Passport and Cambodian Visa Requirements

Passport Requirements
All participants on the Cambodia team must have a valid passport that does not expire before July 2010.

ALSO, you must have at least FOUR blank pages in your passport for the Cambodia visa. You cannot count the last three pages that say "for ammendments". If you are a frequent international traveler, make sure you have this many pages. If not, you need to apply at the US State Departmentf or your own country's embassy for an extension (extra pages) to be put in your passport.

Cambodian Visa
I think we've researched the Cambodian visa situation pretty thoroughly, and although a few earlier readings indicated that online visas were a scam, we don't find that to be true. The Cambodian Embassy in Washington DC encourages you to use this Cambodian government sponsored program that was created several years ago to promote tourism.

Since the 90 day Tourist visa is valid from the date it was issued, you could apply for it anytime now. It is good for a 30 day stay. I don't think anyone is staying longer than that, but if you are, you're going to need to apply for a business visa.

The process for Bob and I only took 36 hours!! We submitted ours on a Saturday morning and got them back on Sunday night! The directions say it could take up to 3 business days.

For couples/families traveling together, you can apply for up to visas at one time on the same application. Cost is the same: $25 each, paid by credit card.

As noted above, you MUST have a passport that is valid AT LEAST 6 more months after you enter Cambodia (ie: those entering January 2, 2010 must have a passport that does not expire until after July 2, 2010). You also need to have four pages in your passport that can receive stamps. Those four pages can NOT include your two picture/information pages in the front, and not the three pages in the back that are for "ammendments". For those of you traveling to other countries before/after, make sure you have enough pages for each of those countries. We've never seen them really take up 4 pages, but at least 2/country will be used. You can have extra pages inserted in your passport, but you have to send it in to the US embassy to have that done.

When you get the e-visa back, you need to print TWO copies and staple them in to your passport. One will be removed when you enter the country at Immigrations, the other will be removed when you depart. You will still need to fill out an entry and departure form that has nothing to do with a visa. These fairly simple forms are usually given to you on the airplane so that you can have them all ready once you go stand in the Immigrations line. If not, the forms are available near the Immigrations counter. It gives you something to do while standing in line. You SHOULD be able to go through that line relatively quickly if you already have your e-visa and entry/departure form filled out.

Alternative to online e-visa: get it when you arrive in Cambodia. It costs the same. That may turn out to be quite a simple and quick process, or it could be frustrating and time-consuming. We've experienced both in other countries. In Thailand, it is a simple process. It's free, no photos needed....just a passport. In Nepal, you can get it ahead of time, or upon arrival where you need to fill out the application that they give you there, have your photos & money, and then stand in a line that can be quite long. I'm going to guess that the Cambodia visa process will be much more like the Nepal experience since there are applications, photos, and money involved. It's your choice, however, as to how you want to handle it.

OK, ready?

The following is a brief summary of information that we found:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has launched e-Visa, which enables you to apply for a Cambodia tourist visa online. Instead of applying through Cambodian Embassy, all you need to do is to complete the online application form and pay with your credit card. After receiving your Visa through email, print it out and bring it along when you travel to Cambodia.
Tourist Visa
Entry Type: Single entry only
Fees: USD20 + USD5 (processing charge)
Validity: 3 months (starting from the date of issue)
Length of Stay: 30 days (more)
Processing Time: 3 business days
Requirement: A passport validity of more than six months balance at time of entry, a recent passport-size photo in digital format (JPEG or PNG format), a valid credit card (Visa/MasterCard/American Express/Discover).

To actually apply for your visa, go to this site: http://evisa.mfaic.gov.kh/e-visa/start.aspx#

BEFORE you do, however, here's some tips that may be helpful:

1) you should have your flight arrival information. If you don't, you can still apply, but you will need to put an approximate date and time you will arrive and a flight number. Then later, when you have your flight confirmed, you will have to go back in a change the application. It will be a lot easier if you have your flight confirmed before you apply for the e-visa.

2) have your visa photo ready. It should be a regular color passport-sized photo. You need to scan it and save it to your computer. When you go online to apply for the visa it is going to ask you to browse for that photo. If you don't have a scanner at home or work, you can have someone else scan it (like a friend, or at Kinkos) and they can send it to you in an email. Then you just need to save that scan on your computer. Make sure you get the original photo back or have an extra copy of it to use later.

3) when you are filling out your travel information it will ask you for where you are staying. Write "Golden Gate Hotel, Phnom Penh".

4) it will also want the name of any group travel. Leave it blank.

5) it will also want "organization, persons to". Leave it blank.

Remember, you are traveling on a "tourist" visa, not as a group and not associated with an organization.

6) have your passport information ready to fill in as well. And your credit card information.

Now you're ready to apply (link above). Only takes about 10 minutes.

In addition to the e-visa that you are issued, be sure to bring along the actual photo that you scanned, just in case they want to verify it. When you go through Immigrations in Cambodia you will submit your passport with TWO copies of your e-visa stapled inside, and the original of the photo you used.