Myanmar nationality law

Myanmar nationality law currently recognises three categories of citizens, namely citizen, associate citizen and naturalised citizen, according to the 1982 Citizenship Law. Citizens, as defined by the 1947 Constitution, are persons who belong to an "indigenous race", have a grandparent from an "indigenous race", are children of citizens, or lived in British Burma prior to 1942. Under this law, citizens are required to obtain a National Registration Card (နိုင်ငံသားစိစစ်ရေးကတ်ပြား, NRC), while non-citizens are given a Foreign Registration Card (နိုင်ငံခြားသားစိစစ်ရေးကတ်ပြား, FRC). Citizens whose parents hold FRCs are not allowed to run for public office.

Myanmar has a stratified citizenship system (from the 1982 Citizenship Law), based on how one's forebears obtained it:

• Full citizens are descendants of residents who lived in Burma prior to 1823 or were born to parents who were citizens at the time of birth.
• Associate citizens are those who acquired citizenship through the 1948 Union Citizenship Law.
• Naturalized citizens are those who lived in Burma before 4 January 1948 and applied for citizenship after 1982.

Dual citizenship is not recognised by Myanmar. Naturalization in another country immediately voids Myanmar citizenship.

Foreigners cannot become naturalised citizens of Myanmar, unless they can prove a close familial connection to the country.

The law does not recognise Rohingyas as one of the 135 legally recognised ethnic groups of Myanmar, thus denying most of them Myanmar citizenship.

Travel freedom

Main article: Visa requirements for Myanmar citizens

Visa requirements for Myanmar citizens

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.