Cambodia visa on arrival - passport validity
 

Hi,

I'm planning a short stopover in Siem Riep in December en route from Sydney to London. My passport (British) is due to expire early June 2014 so I'll be a few days short of the standard 6 month validity for the visa. I have read conflicting things online as to whether I need 4 or 6 months to get my visa on arrival so this morning I called the Cambodian embassy in Canberra. They said I need 6 months but there may unofficially be some discretion amongst immigration at the airport, the official line is 6 months. Both the UK and US Cambodian embassy websites say 4 months although the person I spoke to in Australia said this was out of date. I emailed the UK Cambodian embassy last week but have had no reply.

Does anyone have any first hand experience of this? I'll only be stopping 4 days and will have my return ticket to Bangkok and onward journey to London with me if that helps. I'm also happy to pay a few extra USD on arrival if required.

I can't renew my passport before the trip as it has an active Australian visa attached so I imagine would be a complicated and probably expensive hassle.

Thanks for your help!

Apart from the Cambodian immigration you might have problem when checking in with the airline as most require at least 6 months validity left in your passport's life. I would renew your passport now and I believe you can bring along your old passport to show the unexpired Australian visa when entering Australia.

I know first hand of several people in my country who have active UK, EU or USA visas in their expired passports and all they have to do is bring it, the old passport, along with the new passport when travelling.

In the US, when we renew our passports, we get the old ones back. Assuming this holds true for you, I'd do that and just bring along both.

I agree, renew your passport and bring the old one with the Australian visa. As Hanuman notes, many countries in SE Asia require 6 months validity on your passport.

Thanks everyone. If I was going to be back in the UK between now and then I'd get it renewed right away but unfortunately I won't be which makes the process a little more complicated and expensive. I'd like to avoid that if I can but if it's the only way.

Thanks everyone. If I was going to be back in the UK between now and then I'd get it renewed right away but unfortunately I won't be which makes the process a little more complicated and expensive. I'd like to avoid that if I can but if it's the only way.

If you can get past the check in counter at your departure point, chances are slim that Cambodian immigration would have something to say. If they do, you can sincerely ask "how much is the fine"? They'll leverage one, it will be small. Other places in SEA, not so, but Siem Reap is pretty lax and welcome opportunities to take small "service charges"

Offwego, aren't those "service charges" now referred to as "tips"?

yeah yeah yeah :)