When paperwork becomes a barrier: Burmese students and European visas

This article was first published on Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS).

For many students from Myanmar, studying in Europe has become one of the few remaining routes to safety and a future. Yet their path is increasingly blocked not by academic merit or financial criteria, but by a dangerous bureaucratic requirement: the police clearance letter.

Key takeaways:

1. The police clearance letter forces applicants into direct contact with junta-controlled institutions, exposing many to risks of detention, harassment, or forced conscription.

2. EU visa procedures often assume Myanmar’s state institutions are functional and neutral, making it effectively impossible for many qualified applicants to meet documentation requirements.

3. The process is costly, opaque and often unsafe, shifting the burden onto families who must navigate checkpoints, changing rules and surveillance to secure a single document.

For many students from Myanmar, the opportunity to study in Europe now represents far more than academic advancement. Amid prolonged conflict, pervasive repression and institutional collapse following the February 2021 military coup, overseas education has become one of the few viable pathways to safety and long-term professional development. Yet for many Burmese applicants, access to European universities is blocked not by grades or funding, but by a single administrative requirement: the police clearance letter (also known as a criminal record extract).

Myanmar’s post-coup reality has radically altered the meaning and the consequences of this document. What functions as a routine background check in stable contexts has, under current conditions, become a source of risk and exclusion. This is particularly evident in long-stay visa procedures in several EU member states, including Czechia, where a police clearance letter remains a formal requirement.

Education in Myanmar after the coup

Since the coup, Myanmar has seen widespread political repression, escalating armed conflict and the steady erosion of state institutions. Tens of thousands have been killed, millions displaced, and large parts of the country are no longer under effective central control. Public services have deteriorated sharply, and education has been among the sectors most severely affected.

Schools and universities have been attacked, occupied or politicized, while large numbers of teachers and students have been dismissed or forced into hiding for participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). University enrolment has collapsed, examinations have been suspended in conflict zones, and many families refuse to engage with junta-controlled institutions on moral and security grounds. For students seeking continuity, especially at the tertiary level, studying abroad has increasingly become less a choice than a necessity.

Visa procedures in a non-functional system

Many European universities have responded with scholarships and targeted support schemes intended to sustain Myanmar’s academic and professional communities. In practice, however, these efforts often collide with visa procedures that assume Myanmar’s state institutions remain functional, accessible and politically neutral.

The police clearance letter, the standard requirement in many EU states for long-stay visas, is the clearest example. In principle, it is meant to help host states assess whether an applicant poses a security risk. In practice, obtaining it in Myanmar today is neither routine nor neutral. The process requires direct engagement with police stations and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both of which operate under military control. For many applicants, particularly young people, ethnic minorities, and those associated with the CDM, approaching these institutions carries real risks, including detention, harassment, extortion or forced conscription.

Even when safety is not immediately compromised, the process is often punishingly complex. Securing a police clearance letter involves multiple sequential steps, each vulnerable to delays, shifting requirements and procedural dead ends. Travel between cities can be expensive and dangerous due to checkpoints; appointments are opaque; supporting documents may expire quickly; and for applicants already abroad, the burden frequently falls on family members, exposing them to surveillance, harassment or retaliation simply for acting on the student’s behalf.

Limited practical relevance

These obstacles raise a basic question: what does the document meaningfully prove under today’s conditions?

Myanmar does not have a reliable, comprehensive criminal records system capable of tracking individuals across displacement, conflict and long-term residence abroad. Population movements, infrastructure breakdown and fragmented territorial control severely limit record accuracy. At the same time, political targeting and corruption can distort the very definition of “criminality”.

The result is a perverse outcome: holding a police clearance letter does not necessarily provide credible assurance about an applicant’s background, while being unable to obtain one often reflects vulnerability rather than risk. In this context, the requirement functions less as a genuine security measure and more as a structural barrier—one that disproportionately penalizes those least able to navigate dangerous and resource-intensive bureaucracy.

Diverging practices across the EU

The impact of the requirement becomes clearer when viewed comparatively. While some EU member states continue to require a police clearance certificate from Myanmar for long-term visa applications, others have waived it or adopted alternatives. The following overview summarizes current practices for stays exceeding 90 days:

Source: Adapted from Kironska, K., E. Rhoads, and C. Medail, 2025, “Why the EU must scale up support for Myanmar’s resistance: Policy Recommendations,” EUVIP & CEIAS.

This variation suggests the police clearance letter is not an indispensable pillar of visa integrity, but a policy choice shaped by national practice.

Several EU states already demonstrate that long-stay visas for Burmese applicants can be processed without relying on documentation that is both difficult to obtain and of limited verification value under current conditions.

Consequences for Europe and Myanmar

For European host countries, rigid requirements carry real costs. Applicants who hit insurmountable obstacles in one country often redirect their plans elsewhere or abandon opportunities altogether. Mobility does not disappear; it is merely redistributed, often away from countries that have invested heavily in scholarships, partnerships and academic engagement with Myanmar.

For Myanmar, the implications are long-term. Any future recovery will depend on human capital developed during the years of disruption. Students prevented from studying abroad represent a loss not only to their own prospects but also to future teaching, research, civil society, and public-service capacity. When administrative barriers disproportionately exclude applicants from conflict-affected areas or marginalized communities, they risk reinforcing the structural inequalities that have long shaped Myanmar’s political and social landscape.

Rethinking requirements in exceptional circumstances

Reconsidering the police clearance requirement does not mean abandoning security concerns. It means asking whether existing tools remain fit for purpose in exceptional circumstances. Context-sensitive alternatives—criminal record checks from countries of long-term residence, additional screening interviews, or tailored affidavits—are already used in some jurisdictions and can offer comparable safeguards without transferring disproportionate risk onto applicants and their families.

As European institutions continue to frame education as part of resilience-building and long-term engagement with Myanmar, alignment between policy objectives and administrative practice matters. In today’s context, the difference between opportunity and exclusion for Burmese students often hinges not on academic merit, but on whether a single piece of paper can be obtained safely at all.