As an American I had not had any experience with visas. Most places I have visited have not required a visa in advance or much advance notice. I can usually get a visa on arrival. Meaning I just fill out a from on the plane and go through customs. Made all the easier by having dual citizenship with Latvia, an EU country.
Myanmar is our first experience with this. We were instructed by the school to go to Bangkok to get our first visa before heading to Myanmar. The school sent us lots of papers, mostly in Burmese. We got our head shots for the visa and went to Bangkok. After catching up on some sleep, we went to the Myanmar embassy first thing in the morning. It was about $200 or $250 for our first visa per person. That's a 70 day visa single entry, meaning you only get to enter the country one time with this visa.
Our second visa was the same price, 70 days multiple entry.
Our third visa was 6 months multiple entries $500 per person.
I guess that visas are free for kids under 7 years old. This is not written anywhere and not a guarantee. They don't have to give it too you. We paid for my son's first visa and were told on the second visa he was free. The third visa I sent him to the counter to charm the lady processing our visa in hopes of getting it free. It worked and we saved $500.
Rules can change at any moment and they don't have to alert anyone to the changes they have made to the rules. Bring all the papers you own just in case. Including copies of flight itineraries and hotels stays.
We were surprised to find out we needed copies of our flight information on our second visa run, we did not need it the first time. I was sent sprinting back to the hotel to get it before we ran out of time.
Other people have different experiences with the visa process. It seems every company has a different arrangement and it varies. You can get your visas at other Myanmar embassies in the Asia, but we were told that we have an "arrangement" with the embassy in Bangkok. Whatever that means.
Around the corner from the embassy are many shops and vans where you can get copies and visa photos processed on the spot. There are also a few inexpensive hostels on that street as well. We always get a private room at the Siam Mitr Hostel. Very nice and clean.
Something I didn't realize, you should know your visa expires on the date of the stamp customs puts on your visa when you arrive, not the date on the actual visa document glued into your passport.
It's really a pain getting a new visa all the time, but on the plus side, you get to go to Bangkok for a few days and it's great to get away from Myanmar and re-visit the real world.
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