Cambodia, visa on arrival
 

I have a Canadian passport and understand I can obtain a visa on arrival in Cambodia. Do I need to fill out visa application forms on arrivals? Is there anything I need to produce besides payment and a photo? How painless is the visa process? I have obtained VOAs in Nepal and Indonesia which were nothing but a pain in the you know what due to long lines, needing to queue to obtain the visa and then queue again for immigration - if the process in Cambodia is similar (ie, a pain in the rear end), I am thinking of applying for an evisa in advance.

Any info will be appreciated. Thanks.

Yes, it will be similar to Nepal and Indonesia. the evisa will make your wait shorter. Maybe I have been lucky, but I didn't think the lines were bad in any of these places!

I had my application, photo and $20 with me and did not think the waiting was bad. However I found it unsettling how each passport was passed from one official to the next. There were about six uniformed men sitting behind a long counter. It appeared that each passport was examined and handed over to the next officer until it reached the end of the line where your name was called out and your passport handed back to you.
I would say the whole process took about 20 mins.

Here is the link to the FAQ page of the Cambodian Embassy in D.C. http://www.embassyofcambodia.org/faq.html

Get seats near the doors (they also use the back door on BKK Air) Have your form already filled out, and hustle across the tarmac so you are at the head of the line.

But don't worry. Even if you aren't at the head of the line, it doesn't take very long. If you have a driver waiting, he won't leave, no matter how long it takes.

lcuy's got good advice. I didn't think our line was that bad in SR either, but BKK Air's planes aren't that big. More importantly, we'd just arrived ahead of a VN Air jet that was considerably bigger. Still not THAT big though. Like a 737, if I recall. So the line could only be so long.

I may just get lucky though. I didn't think the line into Indonesia (Bali) was too tough. I think maybe I've been through LAX too many times.

Thanks for the replies.

I should have mentioned in the op that I will fly to Phnom Penh airport and will need to obtain my in PP and not in Siem Reap. Does that change anything?

You need two empty facing pages. People have been denied who did not have them.

Oh, good point. The visa is big.

PP airport I still wouldn't think of as terribly busy, but I've only departed there. I was going to say that PP would be more modern, but it looks like SR has got the new terminal up. When we came through it was literally a machine shed with open garage doors.

We were in Cambodia last month and got our e-visas (from US) in advance. It was painless and the best way to avoid any lines. Enjoy your visit.

Arrived PP airport last year and VOA process was easy. Only issue was that my almost-expired US passport had run out of pages specifically designated for visas (which I should, or could, have noticed). A $20 on-the-spot fee payment resolved the issue and I was on my way. Bottom line: VOA at Phnom Penh airport not a problem.

I just ordered and received my visa by email last week -- so easy and didn't need two facing pages to be free. Just printed out two copies as they specified that they wanted one upon entering the country and one leaving. For the photos, I had passport photos and took a picture of them with my iPhone, sized it to 2" x 2" and used that. Worked great.

I wouldn't stress about the six people sitting in a line passing your passport from one to the other. Look at it this way, Cambodia is a poor country and six people are being employed instead of two or three. As for saving time, I've often had my visa and been through immigration before my luggage arrived on the carousel. On most flights I've been given the application form with plenty of time to fill it out before landing. I know you walk to the terminal from the planein Siem Reap and I think its the same in Phnom Penh. Therefore walk at a brisk pace and you'll be near the front of the queue.

Also, they hold up your passport with the photo page facing you to collect your visa so watch the man at the end of the line.

Can someone explain the evisa to me? I can see online visa services here in Toronto that will get me visas for Cambodia and Laos (we have no embassies in Ottawa I believe, let alone consulates here in Toronto.) But they seem awfully pricey. Is it worth doing that in advance at a premium?

As for VOA, how do you get the application filled out in advance? Do they hand out blanks on the plane?

P.S. I really don't like sending my passport off in the mail.

How much are they asking for the visas? If it is significantly more than getting it on arrival, I wouldn't think it would be worth it.

It soundds like the online visa services is a company selling you the visa and not the Cambodian government. I would either obtain a VOA or evisa, I certainly wouldn't send the passport to a visa company to process the visa on your behalf. Can't comment on a visa for Laos.

If you are flying into Laos, Visas are easily obtained on arrival. Not sure about land crossings.

The Lao visa is also available at some land crossings.

I was also wondering if WW had found a visa services company (who will charge an arm and a leg) rather than the Cambodian government's e-visa site.

Yes, I'm sure it's a third party company. Neither Laos nor Cambodia have embassies in Canada.

I checked the price again, for Laos. They are ridiculous, and only good for 60 days, which wouldn't work for us anyways. $180 plus tax for Laos, $75-$155 for Cambodia depending on the visa.

Yipes! Those prices truly are ridiculous. Get your visas on arrival.

Oh I will Kathie, I will.

Okay, but I want to be clear about the process at the airport.

You fill out the form, have the photo ready, pay the fee in USD (right?), and then wait until it gets processed.

I've read that both Cambodia and Laos want USD cash for visas. I've also read that guides prefer USD for tips. So I'm going to have to carry around a fair amount of cash, since I obviously can't get any more while I'm there.

WWanderer - that was our experience with the visa. I can't speak about Laos, but yes. For the most part, cash transactions in Cambodia are in USD. When you withdraw from an ATM, you get USD.

When you're due small change, you get it back in (usually) crumpled, barely identifiable Cambodian riel.

Wow, you can get USD from an ATM? Is this common in SE Asia (Siem Reap, Bangkok, Luang Prabang?)

Not in Bangkok. There you'd get baht. Just in Cambodia, as USD is the defacto currency. There were just a couple of ATMs in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh a few years ago but now I understand there are quite a few more.

I don't know about Laos. I should find out as we're considering it as an add-on to the next trip.

ps - I'm not sure how it varies from bank to bank or if this is still the deal, but we were living in the US and banking with a US bank at the time we traveled to Cambodia and we still got dinged for an exchange fee taking USD out of an ATM there. It seemed like it was converted to riel(??), then back again. - (assumption that it wasn't AUD, despite that the ATM was owned by ANZ, an Australian bank)

All ATMs *only* dispense USD in Cambodia though afaik, so it's not like a choice is involved other than to bring cash.

We got our visas for Cambodia ahead, online from the Cambodian govt, for $25.00US. The evisas arrived the next day, peinted them out and put in our US passports. I scanned a visa photo that I had into my PC to upload to their form
Evisa.mfaic.gov.kh.evisa/ Contactinformation.aspx

I got a visa at Siem reap last Monday. Took less than 10 minutes, and that included re-filling the visa form. The ones they gave us on the plane are apparently outdated.

WW, the US dollar is the currency of choice in Cambodia. Not so in other SE Asian countries.

Should you need US dollars, there is an ATM airside at BKK that dispenses US dollars. It's a popular stop for those headed to Burma.