Do Dual Citizens Need a Cambodia Visa? Which Passport US-Dual Travelers Should Use

Which of your two passports should you apply on?

The Cambodia eVisa system reads your nationality straight off the passport you apply with. It does not see your second citizenship, it does not ask about it, and it does not factor it in. So the choice comes down to which passport gives you the smoothest run from application to airport — and for the large majority of US-dual travelers, that is the US passport.

The US passport tends to win on three plain practicalities. First, validity: US passports are issued for 10 years, so they usually clear the 6-month validity requirement comfortably. Second, the name: a US passport carries your name in a clean, romanized form that maps directly onto the application fields and the machine-readable zone, with no transliteration ambiguity. Third, the match: when the name, number, and nationality on your application line up exactly with the passport you will carry, there is nothing for an airline agent or an Immigration officer to question.

• Validity — whichever passport has at least 6 months left from your date of entry, plus a full blank page for the entry stamp. A passport expiring inside that window takes itself out of the running.
• Name clarity — the passport whose name is simplest to enter exactly as printed. If one passport romanizes your name differently or adds characters the other does not, the cleaner one is the safer choice.
• The passport you actually want to carry — pick the one you are comfortable handing over at every checkpoint, because that is the one you are committing to for the whole trip.
• Onward travel — if your next country after Cambodia is easier on one of your passports, factor that in, but remember the Cambodia leg locks you to the passport you applied with for entry and exit.

There is no advantage to applying on a non-US passport unless it genuinely solves a problem — a US passport stuck in renewal, a name that reads more cleanly on the other document, or an onward-travel reason that outweighs everything else. Absent one of those, default to the US passport. It is the path with the fewest moving parts, and fewer moving parts is the entire game when the consequence of a mismatch is being turned away at the gate.

The one rule that ties it together: one passport, end to end

This is the rule that matters more than which passport you pick: the passport you apply on is the passport you travel on, board with, and present at Cambodian Immigration. One passport, from the application screen to the entry stamp. Dual citizens get into trouble not because they chose wrong, but because they switched halfway through.

Here is how the mismatch actually plays out. You apply on your US passport, so your eVisa is tied to your US passport number. At the US airport, the check-in agent scans the passport you hand over and checks it against the visa attached to your booking. If you hand over your second passport — the one with no eVisa linked to it — the system shows no valid visa for Cambodia, and the agent will not board you. This happens at the departure gate in the United States, not in Cambodia. The airline carries the liability for boarding someone without the right documents, so they are strict about it.

The fix is boring and total: carry the passport you applied with, and use only that passport at every checkpoint. Check-in, boarding, the eVisa, the e-Arrival card, and the Immigration counter in Cambodia all have to point at the same document number. If you want to use your second passport for a different leg of a multi-country trip, that is fine — just keep the Cambodia entry and exit entirely on the passport your eVisa is tied to. Our guide on the eVisa eligible entry points for US citizens covers exactly which airports your single-entry visa is valid at.

Edge cases: name differences, expiring passports, and tricky second citizenships

Most US-dual travelers fit the standard case cleanly — apply on the US passport, carry it, done. A few situations need a second look before you start, and all of them trace back to the same theme: making the application match the passport exactly.

Name differences are the most common complication. If your two passports show your name slightly differently — a maiden name on one, a middle name spelled out on the other, accents or extra characters on one but not the other — apply using the exact name as it appears on the passport you will carry, character for character against the machine-readable zone. Do not blend the two. The application name and the passport you present have to be the same document, so the name only has to match itself. If you are unsure how a difference will read, our guide on passport requirements for Americans explains what Immigration actually parses.

Expiring passports decide the choice for you. If your US passport is inside the 6-month validity window from your date of entry, you have two options: renew it before you travel, or apply on your second passport if that one has the validity. Whatever you choose, the passport with the eVisa attached must be valid for at least 6 months from entry and carry a full blank page. Do not apply on a passport you then plan to renew before the trip — the new passport will have a different number, and your eVisa will be tied to a document you no longer carry.

Some second citizenships add their own wrinkles. If your other passport is from a country that requires its citizens to enter or exit on that specific passport, or one that complicates onward travel, weigh that against the simplicity of the US passport for the Cambodia leg specifically. The Cambodia entry is self-contained: your eVisa, your boarding, and your stamp all live on one passport, and what your other government requires elsewhere does not change that. When in doubt, keep Cambodia on the US passport and handle the second-citizenship rules on the legs where they actually apply. For the broader picture, the dual-citizen passport guide for Americans drills into the specific country combinations.

One last edge case: a name that does not match across documents after a marriage or legal change. The name on your eVisa application must match your current passport exactly, so if your passport still shows your former name, apply in that name; if you have already updated the passport, apply in the new name. Never mix the two on a single application. Our guide on fixing a name mismatch on a US eVisa walks through how to correct it if you have already submitted with the wrong spelling.

Putting it together before you apply

One eVisa, one passport, one trip. That is the whole shape of it for dual citizens. Pick the passport with the validity and the cleanest name — usually your US passport — apply on it, and then never deviate: travel on it, board on it, fill the e-Arrival card with it, and present it at the Cambodian Immigration counter. The Tourist eVisa is $80 USD all-in and the Business eVisa is $90 USD all-in, both approved in 3–5 days and delivered as a printable PDF by email, both with free resubmission if Immigration flags a correction.

Next steps and related reading for US-dual travelers: apply for your Cambodia eVisa on the passport you have chosen, bookmark our Cambodia visa hub for United States citizens as the single canonical reference, confirm your validity against the passport requirements for Americans, and check which entry points your single-entry eVisa is valid at before you finalize the flight.