I'm booked on the Burma tour for February next year and as I've an Irish passport, I have to organise my own visa.  I see from a website I looked at that it is possible to get a Burmese eVisa now which sounds much more straightforward.  Having spoken to a JY friend who was on this tour earlier this year, I understand your visa team got traditional visas for the group.  I'm not sure why JY have gone down this route, rather than getting eVisas but I'm sure there is a good reason!  So I'm just wondering is it ok for me to get an eVisa myself whilst the rest of the group will presumably have visas in their passports?  I'd be grateful if you could check this out for me.

Best wishes,

Bob

Please see below response from our Visa Team:

If the customer lives in the UK even if he has an Irish passport we can get his Burma visa for him if he would like us to the charge is £65. Our own courier takes and collects the passports from the embassy in London. It’s only if the customer lives outside the UK we don’t as we don’t send passports abroad.

With regards to the e visa the customer is talking about we can’t advise as we only do visa via the Embassy in London which are fixed directly in the passport.

If the customer wants to get his own e visa then that’s fine, not sure if he has to collect it on arrival but if there is a queue it may hold up the rest of the group as they will already have their visas.

Hope this helps?

Kind regards,

Elisa

Many thanks for the quick reply, it is appreciated.  The response is somewhat helpful!  I don't think my having an eVisa will slow up the group at immigration; as far as I understand it I would not have to collect anything on arrival.  Rather the Burmese embassy will send me approval via email which I print out and bring with me.  So in theory it should be exactly the same as having a visa stuck into the passport.

All the best,

Bob

You will also save about £27 getting your own visa!

Lesley

I was, this morning, on the phone to JY trying to sort out what happens about Burma visas, I'm on the trip leaving at the end of October, and I thought I had to do it via JY + it also seems I will be without my passport for at least 3 weeks and JY wont start the process until mid August - so just a nightmare to try to arrange any holiday for September.

Would be really good to know if anyone had any experience of doing it themselves. 

Thanks

Katy

Hope you are well and not suffering holiday withdrawal symptoms.  I am as Italy in September seems a long way off especially with the weather we are having.  The e-visa sounds like the Burmese are really trying to move into the 21st century, the only caveat with that is anything new will freak the airport staff out who wanted to check absolutely everything when we arrived at Yangon.  Perfectly understandable for a regime that has previously controlled everything  Progress was slow anyway so and as the rooms are unlikely to be ready you may be very popular if you slow departure from the airport 😉

If you are intererested (and Katy this might be of help to you), here's the link I found which explains about the eVisa:

https://www.traveldepartment.ie/about-us/our-visa-services/burma/ 

And here's the link I found to the Myanmar Ministry of Tourism website:

http://evisa.moip.gov.mm/NewApplication.aspx# 

All the best,

Bob

Don't have experience of the Burma arrangement but I arranged my own Indian visa and had no problems. You can arrange your own and do not need to use JY service.

Hope this helps

Lesley

Katy

Thanks for bringing this up Bob.  Moderator,  I have prepaid for JY to obtain my visa. How long will my passport be needed for the application process?   I'm hoping  to fit in a trip over Christmas,  so what would be the latest date I could apply  to get a visa in time for the 17 February departure  please.

Hi Sarah,

Please send your passport in as soon as you come back from your Christmas holiday - no less than 5 weeks prior departure (which is on Feb 13th rather than 17th).

Kind regards, 

Elisa

How soon before do I need to send details to you?

Hi DavidG,

Please send your passport to us no later than 6 weeks prior departure.

Many thanks,

Elisa

.

I just have one question - would one need an ESTA if only passing through (changing flights) the USA? The Cost Rica/Nicaragua trip in March is with United Airlines with a change at Houston. I do not want to waste money if one is not required.

Jaya

Under the current entry requirements, you are still required to have an ESTA.

I have taken the following from the US customs & Border protection website (https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/application.html?execution=e2s1):

Do I still need and ESTA if I am a citizen of a VWP country and am traveling to the United States by air to transit the U.S.?

Yes. You must apply for ESTA even if you are only transiting the U.S. In the address field of the application, write "In Transit."

Hope this helps.

Kindest regards,

Julia

I got my own esta with no trouble. I paid by credit card, charged in dollars. The esta is valid for three years, so you would be able to use it again.  I even recieved an email recently from the US Department  of Home Security to remind me my esta was about to expire.  As I'm sure you know, make sure you use the official US  government website,  and not one of the many spoof sites where you will be charged a large fee.  The cost has probably gone up by now, but I think I paid  about twelve dollars.