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Our next adventure is looming and so I spent some time this morning checking travel advice on the FCO website and then moved on to investigating the Cambodian visa process.
It seems you can go about getting a Cambodian visa one of two ways. You can take the forms, photographs and payment to a counter at the airport when you arrive, take your chances with the queues and worry about it once you get there, or you can apply online.
Digging a little deeper revealed you also have two choices for the online application route; namely, via the website or via the brand new e-visa app for iOS and Android. Snazzy.
Keen to save time and space on my iPad, I opted to use the website. After snapping a few pictures of myself, my wife and our children (600 pixels minimum, off white background, no shadows, sunglasses or sun hats) I uploaded them to the visa website and proceeded to enter our details.
I then clicked through a few pages, each of which seemed to make the visa more expensive (as I was told under 12s now paid $30, so did adults, there was now a $7 admin fee per visa and finally a $3 processing fee per application was added) and then was asked to input my credit card number. I did this and then spent a happy 5 minutes watching a loading bar tick, tick, tick its way slowly across the screen above a message that said on no account should I resubmit the payment on pain of being charged twice.
At the fifteen minute mark I gave up, closed the window and, ignoring the advice, opted to have a go using the other payment button which processed the $160 fee through a different provider. This had much the same result.
Finally I gave in and downloaded the app. The app let me pay.
So now we wait. We wait to see if we get our visas (I always worry when I’ve taken my own photographs) but also to see whether I’ve paid for 12 visas instead of 4.
For more info on applying for a Cambodian Tourist visa: click here
Edit: Having applied at the end of working week, it took 4 days to receive our visas electronically. They came with a brief list of rules and conditions advising us to print off two copies of each visa and head to a specific group of counters in the airport.
After the initial confusion with payment methods via the website, using the app was actually really simple. Definitely one of the more trouble free visas we have applied for.
Our next visa application is for India, which we’ve heard can be a little tricky. Here’s hoping they learn something from Cambodia between now and our application!
A full run-down of our Cambodia trip will be posted in the coming days.
My Expat Family 