you need to come back when you drop off your application.

As a side note, Erin and I went together to drop off our VISA applications, but I returned alone to pick up both of our completed VISAs. Erin was teaching and I was not, so I had more free time to make the trip. I made sure to bring a picture of Erin's passport on my phone and it was no problem. I have read that it isn't an issue for one person to bring a completed application in for someone else, say a teacher who has a schedule that doesn't let them get out and about during the day. We did not experience that, but I can verify that it's no problem for someone else to pick up a completed VISA, as long as you have proof.

The hardest part was finding where to go in the first place, and then only because the neighborhood between Hangangjin and the Myanmar Embassy is winding and labyrinthine. I heartily recommend GPS navigation if you have it on your smartphone. Otherwise, our experience was pretty straightforward. To all following in our footsteps, happy VISA hunting.

-Sam