There’s a lot of discussion online about whether or not you should get a Cambodian Visa before you visit (e-visa), or get one on the border; it’s something me and Serena had disagreements about, with her wanting to get it on the border and me wanting to get it before.
It seems to come down to whether you are willing to take a risk in the future or pay a little more now.
After reading about it a lot online I think I can sum it up like this:
On the border
- Cost: $30
- Length: 1 month
- Pros
- Cheaper
- You can use any Cambodian entry checkpoint
- Cons
- You need to bring passport photos to the border with you
- Potentially long, hot waits at the border and there has been some allegations of corruption and asking you to pay more
- You may be harassed before you even get to the border with touts offering you their visa service. We even heard from one tout that you couldn’t get a visa at the border, which at that point we knew he was lying.
Visa before
- Cost: $30 + a $7 application fee
- Length: 1 month
- Pros
- You know you have your visa in your hand
- Cons
- More expensive
- You have to carry around two or three copies of the visa on your backpacking trip; but you can staple one of them to your passport
- Can only be used at main airports and sea ports (you can’t use it when entering from Laos)
- You can only get the visa for three months in the future. Look familiar?
In the end I decided to get it before hand, and the process was quite easy with just one little hiccup. You need to
- Decide who will be your primary contact. As I am dealing with all Visa applications for our trip, that’s me!
- Fill in that person’s details on https://www.evisa.gov.kh/ContactInformation.aspx
- You will then be asked to fill in information about each person that’s flying.
- Some of it is required and some is optional. Because we don’t know where we are going to be staying when we are there I couldn’t fill in that information so I just filled in our entry and exit information. Didn’t seem to cause any problems…
- Pay for your visa using a credit/debit card
- Wait…
- … and wait …
- … and wait beyond the period they said you should wait
Okay, so they say it should get back to you before 5 working days. 10 working days later I hadn’t received anything so I chased them via email… 1 hour later I had the visas in my inbox, success!
Shame I had to chase but at least we have them. Definitely easier and less than the Vietnam visa. No sending my passports off in the post.
Does anyone have any experiences with getting a Cambodian visa on the border? Talk about it below.
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