Arriving By Air

Thirty-day tourist visas are issued upon arrival at Phnom Penh's Pochentong Airport and at Siem Reap Airport. They cost US$20 and must be paid for in US currency (cash) only. At both airports you'll find the Visa on Arrival desk to the left as you enter the arrivals hall. There will be a long desk manned by perhaps a dozen or more immigration officers acting as sort of a bucket brigade. You begin the process on the left side of the desk, where you submit your arrival/departure card, passport, two passport-size photos and visa application (the latter is obtained and filled out after you arrive in the arrivals hall). Usually this is the stage where you'll be asked to fork over your twenty bucks, though sometimes you'll be asked for the fee after your passport has been stamped on the other end of the desk. Depending on how full your plane was and how fast you can run the 100-yard dash, the whole process takes between 10 and 20 minutes.

Warning: Make sure you get a receipt for the visa fee. A common scam among immigration officers is to neglect giving inbound passengers a receipt for their visas, which means, officially, you never arrived, and the 20 bucks is simply pocketed by the boys in uniform. Our correspondent has been a victim of this scam.

Tourist visas can be extended a maximum of three months. Business visas, which cost US$25, are also valid for 30 days and can be extended in-country. Get your extension through a Phnom Penh travel agent or at the Bureau des Etrangers in Phnom Penh (Street 200, 100 meters east of Norodom Blvd).

Arriving Overland

If arriving by land get your visa in advance. Don't head for the Cambodian border without a visa already in hand! Visas are available from Cambodian embassies abroad. The only land entry point where visas may possibly be had is at Poipet, though currently that border post is not issuing visas on arrival.

The following Cambodian border checkpoints are currently open to foreign tourists:
Moc Bai (Vietnam)/Bavet (Cambodia)
Hat Lek (Thailand)/Koh Kong (Cambodia)
Aranyaprathet (Thailand)/Poipet (Cambodia)

Thai nationals can travel overland from Chantaburi Province in Thailand to the former Khmer Rouge headquarters at Pailin (to gamble) but this crossing isn't open to other foreign nationals. There is currently no legal border crossing for foreign tourists wishing to travel overland between Laos and Cambodia.