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

1. Decide who will be your primary contact. As I am dealing with all Visa applications for our trip, that’s me!
2. Fill in that person’s details on https://www.evisa.gov.kh/ContactInformation.aspx
3. 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…
4. Pay for your visa using a credit/debit card
5. Wait…
6. … and wait …
7. … 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.

After the rant about Chinese visas I should probably talk about how visas should be done properly.  The process of applying for a Vietnam visa is about as painless as it can get.

The website could do with a redesign (professional criticism, can’t help myself…) and some proof reading by a native English speaker, but it is mostly understandable.

They lump together tourist and business visa information all into one place, which does complicate things, but you can mostly get what you need to know.

It’s also rather hard to work out what you need to pay as the logic is very complicated.  It worked out to be £120 for both Serena and I.

The basic process is:

1. Fill out online form
2. Get PDF of form emailed to you
3. Print of the form
4. Attach a passport photo to the form (not sure if this is needed, one of the situations where the English is not perfect)
5. Post that form along with your passports, payment (we’ll come onto this in a minute) and a self-addressed but not stamped envelope to their address using Royal Mail Special Delivery
6. Wait and hope it doesn’t get lost as you don’t hear back for a few days
7. Get your passports back with the visa!

Sounds pretty painless, and it was, but anyone that knows me knows I can’t just end there and I need to complain about something… so here goes.

Cheques (or as Americans call them checks) are pretty much the only way they accept payment.  You can’t pay online using card, you can’t post cash and you cant transfer to a bank account (unless you pay for express service).  I don’t have a cheque book.  I don’t think I’ve had one for over 10 years, so I had to ask a family member who still had one of these archaic ways of paying…

Fix that, Vietnam, and you’ll have a very good visa application service!

I didn’t want my first post on this blog to be a rant, but I just have to get this off my chest.

China, I love you, but your visa policies are so…. arghh!

…

Right, I’ve had a cup of tea and a biscuit so I feel calm enough to talk about this now.

I think the basic issue with the laying down of their procedures is that they didn’t think about backpackers spending months at a time abroad before coming to China and so:

You can only apply for a visa for up to three months in the future.

Really, truely what are you thinking, China? Why is this a thing?

Does anyone have any idea why this might be a restriction?

I know when we are going to China, I know our flights (we even booked them).  I’m the perfect visa candidate, or so I think.

But then I check and I can’t actually ask for a visa because we don’t go to China for six months after we leave the UK. So I email them asking what I should do:

Hi

Next year me and my girlfriend are going backpacking around Asia

We plan to leave the UK in April and travel through various countries, eventually flying from Japan to Shanghai around the start of August and stay there for 21 days, current plan is 8th to 29th August 2015.

My issue here is the visa application service, which are only valid for 90 days of receiving it.  At that point (according to my plan) I will be in The Philippines or South Korea.

What can I do? Is there any way to apply for a visa now but have it valid for August 2015?

I would really love to visit China but this is something that is making it quite difficult.

Regards,

Andrew

The response:

Dear customer,
We suggest you apply your Chinese visa in another country before you enter China next year.
For more information, you have to find out by yourself.

I was shocked. Not only are they calling me a “customer” (which irritated me, but that could just be language so let’s try to let that one go… *deep breath*)  but they are totally and utterly unhelpful.

you have to find out by yourself

They have a help email address and then totally refuse to give help.

I have no idea what they are thinking or why this silly policy exists, but I guess I will have to just suck it up and apply for the visa when we are in South Korea.

China… I can’t wait to visit you but please please think about backpackers!

We did manage to get our Vietnam Visa’s, which was an easier process. Read → here to find how we got them