Cambodia Business Visa for Aussie Investor Due Diligence: 2026 DD Trip Guide
Aussie investors doing on-the-ground due diligence in Cambodia — meetings with lawyers, accountants, prospective JV partners, property inspections — need the Business eVisa, not the Tourist. $90 USD (~$137 AUD) all-in is the correct class whether the trip is pure investigation or closing a deal, since the E-Class covers meetings, paid consulting, due-diligence, and sales calls without distinction.
Which Cambodia visa do Australian investors need for a due-diligence trip?
The Cambodia Business eVisa (E-Class) — $90 USD (~$137 AUD) all-in, approved in 3 business days, delivered as a printable PDF by email, valid 3 months from issue, 30-day stay on arrival. Aussie investors flying in for due-diligence — lawyer meetings, accountant consultations, prospective JV partner discussions, property inspections, target-company walk-throughs — need the Business class regardless of whether the trip is pure investigation or includes a deal-signing element. Cambodian Immigration does not distinguish between 'looking only' and 'closing a deal' — both fall inside the Business category, which expressly covers meetings, paid consulting work, sales calls, supplier visits, and due-diligence.
Key Takeaways
- Use the Business eVisa (E-Class) at $90 USD (~$137 AUD) for any Cambodia trip whose purpose includes due-diligence meetings, lawyer or accountant consultations, JV partner discussions, or property inspections — even if no deal closes.
- Cambodian Immigration does not distinguish between 'investigation only' and 'closing a deal' — both sit cleanly inside the Business class. Meetings, paid work, conferences, sales calls, supplier visits, and due-diligence are all fair game.
- Pre-trip prep with Austrade Cambodia and AustCham Cambodia is the standard play for first-time inbound investors. Both organisations brief Aussie visitors on the legal and commercial landscape before the boots-on-ground week.
- A typical 5-day DD trip pattern: arrival + briefing day, lawyer / accountant days, JV partner meeting day, property and site inspection day, wrap-up. Fits comfortably inside the 30-day Business eVisa stay.
- KTI (Techo International) handles Phnom Penh-centric DD trips — most lawyers, accountants, and corporate counterparties are based in the capital. SAI (Siem Reap) only matters if the target asset sits in the northern tourism belt.
- Approved in 3 business days, delivered as a printable PDF by email, free resubmission if Immigration flags a correction before the flight.
Why this matters in 2026 for Aussie investor DD trips
Cambodia's inbound investment story has matured. The 2023-25 period saw Aussie family offices, mid-market private equity desks, and corporate venture arms making serious approaches to Phnom Penh — fintech minority stakes, real estate joint ventures, agribusiness offtake structures, hospitality co-investments. The on-the-ground due-diligence trip is now a routine sequence: a week in country, three or four days of lawyer and accountant meetings, a JV partner working session, a site walk-through, and a flight home with a draft term sheet in the laptop bag. The Aussie investor at the KTI immigration desk in 2026 is a common face, not a rare one.
The visa-class question that gets asked most often: 'I'm not signing anything yet, I'm just investigating — surely the Tourist eVisa covers a few meetings?' The honest answer is no. Cambodian Immigration treats due-diligence as business activity by default, whether or not a transaction closes, and the Business eVisa at $90 USD (~$137 AUD) is the correct class for any week that involves structured meetings with lawyers, accountants, prospective partners, or target-company management. The $10 USD (~$15 AUD) step up from the Tourist class is the smallest line item in any DD budget.
This is the due-diligence desk guide for Aussie investors heading to Cambodia in 2026 to investigate, scope, or close a JV or minority-stake transaction. The Cambodia Business visa for Australians anchor covers the full E-Class breakdown, the short-stay business meeting trip guide runs the parallel 3-7 day meeting pattern, and the Tourist vs Business detailed comparison covers the wider class-choice picture for borderline cases. For the umbrella view across cost, processing time, and documents, see the Cambodia visa application for Australians hub.
Investigation only vs closing the deal — both are Business
The cleanest framing for any Aussie investor wondering about visa class: Cambodian Immigration does not distinguish between an investor who is 'just looking' and an investor who is signing documents on the trip. Both sit inside the Business eVisa (E-Class) category. The category itself is broad by design — meetings, paid consulting work, sales calls, conferences, supplier visits, due-diligence, and long stays are all expressly covered. The visa class is determined by the purpose of the trip, not by whether the trip results in a transaction.
This matters because Aussie investors often try to fit the trip into the Tourist class by reasoning that no money will change hands during the visit itself. The reasoning sounds principled — the meetings are exploratory, the JV is hypothetical, the property inspection is pre-decision. But Cambodian Immigration reads the trip as business the moment the e-Arrival Card asks for the purpose of your visit and you answer with anything involving a Cambodian counterparty's commercial business. A candid answer like 'meeting with our legal advisor in Phnom Penh' or 'site visit at a target investment property' does not match a Tourist visa in your passport, and the immigration officer may notice the mismatch.
Paid consulting work on the trip
If you are billing time to a client or a deal vehicle while in Cambodia — drafting a term sheet, writing an investment memo, taking client calls, charging hours to a fund — that paid work sits inside the Business eVisa. The category explicitly covers paid work in addition to meetings, conferences, sales calls, supplier visits, and due-diligence. There is no separate Cambodia 'consultant' or 'contractor' visa for a short DD week. Business eVisa is the single answer for any investor or advisor flying in to work on the ground. The Australian eVisa application walkthrough has the click-by-click for the Business form.
Pre-trip prep with Austrade and AustCham Cambodia
Before lodging the Business eVisa, most experienced Aussie investors run a pre-trip briefing with one or both of the two key Australia-Cambodia organisations: Austrade Cambodia (the Australian Government's trade and investment commission, with a Phnom Penh post) and AustCham Cambodia (the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia, the bilateral business community body). Both organisations brief inbound investors on the legal landscape, foreign-ownership rules, sector-specific licensing requirements, and the realistic timing for due-diligence and JV-formation work. The pre-trip call is usually free, and the warm introductions to lawyers, accountants, and prospective partners are often more valuable than the briefing itself.
The standard sequence for a first-time investor: book a 30-minute call with Austrade Cambodia three to four weeks before the planned DD trip, walk through the investment thesis and the questions you need answered on the ground, and ask for a list of suggested professional service providers (typically two or three law firms, two or three accounting firms, and any relevant industry-specific advisors). Two weeks before the trip, do the same with AustCham — their member network often surfaces JV partner candidates and operating-company counterparties that Austrade does not. By the time you lodge the Business eVisa ten days before the flight, the on-the-ground week is mostly scheduled.
- Day -28 (four weeks out): Austrade Cambodia briefing call. Investment thesis review, foreign-ownership landscape, suggested service providers.
- Day -21 (three weeks out): initial outreach to two law firms and two accounting firms. Confirm in-person meeting availability for the DD week.
- Day -14 (two weeks out): AustCham Cambodia briefing call or membership-network outreach. JV partner candidate introductions, sector-specific industry referrals.
- Day -10 (ten days out): lodge the Business eVisa. $90 USD (~$137 AUD), approved in 3 business days, delivered as a printable PDF by email. Confirm passport validity (6+ months, blank page).
- Day -7 (one week out): file the e-Arrival Card. $5 USD (~$7.50 AUD) verified through us, 14 fields, the QR lands on your phone.
- Day -3 (final week): confirm hotel (BKK1 is the default for legal and accounting meetings; Riverside if the target asset sits closer to the river), confirm driver, confirm laptop and document folders.
The typical 5-day DD trip structure for Australian investors
Five days on the ground is the sweet spot for a structured due-diligence trip. Too short and you run out of meeting slots, too long and the marginal value of the extra day drops sharply. The pattern that works for nearly every Aussie investor we have briefed: one arrival and orientation day, two days of legal and financial DD, one JV partner working day, one site or property inspection day, and the flight out on the morning of day six. Total time in country is comfortably inside the 30-day Business eVisa stay with three weeks to spare if the trip extends.
- Day 1 (arrival + orientation): land at KTI mid-morning, taxi or rideshare to BKK1 hotel, lunch with the Austrade post lead if available, afternoon briefing with your lead lawyer to walk through the DD checklist and the target-company data room, dinner with the AustCham contact who introduced the JV candidate.
- Day 2 (legal DD): full day at the lawyer's office. Company-formation history review, regulatory licensing review, foreign-ownership structuring options, draft term sheet workshop, evening writing-up call back to the Sydney or Melbourne investment committee.
- Day 3 (financial DD): full day at the accountant's office. Audited financial statements review, tax compliance review, working-capital and customer-concentration analysis, quality-of-earnings questions, evening dinner with the prospective JV partner.
- Day 4 (JV partner working session): full day at the prospective partner's office. Operating-company walk-through with the founder or general manager, strategy session on the JV structure and governance, evening dinner with the lawyer and accountant joining to debrief.
- Day 5 (site or property inspection): morning drive to the target asset (factory, hotel, agribusiness, real estate site), site walk with the operations lead, afternoon return to Phnom Penh, evening wrap-up dinner with the full DD team.
- Day 6 (flight out): morning final meeting with the lawyer to confirm next-step legal opinions, lunch, transfer to KTI for the afternoon flight home.
The pattern flexes around the specifics. A real-estate DD trip lengthens the site-inspection day to two days. A fintech minority-stake DD shortens the JV partner session because the founder is the only commercial counterparty. An agribusiness offtake structure extends the site visit to three days for harvest-season verification. The Business eVisa's 30-day stay is comfortably long enough for almost any structured DD trip. If the trip runs over 30 days (a heavy real-estate or industrial DD that spans the rainy season inspection cycle), the in-country extension flow is available — our Cambodia Business visa extensions guide for Australians covers the mechanics.
KTI vs SAI airport choice for Australian DD trips
For ninety-five percent of Aussie investor DD trips, the airport question answers itself: KTI (Techo International) in Phnom Penh is the entry point. Almost every Cambodian law firm, accounting practice, regulatory advisor, JV partner counterparty, and corporate target sits in the capital — and even the target assets in the provinces are usually scoped from a Phnom Penh base, with a single day-trip out to the site. KTI replaced Pochentong (PNH) on 9 September 2025 as the single Phnom Penh gateway, and it now handles every Singapore, Bangkok, and Kuala Lumpur connection that Aussie investors use.
SAI (Siem Reap) only enters the conversation if the target asset itself sits in Siem Reap province — typically a hospitality investment (boutique hotel, resort, F&B operator) or a tourism-adjacent business. The lawyers and accountants are still in Phnom Penh, so a Siem Reap-only DD trip is rare; the realistic pattern is a hybrid (fly into KTI, three or four days in Phnom Penh, domestic transfer to SAI for the site inspection day, fly home from SAI). The Cambodia Angkor Air and PMT Air domestic hop is 50 minutes airborne, $80-130 USD (~$122-198 AUD), and both run multiple daily departures.
Sihanoukville (KOS) is the third option, relevant only for coastal investment DD — usually real estate or industrial SEZ-adjacent targets along the Gulf of Thailand coast. The KOS-related DD pattern looks like the Siem Reap version: fly into KTI, do the Phnom Penh legal and financial work, then a Cambodia Angkor Air hop or a four-hour road transfer to the coast for the site inspection day. Our Cambodia airports KTI, SAI, and KOS guide for Australians runs the full comparison, the KTI airport guide for Phnom Penh covers the new terminal in detail, and the SAI airport guide for Siem Reap is the parallel reference.
Next steps and related reading for Australians: apply for your Cambodia eVisa when you are ready to lodge, bookmark our Cambodia visa hub for Australian citizens as the single canonical reference, skim the FAQ on Cambodia visa business visa for quick answers, and use our glossary of Cambodia visa terms to decode any acronym in this guide.
Comparing other SE Asia options?
Thailand
All 7 land borders to Cambodia closed since June 2025; fly via KTI/SAI/KOS
Bangkok is the most common stopover for Aussie investors routing into Phnom Penh.
Compare →Vietnam
Bavet land crossing open; eVisa pair works smoothly
Ho Chi Minh DD trips often pair with a Phnom Penh JV scoping visit.
Compare →Laos
Tropaeng Kreal crossing reliable for overland
Rare for DD trips but occasionally relevant for agribusiness offtake scoping.
Compare →Singapore
Australian passport visa-free 90 days; smoothest stopover
The default stopover for Aussie family offices and PE desks flying into KTI.
Compare →Indonesia (Bali)
e-VOA $35 + Bali tourism levy
Jakarta DD trips occasionally feed into a wider ASEAN investor swing.
Compare →Frequently asked questions
Do I need a Business or Tourist eVisa for a Cambodia DD trip if no deal closes?
Business eVisa, regardless of whether a deal closes. Cambodian Immigration treats due-diligence as business activity by default — the visa class is determined by the purpose of the trip, not the outcome. Meetings with lawyers, accountants, prospective JV partners, and property inspections all sit inside the Business eVisa (E-Class). The $80 USD (~$122 AUD) Tourist eVisa covers leisure only. The $10 USD (~$15 AUD) step to the $90 USD (~$137 AUD) Business class is the smallest line item in any DD budget.
Can I do paid consulting work on a Cambodia Business eVisa?
Yes. The Business eVisa expressly covers paid consulting work in addition to meetings, conferences, sales calls, supplier visits, and due-diligence. If you are billing time to a client or a deal vehicle while in Cambodia — drafting a term sheet, writing an investment memo, taking client calls — the Business class is the correct visa. There is no separate Cambodia 'consultant' or 'contractor' visa for a short DD week; Business eVisa is the single answer for any investor or advisor flying in to work on the ground.
How long does the Cambodia Business eVisa take from Australia?
Approved in 3 business days is the standard. The eVisa is delivered as a printable PDF by email, with Aussie-timezone support if Immigration flags a correction before your flight. We recommend lodging 10-14 days before your flight to leave a buffer in case any field needs adjusting — free resubmission is included if a correction is needed.
Should I arrive into KTI or SAI for a Cambodia DD trip?
KTI (Techo International, Phnom Penh) for ninety-five percent of DD trips. Almost every Cambodian law firm, accounting practice, regulatory advisor, JV partner, and corporate target is based in the capital. SAI (Siem Reap) only matters if the target asset itself sits in Siem Reap province — typically a hospitality or tourism-adjacent investment. The realistic pattern for a Siem Reap target is a hybrid: fly into KTI, three or four days in Phnom Penh, domestic hop to SAI for the site inspection day, fly home from SAI.
Do I need a Cambodian sponsor letter for the Business eVisa?
No. The Cambodia Business eVisa is unusually light on paperwork at the application stage — passport, photo, email, and payment is the full list. No Cambodian sponsor letter, no law-firm or accounting-firm invitation, no employment contract, no hotel booking, no return flight, no bank statement. Carrying a printed copy of your DD schedule or your lawyer's confirmation email is a sensible precaution if the immigration officer asks the purpose of your visit, but it is not part of the formal eVisa application.
What if my DD trip runs over 30 days?
The Business eVisa can be extended in-country through a Cambodian immigration agent in Phnom Penh — 1-month, 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month extensions are all available, processed in 7-14 business days. Start the extension paperwork at least 2 weeks before your initial 30-day stay expires. This matters most for heavy real-estate or industrial DD trips that span the rainy-season inspection cycle. The Tourist eVisa cannot be extended in-country since November 2025, which is another reason Business is the right call.
Will Austrade or AustCham introduce me to lawyers and JV partners?
Often yes. Austrade Cambodia (the Australian Government's trade and investment commission, Phnom Penh post) routinely briefs Aussie inbound investors on the legal and commercial landscape and provides suggested professional service provider lists. AustCham Cambodia (the bilateral business community body) maintains a member network that often surfaces JV partner candidates and operating-company counterparties. The pre-trip briefing call with either organisation is usually free, and the warm introductions are often more valuable than the briefing itself. Book the call three to four weeks before your DD trip.
Can I close the deal in Cambodia on the same Business eVisa as the investigation?
Yes. Cambodian Immigration does not distinguish between 'investigation only' and 'closing the deal' for visa-class purposes — both sit inside the Business eVisa (E-Class). The 30-day stay on a single eVisa is comfortably long enough for most DD-to-closing sequences, and the in-country extension flow handles trips that stretch longer. If the closing happens on a separate trip a month or two later, you can lodge a fresh Business eVisa for the second trip, or apply for the multi-entry option upfront if you know multiple visits are coming.
Sources
Did this guide help you?
From our blog
Long Stay
Which Cambodia Visa Should Americans Enter On for a Long Stay? Type T vs Type E
If your Cambodia trip will run past 30 days, the visa you enter on decides everything. The Tourist eVisa (Type T) caps hard at 30 days with no extension. The Business eVisa (Type E) is the only class you can extend in-country — 1, 3, 6, or 12 months. Here is how Americans pick correctly before they fly.
Airport Arrival
What to Show at Cambodia Immigration on Arrival: Checklist for US Citizens
Three things cross the counter at Cambodia Immigration: your US passport, your eVisa, and your e-Arrival QR code. Here is exactly what the officer wants to see, in what order, and the small mismatches that turn a 30-second stamp into a side-desk detour at KTI.
Border Crossing
Vietnam to Cambodia by Land: Bavet Border Crossing Guide for US Citizens
With every Thailand–Cambodia land border still closed, Bavet is now the main overland way into Cambodia from Vietnam. Six hours from Ho Chi Minh City, one printed eVisa, no e-Arrival Card — here is how US citizens actually do it in 2026.