Cambodia eVisa on a DFAT Second Passport for Australians: Which Passport to Use in 2026

Why a second passport question even comes up for Aussie travellers in 2026

Most Aussies have one passport and never think about a second one. A meaningful slice of frequent-business and government travellers carry two, and the question of which one to use for the Cambodia eVisa surfaces every week at our desk. The scenario is usually a variation on the same theme. You are mid-trip in Country A on Passport 1, the next leg is Cambodia in three weeks, and you want to apply for the Cambodia eVisa now without surrendering the primary passport to the consulate processing queue for some unrelated visa. The second passport solves exactly that constraint.

DFAT issues second passports to Australians on narrow grounds — typically frequent business travel that cannot accommodate a single passport being held by a consulate, occupations involving certain government or diplomatic work, or situations where a person genuinely needs two valid documents in parallel. The cost is around $319 AUD for a 1-year second passport as of June 2026, and the lead time is roughly 6 weeks. Once you have one, the rules around which passport to use for which trip get specific quickly.

This guide is the full second-passport playbook for the Cambodia eVisa as Aussie business travellers need to read it in 2026 — which passport to apply on, how the e-Arrival Card lines up, and the DFAT process timeline if you are still working out whether to apply for a second passport at all. If you have not started the document side yet, the Cambodia eVisa documents required checklist covers the wider list.

Which passport to use for the Cambodia eVisa

The Cambodian eVisa portal treats every passport number as a unique identifier. There is no flag in the application that asks whether this is your primary, secondary, official, or emergency document. The application accepts the number, the validity dates, and the bio scan, and processes the visa against that number. The result is that DFAT primary and DFAT second passports are interchangeable on the application side — what matters is which physical passport is in your hand when you walk up to the arrival counter at Cambodian Immigration.

The binding rule is that the eVisa and the physical passport must match at the border. An eVisa issued against passport number ABC1234 cannot be used to enter Cambodia on passport number XYZ5678, even if both passports belong to the same person, both are issued by DFAT, and both are entirely valid. The Cambodian Immigration officer scans the passport, the system checks for an eVisa against that specific number, and absent a match the entry attempt fails. Choose your travel passport before you apply for the eVisa, then apply against that exact passport number.

What 'matching' means in practice at Cambodian Immigration

When the officer scans your passport at KTI, SAI or KOS, the system runs the passport number against the eVisa database. A hit pulls up the approved eVisa record, the photo, and the visa type. The officer compares the live photo to the eVisa photo and the passport bio page, glances at the validity dates, and stamps. If the passport number scanned does not pull up an eVisa record, the conversation gets quieter and the queue stops moving. There is no 'I have it on my other passport' override at the counter — the eVisa is per-passport, full stop.

The corollary is that you cannot present one passport at check-in and switch to the other at Cambodian Immigration. The carrier records the passport you check in on, and that is the passport the airline boards you against. Cambodian Immigration sees the same passport on arrival. Decide which passport you are using before the check-in counter at the Australian airport. The Cambodia airports KTI SAI KOS overview covers what to expect at each of the three arrival points.

Lining up the e-Arrival Card with the right passport

The Cambodian e-Arrival Card is a separate form from the eVisa, mandatory for every air arrival, and submitted within 7 days before your flight. It has 14 fields, costs $5 USD (~$7.50 AUD) verified through us, and includes the passport number as one of the core identity fields. Like the eVisa, the e-Arrival Card is tied to whichever passport number you submit it under, and like the eVisa it must match the passport you present at Cambodian Immigration on arrival.

The practical sequence for a second-passport traveller is straightforward. Apply for the Cambodia eVisa using your second passport number. Wait the 3 business days for approval. Print the approved eVisa PDF or save it offline on your phone. Then, in the 7-day window before your flight, submit the e-Arrival Card using the same second passport number. The two forms travel as a matched pair, both pointing at the same passport, and they line up cleanly at the Cambodian arrival counter.

The mismatch failure mode is the easy mistake to make. A traveller applies for the eVisa on the second passport, then fills the e-Arrival Card on autopilot using the primary passport number that lives in their phone's password manager. The two forms now point at different passports, the airline check-in system flags the mismatch, and the trip stops at the Australian gate. The fix is annoyingly manual — re-submit the e-Arrival Card under the correct passport number with another $5 USD (~$7.50 AUD), and live with the lost time. The Cambodia e-Arrival 14-fields walkthrough has a slow-pass on every field.

The DFAT second-passport process and timeline (June 2026)

DFAT does not issue second passports on request. The application requires a justification — documented evidence that the applicant either travels on business frequently enough that a single passport cannot meet their needs, or works in a government or sensitive role where two passports are operationally required. The most common Aussie case is the frequent-business pattern: a corporate or consulting role with regular regional travel and overlapping visa-processing windows that would otherwise leave the traveller passport-less for weeks.

The mechanics start with the standard PC8 application form, plus a written justification letter from the applicant or their employer detailing the travel pattern and why a second passport is genuinely needed. Supporting documents typically include recent travel records, employer letterhead, and a clear schedule showing where the conflict arises. DFAT reviews the application against its guidelines, and approval is not automatic — a meaningful share of first-time applications are returned for more detail.

The 6-week lead time is the binding constraint for most first-time second-passport applicants. If you are reading this with a Cambodia trip in 3 weeks and no second passport yet, the second-passport path is not the answer for this trip. The realistic move is to travel on your primary passport for Cambodia, then apply for the second passport ahead of the next frequent-business window. The Australian Passport Office page lists the second-passport application steps and the current fee schedule.

Edge cases — concurrent visas, lost primary, renewal cycles

Concurrent visa processing is the textbook reason to hold a second passport. If your role involves applying for Chinese, Indian or Russian visas — all of which traditionally require the physical passport to be surrendered to the consulate for processing — and your Cambodia trip falls inside that window, the second passport is the clean way through. Apply for the Cambodia eVisa on the second, travel on the second for the Cambodia leg, and let the primary sit at the Indian consulate without disrupting the Cambodia plans.

A DFAT second passport is NOT a substitute for replacing a lost or stolen primary passport. The second is a parallel document for legitimate dual-passport scenarios, not a backup to be activated when the primary goes missing. If your primary is lost or stolen, the correct path is reporting it lost and applying for a replacement primary through the standard DFAT renewal process, even if you happen to hold a second passport at the time. The Cambodia visa lost passport emergency guide walks through the lost-passport sequence in full.

Renewal cycles on the two documents do not move together. The primary is typically a 10-year document, the second a 1-year document. If your second expires while the primary remains current, you simply renew the second through the same DFAT process. If your primary expires while the second remains current, you renew the primary on the standard DFAT renewal path and apply for a fresh eVisa against whichever passport you intend to travel on next. The Cambodia eVisa passport renewal DFAT Australia guide covers the renewal mechanics.

Name spelling across the two documents must match exactly. DFAT issues both passports under the legal name on file, so the spelling is consistent by design — but anyone whose name includes a hyphen, apostrophe or a recently-changed surname should compare both bio pages character-by-character before applying for the eVisa. A mismatch between the eVisa and the presented passport's name field, even a one-character variance, can trigger the same secondary-review process as a mismatched passport number.

Putting it together before you apply

Pick the passport you will travel on for the Cambodia leg before you do anything else. Open that specific passport, write the number into a note on your phone, and apply for the Cambodia eVisa using that number. Submit the e-Arrival Card later in the 7-day pre-flight window using the same number. Carry that passport in your hand-luggage when you check in at the Australian airport, and present it again at Cambodian Immigration. The matched-pair rule does the rest. The Cambodia eVisa name mismatch fix guide covers the wider name-and-number consistency issues if you are concerned.

If you want the wider eligibility and pathway picture before you commit to the passport choice, the Do Australians Need a Visa for Cambodia explainer covers the eligibility, fee, and pathway picture in full. When you are ready to apply, the Australian application walkthrough takes you through the upload step-by-step.

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 eligibility for quick answers, and use our glossary of Cambodia visa terms to decode any acronym in this guide.