Asia - Yangon Airport Customs & Immigration

What can I expect in terms of wait times for clearing customs at Yangon airport? Is it an efficient process or painfully slow?

Could I expect to be at my (central) hotel within 2 hours of landing?

Also is there any benefit to arriving with a visa in hand versus VOA?

Cheers

Naomi

Firstly there is a huge advantage of getting a visa before departing compared to VoA which is that VoA was suspended in 2010 and has not been restarted. So they will not let you board the plane if you do not have a visa (There is/was one exception to this which is the MIA flight from Siem Reap to Yangon which they allowed VoA).

Some tour groups will organise for you to pick your visa up at the airport. I would avoid this as whilst you are picking up your visa everyone else is beating you to the immigration queue.

Normally Yangon is a small and efficient airport. Immigration can take some time especially if you are at the back of the TG flight as it is by far the biggest plane to use the airport. Normally though I am through immigration in under 10 minutes but I sit as far forward as possible and normally fly PG which use A319/A320's. It is not that they question you it is just that it takes about 5 minutes to process each person.

Customs is very quick, you need to pass any checked luggage through a scanner then hand in your customs forms to one of the officials and it is on your way. They virtually never stop foreigners as they are much more concerned about what nationals are bringing it.

It is then a 30-40 minute drive to downtown.

Thanks for the detailed info.

I'm a bit confused about the VOA - is this a bogus site then?
http://www.myanmarvisa.com/

Last time in I used a local agent in Yangon. They arranged my visa, met me at the bottom of the aircraft steps, took me around the long line at immigration and cleared my luggage. I walked from the plane to my car in under two minutes. I can't recall the fee but I found it very reasonable. The agency was http://www.magadotravel.com/. Miss Mie Mie was a great asset for my entire stay in country.

Thanks for the detailed info.

I'm a bit confused about the VOA - is this a bogus site then?
http://www.myanmarvisa.com/

This is a legitimate tour company site that will arrange a visa for you to pick up on arrival.

For a while you could turn up at Yangon nothing sorted in advance and get a 30 day visa on arrival. Now you can pick up your visa on arrival but you must have it agreed before you depart.

Personally I would get the actual visa in my passprt before flying. Airlines are very strict and will not let you on the plane if they can not see that you have a visa. But if it is very inconvenient for you to get to a Myanmar embassy or you do not have the time to send the application in by post then this is an option.

I'd go for visa in hand, note same day visas are available in BKK.

When I arrived, I cleared within 10 minutes ....

Lets just say - its nowhere near as painful as arriving in the USA.

When I arrived, I cleared within 10 minutes ....

Lets just say - its nowhere near as painful as arriving in the USA.

Agree with you 100%. I (usa citizen) got a visa at the Bangkok embassy the day before I flew(applied in morning and picked up in the afternoon). No problems with that either.

Yeah Bangkok and Hong Kong are probably the easiest embassies to get visas from. I have had some friends who have had problems at Phnom Penh. Be careful about Jakarta as someone I know went there a couple of weeks ago to get a tourist visa and was told that they only issue visas to Indonesian citizens.

A friend of mine has got his visa from kuala lumpur as well.. Submit in the morning and collect in the evening...

Yeah Bangkok and Hong Kong are probably the easiest embassies to get visas from. I have had some friends who have had problems at Phnom Penh. Be careful about Jakarta as someone I know went there a couple of weeks ago to get a tourist visa and was told that they only issue visas to Indonesian citizens.

I've received two visa from the Phnom Penh embassy and, other than the more recent one not being quickly issued, had no problems. A friend of mine claims he received a 6month visa from this particular embassy.

Absolutely I was not implying that you can not get visas from PP but that there is higher rate of delays. Plus they tend to be more suspicious of people with multiple tourist visas.

There is a 6 month multiple entry business visa available but I have not heard of any tourist visa other than the standard. But then again this is Myanmar and virtually anything is possible if you speak to the right person.

I got my visa ahead of time, but it was easy for me since I am in DC and could just visit the embassy.

Sounds like you all were luckier than I was. Passport control took a very long time when I arrived (Nov 2011). I was in business class on the TG A330 so I was relatively near the front of the herd. The problem was the way the overhead signs at immigration seemed to indicate 2 lines for foreigners and a couple of diplomatic lines to the right which were, in fact, open to everyone. They also opened the Myanmar citizen lines to everyone as well just as the bulk of passengers were walking up. So the line I was in was long and slow but later arrivals were directed to the shorter lines. I am guessing I waited at least 30 minutes.

But you should certainly be able to get to your hotel within 2 hours of landing easily. It's 30-40 minutes to the center from the airport depending on traffic and time of arrival. Everyone seemed to say that traffic was a lot worse now than it had ever been. It's not Bangkok bad, but things can get heavy. They repaved the roads near the airport just before Sec. Clinton arrived for her visit so things are good and smooth there. It's a shame she couldn't visit everywhere, as they can really use some new roads.

They have rather convoluted security procedures that makes little sense to me. You had to put your bags through an xray machine in order to get OUT of the airport. I was also a little confused by the instructions from my tour company about where I was supposed to meet my guide but eventually I found him. Some companies seemed to have people in the baggage area inside of the security but most will meet you outside of the secure area.

It's a great place to visit. Just pack your patience and adopt a laidback approach to the little inconveniences and poor infrastructure.