Ruili (Mizzima) – According to residents, local authorities in conjunction with a travel agent are issuing Burmese passports, valid for three years, from the northern Shan State town of Muse.
 
The Rangoon-based Maha Toe Travel Agency accepted passport applications in the first week of July, the first such operation ever witnessed in the Sino-Burma border town of Muse.
 
“The first phase of issuing passports has finished. They said they will conduct the process a second time and told us to register with them for an application. But they didn’t say when the next round will take place,” according to a local resident from Muse who applied for a passport.
 
A merchant living in Muse added, “The passports were issued at the SB (Police Special Branch) office in association with a travel agent."
 
Many Burmese of Chinese descent who work in the Chinese border town of Ruili are reportedly among the over 300 passport applicants from earlier this month.
 
One local resident remarked, “It costs 100,000 kyats [$US 90] to get this passport. Plus, we have to pay 30,000 kyats for Passport Form 17 and have to wait one month to receive our passports in our hands. It will be good for three years."
 
If successful in their application, passport holders can then officially travel as tourists to foreign countries.
 
Yet, the passport will expire after a period of only one year if the holder does not journey to a foreign country within the initial 365-day period, local residents explained.
 
Previously, people had to go to the former capital of Rangoon and the new capital city of Naypyitaw to apply for a passport.