The Weekend Rule: How Saturdays and Sundays Stretch Your Cambodia eVisa Processing Time
MFAIC officers in Phnom Penh don't open files Saturday or Sunday. Apply Wednesday in Sydney and your PDF lands the following Monday. Here's the weekend rule mapped against Aussie timezones, Cambodian public holidays, and the 3 business days promised on the tin.
How do weekends affect the Cambodia eVisa 3-business-day processing window for Australians?
Saturdays and Sundays don't count. Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MFAIC) processes eVisa applications Monday to Friday Phnom Penh time, and the 3-business-day clock pauses across both weekend days. Apply Wednesday in Sydney before about 1pm AEST and your approved PDF lands the following Monday — three working days, one weekend bridged. Apply Thursday and the third working day falls into the weekend, so the PDF arrives the following Tuesday. A Friday-afternoon submission behaves like Monday-morning Phnom Penh, meaning five calendar days from submit to inbox at the absolute minimum. The 3-business-day promise still holds — the calendar just expands around it.
Key Takeaways
- Cambodian Immigration officers don't open files on Saturday or Sunday Phnom Penh time. The 3-business-day clock skips both days entirely.
- Apply Wednesday before lunch AEST and your approved PDF reaches your inbox by the following Monday — three working days bridging one weekend.
- Apply Thursday and the weekend absorbs day three; expect the PDF the following Tuesday rather than Friday.
- Friday-afternoon applications behave like Monday-morning Phnom Penh applications — five calendar days from submit to inbox, minimum.
- AEST is +3 hours and AEDT is +4 hours ahead of Phnom Penh. A 4pm Sydney submit lands at the back of the Cambodian end-of-day queue.
- A Cambodian public holiday landing on Monday or Tuesday compounds the weekend rule and pushes approval to the following Wednesday or Thursday.
Why the weekend rule catches Aussies out
Every week we hear the same surprised email from Australian applicants: "I submitted on Saturday morning Sydney time and nothing has happened." The portal acknowledges the file, the payment goes through, and then silence sits for two days. The applicant assumes something broke. Nothing broke. MFAIC officers in Phnom Penh — the actual humans who review and stamp your application — don't work weekends, and the 3-business-day clock on which the entire processing model rests doesn't move on Saturdays or Sundays. The portal accepts submissions any time. The review queue runs five days a week.
Three calendar days from submit to PDF only ever works inside a single working week. The moment any of those three days falls into a Saturday or Sunday Phnom Penh time, the calendar stretches. Add the standard three-hour gap during AEST and the four-hour gap during AEDT, and the practical weekend lag for an Aussie applicant is one to three extra calendar days depending on which weekday you actually submit. None of this is a system flaw — it's the boring arithmetic of two governments running normal Monday-to-Friday weeks on opposite sides of the Coral Sea.
This guide walks the weekend rule day by day, with the AEST and AEDT math layered on top, then covers what happens when a Cambodian public holiday lands inside the same week. If you have not started yet, the apply page bakes the weekend rule into the timing estimate it shows you at checkout — no surprises after submit. Our Cambodia visa for Australians pulls all the pieces — cost, documents, processing — into one place.
How MFAIC's working week actually runs in Phnom Penh
MFAIC's eVisa processing unit runs a standard Cambodian government week: Monday to Friday, roughly 8am to 5pm Phnom Penh time, closed on every gazetted Cambodian public holiday. Officers don't rotate on weekends, there is no Saturday duty roster, and there is no overnight processing tier no matter what a third-party reseller's website tells you. Phnom Penh, like Canberra, simply closes its government doors at the end of business Friday and reopens Monday morning.
What this means for your 3-business-day clock: each day the clock ticks must be a Cambodian working day. Saturday Phnom Penh time, Sunday Phnom Penh time, and every Cambodian public holiday is skipped. If your application is submitted at a moment when officers are still at their desks for the day, that day generally counts. If officers have already gone home for the evening or week, the file sits until they return.
Frequently asked questions
Does Cambodian Immigration process eVisas on Saturdays or Sundays?
No. MFAIC officers in Phnom Penh work Monday to Friday, roughly 8am to 5pm Phnom Penh time, and the eVisa processing unit closes for both weekend days. Saturday and Sunday don't count toward the 3-business-day processing window. The portal accepts your submission any time, but the review queue resumes Monday morning Phnom Penh.
If I apply on a Saturday, when does my Cambodia eVisa clock actually start?
Monday morning Phnom Penh time. A Saturday or Sunday submission sits in the queue until officers return Monday. From that Monday, you get the standard 3 business days — Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday — with the approved PDF landing Wednesday afternoon Phnom Penh, which is Wednesday evening or Thursday morning in Sydney. Five calendar days from your Saturday submit to your inbox is typical.
What is the latest Sydney time on a Wednesday I can submit and still get the PDF by Friday?
Submit by 1pm AEST or AEDT on Wednesday for the cleanest run. That moment is 10am or 11am Wednesday in Phnom Penh — officers are mid-morning and your file enters the active review batch. Day one Wednesday, day two Thursday, day three Friday — PDF in your inbox Friday evening or Saturday morning Sydney. Submitting after lunch Wednesday Sydney still usually works but starts cutting margin.
How do Cambodian public holidays interact with the weekend rule?
Badly, if you submit late in the week before a holiday block. Khmer New Year (three days in April), Pchum Ben (three days in late September or early October), and Water Festival (three days in November) each close the office on top of the surrounding weekends. A Friday submission going into Khmer New Year week can stretch from five calendar days to ten or more. Always check the Cambodian holiday calendar before banking on a same-week approval.
Why does the portal accept a Sunday submission if nothing happens until Monday?
The portal is an always-on web form. It accepts the upload, takes the payment, and emails you an acknowledgement the moment you submit. That acknowledgement is not approval — it's the receipt that puts your file in the queue. The queue itself is reviewed by humans during Cambodian working hours only. Submitting Sunday is fine; you just need to know day one of the 3-business-day clock will be Monday Phnom Penh.
Does Perth count differently because of AWST?
Slightly. Perth runs on AWST — UTC+8 — which is only one hour ahead of Phnom Penh's UTC+7. A 9am Perth submission lands at 8am Phnom Penh, right at office open. That's an hour ahead of the same Sydney submission during AEDT. In practice the weekend rule itself is identical for all Aussie timezones — the only difference is which local hour represents the Phnom Penh close-of-business cut-off.
Sources
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