Cambodian Embassy Canberra Document List for Australian Applicants (2026)

Why getting the file right matters in 2026

The Cambodian Embassy in Canberra runs a small consular team on a tight morning window. They are courteous and they are reliable, but they are not in the business of chasing missing photos, fixing wrong-format forms, or accepting cards when the cashier sign clearly says cash or money order. If your file is wrong, it comes back across the counter or back in your return satchel without a visa, and you start the lodgement clock again.

For the small number of Aussies who actually need the embassy paper route — diplomatic or official passports, current serious conviction pre-clearance, escalated rejection appeals, and the small subset of Business cases where a paper sticker fits better than the standard eVisa — getting the file right first time is the whole game. Most of the time-loss in embassy lodgements is not the embassy's processing speed; it is rework cycles when the file is incomplete.

This article is the document list, item by item, with the 2026 details that catch Aussies out: the right form to download, what makes a photo embassy-acceptable, why the embassy will not take your tap-and-go, and the cover letter that Business applicants almost always under-write the first time. If you are not yet sure your case belongs at the embassy at all, the Cambodian Embassy Canberra overview and the embassy-versus-eVisa decision guide cover the upstream question. For the full eligibility picture, the Cambodia visa application for Australians hub is the canonical source.

Quick-reference document checklist

Before we walk through each item in detail, here is the 2026 checklist in a single table. Everything below is the spine of every embassy application — diplomatic and conviction-flagged cases add extra documents (Note Verbale, AFP national police check) on top, but the six core items below are non-negotiable for any Aussie applicant lodging in Canberra.

The right form, downloaded fresh

The embassy publishes its current visa application form as a PDF on its own website. Print it from there directly — not from a third-party site, not from an old email someone forwarded, not from a screenshot. Form revisions are uncommon but they do happen, and the consular team will quietly reject a form that asks for fields the current version no longer collects (or that omits ones it now does).

Tourist and Business applications use different forms. They look superficially similar — same letterhead, same general layout — but the fields differ in important ways. The Tourist form asks for accommodation in Cambodia and the dates of travel; the Business form asks for the host company, the nature of the engagement, and the length of stay. Filling in the Tourist form when you mean to apply for Business will get the file handed back regardless of how complete the rest of it is.

Filling it in

• Print single-sided on plain A4 white paper. No double-sided printing.
• Hand-write or type the fields, then sign the signature line in blue or black ink — no digital signatures, no pencil.
• Use the same names and dates that appear in the machine-readable zone of your passport. No nicknames, no abbreviated middle names.
• Leave nothing blank — fields that do not apply get "N/A", not an empty space.
• If you are unsure how to answer a field, email the consular team rather than guessing.

For the Business visa product specifically, the broader Business visa guide for Australians covers the underlying use cases — meetings, paid work, conferences, sales calls, supplier visits, due-diligence, and sponsored events — and where the standard eVisa flow fits each of those better than a paper application would. The Tourist visa guide for Australians covers the equivalent for leisure travel.

The photo: 35×45 mm, printed, plain background

The embassy accepts one printed passport-style photo. The spec is 35 mm wide by 45 mm tall, printed on photo paper (not plain copier paper), with a plain white background, neutral expression, no glasses, and the head occupying roughly 70-80% of the frame. That is exactly the same specification the eVisa uses online — Cambodia does not have a separate embassy photo standard.

What changes is the format. Online, you upload a JPG within file-size and resolution limits. At the embassy, you bring a physical print. Most Aussie applicants get the print done at a chemist or a dedicated passport-photo shop — both Big W and Officeworks also run a passport-photo service that produces compliant prints for under $20 AUD. If you want the full photo specification before you walk into the shop, the eVisa photo requirements guide covers every constraint in plain English; the embassy uses the same spec.

Common photo rejections at the counter

• Wrong size — Australian passport photos at 35×45 mm are the right format; the slightly larger US-style 51×51 mm photo is not.
• Plain-paper printout — the photo must be on photo paper, not a sheet from a home inkjet.
• Sunglasses, prescription glasses with heavy frames, or any tint — all three get the photo handed back.
• Smile, hair across the eyes, or head turned even slightly off centre.
• Off-white background — the embassy is strict about plain white.
• Heavy filter or beauty-smoothing — the photo has to look like you, not a stylised version of you.

Passport, fee, and return satchel

Passport

The embassy takes your original Australian passport, not a copy. Validity must be at least six months from your planned date of entry to Cambodia, and there must be at least two facing pages free for the paper visa sticker plus the entry stamp. If your passport is approaching the six-month margin, replace it through DFAT before you lodge — applying with a marginal passport is the second most common reason embassy files come back.

Fee

The current 2026 fee for a Tourist visa application sits around $85 AUD. Business is slightly higher. Both are paid at the embassy by cash on the counter or by money order made out as per the embassy's current notice — there is no card terminal at the visa window. For postal lodgements, do not send loose cash; send a money order and attach a clear photocopy of it on the front of the application folder.

Compare that against the eVisa, where the all-in figure is $80 USD (~$122 AUD) for Tourist or $90 USD (~$137 AUD) for Business with the AUD equivalent shown at checkout and no separate fee structure to navigate. The 2026 cost guide for Australians breaks down where each dollar of the eVisa price goes and how it compares against the embassy figure once shipping and travel are counted in.

Return satchel

For postal lodgements, include a self-addressed prepaid AusPost satchel inside the outbound envelope. Express Post Platinum is the sensible choice — tracking, signature on delivery, and typically 1-2 business days back to your home address. Write your full name and home address as both the sender and the recipient on the return satchel; the embassy uses it without modification.

Business cover letter — the section most Aussies underdo

Tourist applications do not require a cover letter. Business applications do, and the cover letter is where most Business files get held up at the counter. It is not a long document — half a page is enough — but it has to answer three specific questions clearly and in plain English.

• Purpose of the visit — meetings, supplier visit, sales calls, conference attendance, due-diligence, sponsored event, or paid work. Be specific.
• Host company in Cambodia — full registered name, address in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Sihanoukville or wherever the engagement is, and the name of the contact person there.
• Length of stay — the dates of the engagement and whether the standard 30-day single-entry will cover it, or whether you are also lodging an extension request.

Sign the letter at the bottom with the same signature you used on the application form. If the host company has issued you an invitation letter, attach it to the cover letter rather than substituting one for the other — both serve different purposes for the consular team. Print on plain A4, no letterhead required unless your employer has asked you to use theirs.

If you are unsure which Business sub-case your trip fits, the Business visa guide for Australians runs through meetings, supplier visits, conferences, due-diligence, paid work, sales calls, and sponsored-event scenarios in detail. The eVisa documents-required guide covers what the equivalent online flow asks for, which is a much shorter list.

Fixing common rejected-at-the-counter issues

Even with the checklist in hand, a few specific things still get files handed back at the counter or returned by post without a visa. The fixes are mostly quick — half a day in your home city, in many cases — but they restart the lodgement clock. Here is the short list of the most common embassy rejections from Aussie applicants and what to do about each.

• Form signed in pencil or with a digital signature — reprint and sign in blue or black ballpoint.
• Photo on plain paper rather than photo paper — get a fresh print at a chemist or passport-photo shop.
• Passport below the six-month margin — apply for a new passport through DFAT before re-lodging.
• Wrong form (Tourist instead of Business or vice versa) — download the right one from the embassy site and refill it.
• Cash on a postal lodgement — replace with a money order, never send loose cash in the post.
• Return satchel addressed to the wrong recipient or missing the sender field — buy a fresh prepaid satchel and refill it correctly.
• Business cover letter that does not name the host company — rewrite to include host name, address, contact person, and length of stay.

Putting it together for an embassy lodgement

Build the file once, build it right, and the embassy will process it cleanly inside a week. The six core items — current form, 35×45 mm photo, original passport, fee in the right format, return satchel for postal lodgements, and the Business cover letter where applicable — cover ~95% of what gets a file approved. Diplomatic and conviction-flagged cases add a Note Verbale or an AFP national police check on top, but the spine of the file is the same.

If your case does not actually require the embassy — and most Aussie cases do not — the eVisa is faster, cheaper, and runs on Aussie-timezone support. The Australian application walkthrough covers the eVisa flow start to finish, and the do-Australians-need-a-Cambodia-visa explainer covers the upstream question if you are still deciding.

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 documents for quick answers, and use our glossary of Cambodia visa terms to decode any acronym in this guide; for a structured side-by-side evisa vs embassy visa comparison, see the dedicated comparison page.