In a recent thread, posters advise getting visas for Cambodia in advance to save time on arrival. We intend to do this but we were wondering about the Visa for Laos. I checked the Laotian embassy web site and it is easy enough to do by mail - is it worth the extra effort? We would apply for our Cambodia visa first since the window is 90 days prior to arrival and then do Laos since its window is only 60 days prior to arrival. What do you think?

Here is my experience: It took me only a few minutes to get my Cambodian visa, but there was a tour group on my plane to LP, and they had someone who sprinted to the head of the line and then proceeded to get the whole tour group's passports handed to him! So while I was second in line, it took 45 minutes to get my visa. However, the liklihood of that happening to you is low. So I think my case was the worst case scenerio.

We got a Visa on arrival at Vientiane airport. It required $30 cash plus one passport photo and took about 3 minutes. It was very easy. There were others being processed at the same time but everything was very efficient.

I got a visa on arrival in Vientiane too and was very fast. I have done both visa on arrival and visa beforehand for 2 separate trips to Siem Reap too and my experience with on arrival was fine. Do them in advance if it is not stress else do them on arrival.

hi craig...we did our SR visa prior to departure...there was a very long line and we sailed right through .... that was at the old airport, about two weeks before the new one opened...others have reported no problem...things may have improved...i wasted not time walking across the tarmac to the terminal---it seemed like we walked 1/2 mile...

in bali last year we waited over an hour and maybe 1.5 hours in line for the visa....we were not happy as the a/c did not work either...

for LP this time we are doing it on arrival...hope we will not be too unhappy...

it works very well in the mail and i had to do two for one trip...i allowed 2 weeks for each and it was perfect...

would you consider going to nyc for the day and having them done in person while you waited...i think both must have UN embassys?? would have to be a weekday however....

bob