Cambodia Business Visa for Aussie Supplier & Factory Visits: 2026 Buyer Guide
Aussie textile, garment, and agricultural buyers flying into Cambodia for a supplier site visit need the Business eVisa, not the Tourist. $90 USD (~$137 AUD) all-in is the correct class for a 1-3 day factory walk-through, supplier audit, or producer meeting — even when the trip feels casual or you are 'just having a look'.
Which Cambodia visa do Australian buyers need for a supplier or factory visit?
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 textile, garment, footwear, packaging, and agricultural buyers flying in for a supplier visit, factory walk-through, producer audit, or sourcing meeting need the Business class even for a single-day visit. The Tourist eVisa at $80 USD (~$122 AUD) covers leisure only and does not, on paper, cover any commercial site visit. The $10 USD (~$15 AUD) step between classes is the cheapest piece of documentation hygiene a corporate buyer will sign off on all year.
Key Takeaways
- Use the Business eVisa (E-Class) at $90 USD (~$137 AUD) for any Cambodia trip whose purpose is a supplier visit, factory walk-through, producer audit, or sourcing meeting — even a single-day site visit.
- Aussie textile and garment buyers typically run a 1-3 day site cadence per facility plus a Phnom Penh hotel base; the Business eVisa covers the whole pattern in a single 30-day stay.
- Mention your visa documentation politely at the hotel desk if asked, never at the factory gate. Hosts expect a quiet professional traveller, not a paperwork conversation at reception.
- Dress for tropical industrial sites in lightweight cotton or linen, closed-toe shoes, and a soft collar. Bring a small notebook and your printed eVisa PDF for the immigration desk.
- KTI (Techo International) is the entry gateway for Phnom Penh and Kandal industrial zones; Sihanoukville (KOS) handles coastal SEZs via Cambodia Angkor Air or a 4-hour road transfer.
- Approved in 3 business days, delivered as a printable PDF by email, with Aussie-timezone support if Immigration flags a correction before your flight.
Why this matters in 2026 for Aussie supplier visits
Cambodia's industrial story is no longer a quiet sidebar to Vietnam. Phnom Penh-area garment factories now supply household-name Australian retailers, Kandal province has become a serious option for homewares and packaging contract production, Sihanoukville SEZs handle footwear and assembly at scale, and the agricultural belt around Battambang and Kampong Cham ships rice, cassava, and mango concentrate to processors in Melbourne and Brisbane. The Aussie buyer flying in to walk the floor of a contract supplier is now a routine business profile at KTI Immigration, not a rare one.
The single most common visa mistake we see at the supplier-visit desk is the default Tourist eVisa. The buyer thinks: it's a one-day site visit, I'm not signing anything, the factory is just showing me around, surely the Tourist class is fine. In 2026 the answer is: not strictly fine, sometimes invisible at the border, occasionally a problem, and increasingly a corporate-policy and travel-insurance issue regardless of what the immigration officer says. Use the Business eVisa.
This is the supplier-visit desk guide for Aussie buyers heading to Cambodian factories, garment plants, packaging contractors, and agricultural producers in 2026. The Cambodia Business visa for Australians anchor covers the full E-Class breakdown including pricing, extensions, and documentation. The short-stay business meeting trip guide runs the parallel 3-7 day meeting itinerary, and the broader Australian entry picture is in the Do Australians need a Cambodia visa pillar. Our Cambodia eVisa Australian guide pulls all the pieces — cost, documents, processing — into one place.
Why the Business eVisa is the right class for a supplier visit
A supplier visit, factory walk-through, or producer audit is unambiguously business activity under Cambodian Immigration's reading. You are travelling with commercial intent — to inspect production, verify quality, photograph processes, sign off on samples, discuss pricing, or build a relationship with a contract supplier. The Business eVisa (E-Class) at $90 USD (~$137 AUD) is built exactly for this trip shape. Meetings, paid work, conferences, sales calls, supplier visits, and due-diligence all sit cleanly inside the E-Class category — Cambodia separates them deliberately from leisure travel.
The Tourist eVisa at $80 USD (~$122 AUD) is built for the Angkor Wat / beach / family-visit profile. It does not, on paper, cover any structured commercial site visit, no matter how informal it feels on the day. The e-Arrival Card asks for the purpose of your visit before you board the plane, and a candid answer like 'visiting our garment supplier in Kandal' does not match a Tourist visa in your passport. Cambodian Immigration officers have discretion at the desk and rarely refuse a Tourist holder over a factory tour — but they can, and the gap between Tourist and Business is the cheapest piece of insurance any buyer will purchase all year.
Aussie textile and garment retail buyers
Aussie textile, garment, and homewares buyers form the largest single profile at the supplier-visit desk. A typical pattern: Sydney or Melbourne head-office buyer flies in with one or two colleagues, lands at KTI, takes a Grab or PassApp into a BKK1 hotel, spends the first morning at the supplier's Phnom Penh office for a kickoff meeting, then drives 45-90 minutes out to the Kandal or Kampong Speu factory for the floor walk. Day two might be a second facility, sample sign-off, or a working session on the next collection. Day three is wrap-up meetings and the flight out. The whole pattern fits inside a single 30-day Business eVisa stay with weeks to spare.
Agricultural producers and food-processing
Aussie food-importer and food-processing buyers are a fast-growing share of supplier-visit traffic, particularly Brisbane and Adelaide firms sourcing rice, cassava starch, dried mango, cashew, and palm sugar from the Battambang and Kampong Cham belts. The trip shape is longer — typically 3-5 days, sometimes a week — because producer sites are further from Phnom Penh and harvest-season visits cluster around specific months. The Cambodia Business visa is still the right class, and the multi-entry option becomes worth thinking about if you plan to fly in and out across the season. The Cambodia eVisa multiple entry guide covers when the multi-entry premium pays off.
The typical supplier-visit cadence: travel days, site days, wrap-up
The realistic cadence of a Cambodian supplier visit is rarely a single day on-site. The pattern that works for nearly every Aussie buyer we have briefed in the past five years runs roughly like this: one travel day in (Sydney or Melbourne overnight via Singapore, Bangkok, or Kuala Lumpur), one or two site days at the supplier's facility, half a day of Phnom Penh meetings, and one travel day out. That is a 4-5 day trip total, comfortably inside a 30-day Business eVisa stay, with plenty of buffer for the things that go sideways.
- Day -14 to -10 (two weeks out): lodge the Business eVisa from Australia. $90 USD (~$137 AUD), approved in 3 business days, delivered as a printable PDF by email. Check passport validity (6+ months, one blank page). Confirm site-visit dates with the supplier in writing.
- Day -7 (one week out): file the e-Arrival Card. Separate from the eVisa, mandatory for every air arrival, $5 USD (~$7.50 AUD) verified through us, checked end-to-end before it reaches Immigration. Screenshot the QR for offline access.
- Day -3 (final week): confirm hotel (BKK1 Phnom Penh for Kandal-area visits, Toul Kork or Russian Market for industrial-east, Sihanoukville hotel direct for KOS-area SEZ visits). Confirm the driver or supplier transfer. Pack lightweight cotton or linen, closed-toe shoes for the factory floor, a small notebook, and your printed eVisa PDF.
- Day 0 (arrival): land at KTI, immigration desk 10-20 minutes, taxi or rideshare to hotel. Light dinner with colleagues, early night, your supplier's general manager may invite you to a kickoff dinner — accept if offered.
- Day 1 (kickoff + first site day): morning meeting at the supplier's office in Phnom Penh, drive out to the facility after lunch, 3-4 hours on the floor with the QC lead and production manager, return to the hotel for dinner.
- Day 2 (second site day or second facility): full day on-site, sample reviews, costing discussions, walk through the cutting and finishing rooms, photograph processes with permission.
- Day 3 (wrap-up + flight): morning wrap-up meeting in Phnom Penh, lunch with the supplier's commercial lead, transfer to KTI for the afternoon flight out.
The two corners most often cut. People skip the e-Arrival Card thinking the eVisa covers it (it doesn't — they are separate products). People also under-pack for the factory floor; tropical industrial environments in Kandal and Kampong Speu run hot, humid, and dusty, and a stiff business shirt becomes uncomfortable inside an hour. Lightweight cotton with a soft collar is the working buyer's default. The Australian eVisa application walkthrough has the click-by-click for the Business eVisa form.
What factory hosts expect from your visa documentation
This part trips up first-time buyers. Cambodian factory hosts and supplier general managers do not, in practice, ask to see your visa. They assume you have the right paperwork — that is the job of your travel coordinator or your supplier's own logistics team before the trip is confirmed. The factory gate is not the place for a visa conversation, and pulling out a printed PDF at reception reads as either inexperienced or oddly defensive. A confident buyer arrives, shakes hands with the host, signs the visitor book if asked, and goes through to the meeting room.
Where the visa does occasionally come up, politely, is at the hotel desk on check-in. Higher-end Phnom Penh hotels ask to see your passport and visa as part of the check-in process, scan both, and file them for the standard tourism-police registration. This is a paperwork formality, not a verification of your trip purpose. The Business eVisa PDF page is what they want — print one extra copy for your wallet, alongside the two copies you carry for entry and exit at Immigration.
The other moment it can come up is at the immigration desk itself, on arrival. The officer may casually ask the purpose of your trip — a clean, honest answer is best: 'supplier visit with our garment manufacturer in Kandal' or 'site audit at our packaging partner in Sihanoukville.' This matches the Business class in your passport and closes the conversation. Carrying a printed copy of your supplier's invitation email or the calendar invite for the site visit is a sensible backup if asked, but it is not a formal requirement of the Business eVisa application.
If you are travelling on a frequent buyer cadence — quarterly site visits across the year, or monthly during a peak production run — the multi-entry Business eVisa option is worth a serious look. It costs more upfront ($150 USD (~$229 AUD) government fee plus service margin) but removes the per-trip application step. Our frequent traveller Cambodia visa strategy guide for Australians runs the maths on when multi-entry pays off, and the Tourist vs Business detailed comparison covers the wider visa-class decision.
Dressing for tropical industrial sites in Cambodia
Cambodian factory floors run hot. Garment cutting rooms in Kandal can sit at 32-35 degrees with high humidity, footwear and assembly halls in Sihanoukville SEZ are similar, and rice-mill or cassava-processing yards in Battambang are open-walled with full tropical exposure. A stiff Sydney business shirt and merino tailoring become unbearable within an hour. The working buyer's uniform is lightweight cotton or linen in a soft mid-tone, an open collar (no tie), chinos or lightweight trousers, and closed-toe shoes you can walk five kilometres in without complaint.
Closed-toe is non-negotiable on most production floors for safety reasons. Open sandals or slip-ons will see you politely redirected to the visitor office, missing the floor walk you flew over for. A clean pair of low-profile leather or canvas shoes is the right choice — formal enough for the morning meeting, robust enough for the factory floor in the afternoon. Pack a small bottle of water, a thin notebook (not a leather portfolio, which feels heavy in the heat), and a phone with the camera ready if you have photograph permission.
Visitor PPE on Cambodian factory floors
Most Aussie buyers do not need to bring their own PPE — hosts provide visitor hi-vis vests, safety glasses, and hairnets where required. But if you are visiting a food-processing or pharmaceutical-adjacent facility, expect a more formal gowning process. Ask the supplier's logistics contact in writing what their site PPE policy is before you fly.
KTI to Sihanoukville (KOS) for coastal industrial zones
If your supplier sits in the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone or one of the smaller coastal industrial parks along the Gulf of Thailand, your routing usually flows through Techo International (KTI) in Phnom Penh and then onward to Sihanoukville International (KOS). Two practical options. The faster path is the Cambodia Angkor Air or PMT Air domestic hop — roughly 45 minutes airborne, $80-130 USD (~$122-198 AUD) one way, two daily departures most weekdays. The cheaper path is a road transfer down the coastal highway — roughly four hours by private car or van, $120-180 USD (~$183-275 AUD) for a comfortable vehicle with a driver.
The choice usually comes down to how much weight you are carrying and how the supplier prefers to receive you. The road transfer wins for buyers carrying bulky sample bags, for groups of three or more colleagues sharing a van, and for trips where the supplier wants to show you a second facility en route. The flight wins for solo buyers on a tight schedule, for the rainy season (June-October) when the highway can flood in patches, and for any trip where you want to spend a productive Phnom Penh morning before heading to the coast in the afternoon.
KTI itself is the new Phnom Penh gateway — it replaced Pochentong (PNH) on 9 September 2025 and is now the single arrivals airport for the capital. Sihanoukville (KOS) is the second major southern gateway and the closest airport to the coastal SEZs. 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 if your supplier itinerary also touches the northern temple region.
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.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a Business or Tourist eVisa for a single-day Cambodia factory visit?
Business eVisa, even for a single day on-site. The Business class at $90 USD (~$137 AUD) is the correct category for any commercial site visit, supplier walk-through, factory audit, or producer meeting. The Tourist eVisa at $80 USD (~$122 AUD) covers leisure activities only and does not, on paper, cover any structured commercial activity. The $10 USD (~$15 AUD) gap is the cheapest documentation hygiene a buyer will sign off on — and matches the visa class in your passport to the candid answer you give on the e-Arrival Card about your trip purpose.
How long does the Cambodia Business eVisa take to process from Australia?
Approved in 3 business days is the standard. We hit that target on the overwhelming majority of Aussie buyer applications. 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.
Does the factory host check my visa at the gate?
Almost never. Cambodian factory hosts and supplier general managers assume your visa is in order — paperwork checks are for your travel coordinator and Immigration, not the factory gate. Where the visa does occasionally come up is at the hotel desk on check-in (a standard tourism-police registration formality) and at the immigration desk on arrival. Carry two printed copies of the Business eVisa PDF plus a spare for the hotel — that covers every realistic moment a Cambodian counterparty might want to see it.
What should I wear on a Cambodian factory floor?
Lightweight cotton or linen, soft collar, no tie, chinos or lightweight trousers, and closed-toe shoes you can walk in for hours. Garment cutting rooms and assembly halls in Kandal, Kampong Speu, and Sihanoukville SEZ run hot and humid. Open sandals will see you redirected to the visitor office. Most factories provide visitor hi-vis vests and safety glasses; food-processing sites require more formal gowning. Ask the supplier's logistics contact in writing what their site PPE policy is before you fly.
Can I visit a Sihanoukville factory on the same Business eVisa as my Phnom Penh meetings?
Yes. The Business eVisa is a single visa class covering a 30-day single-entry stay anywhere inside Cambodia — Phnom Penh meetings, Kandal factory walk, Sihanoukville SEZ audit, Battambang agricultural producer visit, all on the same document. Travel between cities by domestic flight (Cambodia Angkor Air, PMT Air) or private road transfer is unrestricted. The only constraint is the 30-day stay limit and the single-entry condition — if you leave Cambodia and re-enter you need a fresh eVisa, unless you have lodged the multi-entry option upfront.
Do I need a multi-entry Business eVisa if I visit suppliers quarterly?
Often yes. The single-entry Business eVisa at $90 USD (~$137 AUD) covers one trip into Cambodia for up to 30 days. The multi-entry option costs more upfront — $150 USD (~$229 AUD) government fee plus service margin — and removes the per-trip application step for buyers flying in quarterly or monthly across a production cycle. The maths usually tips toward multi-entry at four or more trips per year. Our Cambodia eVisa multiple entry guide and the frequent traveller strategy guide run the full cost comparison.
What if my Cambodia supplier visit 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. The Tourist eVisa cannot be extended in-country since November 2025, which is one of the practical reasons Business is the right choice for any supplier trip with extension potential. The 12-month Business extension guide covers the long-stay path.
Will my Cambodian supplier sponsor or co-sign my Business eVisa?
No sponsor letter or supplier co-signature is required at the eVisa application stage. The Cambodia Business eVisa is unusually light on paperwork — passport, photo, email, and payment is the full list. No supplier letter, no Cambodian company invitation, no employment contract, no hotel booking, no return flight, no bank statement. Carrying a printed copy of your supplier's invitation email is a sensible precaution if the Immigration officer asks the purpose of your visit at the desk, but it is not part of the formal eVisa application.
Sources
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