Cambodia Business Meeting Trip for Australians: 2026
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Cambodia Business Meeting Trip for Australians: 2026 Short-Stay Guide (3-7 Days)
Aussie executives often pick the Tourist eVisa by default for a short meeting trip — and that's a quiet $10 mistake. The Business eVisa (E-Class) at $90 USD (~$137 AUD) is the correct route for any trip whose purpose is meetings, sales calls, supplier visits, or sponsored conferences, even if you're in and out in 72 hours.
Which Cambodia visa do Australians need for a short business meeting trip?
The Cambodia Business eVisa (E-Class) — $90 USD (~$137 AUD) all-in, 3 business days, valid 3 months from issue, 30-day stay. Even for a 3-day meeting trip, use Business not Tourist if your purpose is meetings, sales calls, supplier visits, due-diligence, or sponsored conferences. The Tourist eVisa technically restricts to leisure activities only; misclassification can cause border-officer questions even though Immigration rarely rejects. The $10 USD (~$15 AUD) difference is cheap insurance. Apply 10-14 days before flight, print 2 paper copies of the eVisa PDF, file the e-Arrival Card 7 days before flight.
نکات کلیدی
Even for a 3-day meeting trip, use the Business eVisa (E-Class) — not the Tourist — if your purpose is meetings, sales calls, supplier visits, due-diligence, or a sponsored conference.
$90 USD all-in (~$137 AUD), approved in 3 business days, valid 3 months from issue, 30-day stay on arrival — identical mechanics to the Tourist, just the right class for the activity.
The Tourist eVisa technically restricts the trip to leisure activities only; misclassification can cause border-officer questions even though Immigration rarely rejects. The $10 USD (~$15 AUD) difference is cheap insurance.
Apply 10–14 days before flight, print 2 paper copies of the eVisa PDF, file the e-Arrival Card 7 days before flight, carry a copy of any meeting agenda on your phone if asked.
If your meeting extends mid-trip past 30 days, the Tourist eVisa cannot be extended in-country (since Nov 2025) — the Business eVisa can. Switching class in-country is not supported; the only fix is to exit and re-enter on a fresh Business eVisa.
Why the Tourist-vs-Business call matters even for a 72-hour trip
Aussie executives flying to Phnom Penh for a short meeting trip almost always default to the Tourist eVisa. The maths feels obvious — $80 USD (~$122 AUD) instead of $90 USD (~$137 AUD), identical processing time, identical 30-day stay, you'll be in and out in three days, what could possibly go wrong? In 2026 the answer is: not much, usually, and quite a lot occasionally. The Business eVisa (E-Class) is the technically correct class for any trip whose purpose is business activity, and the quiet $10 USD (~$15 AUD) price gap is the cheapest piece of insurance a corporate traveller will buy all year.
The Tourist eVisa is not a catch-all. Cambodian Immigration reads it strictly — it covers leisure, family visits, sightseeing, and the Angkor Wat / beach / temple loop most short-haul holidaymakers fly in for. It does not, on paper, cover sales calls with a Phnom Penh fintech, a supplier audit at a Kandal factory, a regional summit at Sofitel Phokeethra, or a due-diligence walk-through of a target acquisition. Those trips sit inside the Business E-Class category, which Cambodia issues precisely so corporate travellers do not have to misclassify themselves.
The honest framing: the Business eVisa is not strictly mandatory at the airport. We have processed plenty of Aussies who entered on a Tourist eVisa, did three days of meetings, and walked back through Immigration on the way out without a single question asked. The risk is real but soft. Cambodian Immigration officers have discretion at the desk, the e-Arrival Card asks for the purpose of your trip, and a candid answer that does not match the visa in your passport can — occasionally — trigger a secondary check, a delay, or in rare cases an exit-stamp note that complicates your next visa application.
The bigger reason to use Business is corporate. Most Aussie corporate-travel policies require the traveller to hold the correct visa class for the trip's purpose. If a sales call goes sideways and turns into a contract dispute, or if an audit trip uncovers something material, the visa class on your passport becomes evidence about why you were really in the country. Travel insurance, professional indemnity, and corporate D&O policies have all started flagging visa-class mismatch in recent claim reviews. The $10 USD (~$15 AUD) step from Tourist to Business is the cheapest line item in any expense claim — and it is the one the legal team will want you to have filed correctly.
Sales calls and supplier visits
Sales calls and supplier visits are the two most commonly misclassified trip shapes among Aussies flying into Cambodia. A Sydney account director flying in for a week of pitches with garment manufacturers, a Melbourne footwear brand auditing a contract producer in Kandal, a Brisbane logistics executive checking on a freight partner — all three sit cleanly inside the Business E-Class. The trips look short and informal, but their commercial substance is unambiguous, and a candid answer at the e-Arrival form ("purpose of visit: business meetings with our supplier") will not match a Tourist visa in your passport.
The shape that catches Aussies out most often is the casual factory visit. "It's just a tour" feels harmless, and most factory hosts do not coach foreign visitors on visa classification. But Cambodian Immigration treats a foreign buyer or auditor visiting a contract producer as business activity, full stop. Use Business. The price step is invisible in any genuine corporate travel budget.
Conferences and due-diligence
Conferences are a slightly grey area in some jurisdictions, but Cambodia treats sponsored or paid attendance at a trade fair, summit, or industry conference as business-purpose travel — whether you are speaking, attending, sponsoring, or just on a corporate ticket. An Adelaide fintech founder speaking at a Phnom Penh regional summit, a Perth resources analyst attending a mining conference, a Canberra policy advisor at an ASEAN governance forum — all three need Business. Due-diligence trips for acquisition, investment, or partner-vetting are even more clearly inside the E-Class. Our Tourist vs Business detailed comparison runs the full side-by-side on conference and due-diligence scenarios.
The 3-day Cambodia business trip checklist (day-14 to day-3)
The mechanics of a clean 3-day business trip into Cambodia are not complicated, but they reward sequencing. Here is the working checklist we hand Aussie executives flying in for short meeting trips. The dates are calendar countdowns from the day of your flight.
Day-14 (two weeks out): lodge the Business eVisa from Australia. $90 USD (~$137 AUD), 3 business days. Online form, ten minutes, passport + photo + email + payment. No sponsor letter, no return flight, no hotel booking, no bank statement required at the application stage.
Day-11 to day-7: eVisa approval lands in your inbox as a printable PDF. Save a copy to your phone, save another to a cloud drive, print two A4 copies for the flight folder (one for entry, one for exit). Check passport validity — at least 6 months from your arrival date, at least one full blank page.
Day-7 (one week out): file the e-Arrival Card. Separate from the eVisa, mandatory for every air arrival, $5 USD (~$7.50 AUD) upstream. The QR code lives on your phone; screenshot it for offline access.
Day-3 (final preparation): confirm hotel booking (BKK1 or Riverside for Phnom Penh meetings, walking-distance to your client's office is the standard pick). Confirm meeting agenda in writing with hosts. Set up phone roaming or buy a local Smart or Cellcard SIM at the airport on arrival.
Day-0 (flight day): carry the printed Business eVisa PDF, the e-Arrival QR on your phone, your Australian passport, and one printed copy of the meeting agenda or invitation in case the Immigration officer asks. Smart-casual at the desk; honest answer to 'purpose of visit'.
Day 1–3 (in-country): meetings during business hours, hotel base, dinner with hosts, taxi to office (Grab or PassApp are the local rideshare apps). Return ticket via Singapore, Bangkok, or Kuala Lumpur — direct Sydney-Phnom Penh flights are still rare in mid-2026.
The two corners most often cut: people skip the e-Arrival Card (thinking the eVisa covers it — it doesn't), and people forget to print two paper copies of the eVisa PDF (digital-only sometimes gets you waved through, sometimes doesn't). Both fixes are five-minute jobs done a week ahead. The Australian application walkthrough has the click-by-click for the Business eVisa form if you have not lodged one before.
Expensing the visa fee through your corporate travel policy
The $80 USD (~$122 AUD) Tourist or $90 USD (~$137 AUD) Business eVisa fee is reimbursable under almost every Australian corporate travel policy we have ever seen. ASX-listed firms, mid-market consultancies, big-four professional services, NGOs, and federal government departments all routinely accept the eVisa fee as a standard travel expense, in the same line-item bucket as airport transfers, departure taxes, or ESTA-style entry permits for other destinations. The AUD-equivalent line on your card statement is the receipt — Cambodian eVisa charges show up cleanly as a single transaction in USD, with the AUD conversion alongside.
If your corporate policy distinguishes between visa classes — some policies do — the Business eVisa is straightforwardly easier to expense than the Tourist for a business trip. Submitting a Tourist eVisa receipt for a meeting trip can occasionally raise an internal-audit query from a sharp travel manager, who reasonably asks why a leisure visa was used for a business purpose. The Business eVisa receipt closes that loop before it opens. We have seen exactly one corporate travel policy in the past three years actively cap visa reimbursement at the Tourist class price — and that firm changed its policy after the audit team pushed back.
Practical expensing tips. Capture the email confirmation from the eVisa application as a PDF — it carries the application reference, the USD charge, and the date. The card statement entry is the second piece of evidence. Most expense systems will accept either alone; bundling both is the gold standard. Add the eVisa printout itself if your firm wants proof of trip purpose. The Cambodia visa cost guide for Australians has the full upfront-vs-extension cost breakdown if you need to brief a colleague on which fees the firm should expect to reimburse.
What to do if your meeting extends mid-trip
The scenario plays out every few weeks at the short-stay desk. An Aussie executive flies in for what was meant to be a 4-day deal-closing trip, the contract slips, the counterparty asks for another week on the ground, and suddenly the trip is heading toward 10 days, 20 days, 35 days. Two questions then matter: can you stay, and on what visa?
The first thing to know is that the Tourist eVisa cannot be extended in-country. The old auto-extension flow ended in November 2025, and there is no longer any legal path to stretch a 30-day Tourist stay beyond day 30. If you entered on the Tourist by default and your trip is now headed past 30 days, your options are to leave Cambodia before day 30 and re-enter on a fresh Business eVisa, or to overstay and pay the $10 USD (~$15 AUD) per-day penalty at the airport on exit (which we strongly do not recommend — overstay marks affect future visa applications).
The second thing to know is that the Business eVisa CAN be extended in-country. A 1-month, 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month extension is available through a Cambodian immigration agent in Phnom Penh, takes 7–14 business days to process, and rolls your stay forward smoothly. The 1-month extension is the natural pick for a trip that has run a fortnight over plan. Start the paperwork at least two weeks before your initial 30-day stay expires — the buffer matters.
Class conversion inside Cambodia is not supported. If you entered on a Tourist eVisa and want to switch to Business mid-trip, the only clean path is to exit (a weekend hop to Bangkok or Singapore works) and re-enter on a fresh Business eVisa. Most Aussies in this shape lodge the new Business eVisa from the lounge at Suvarnabhumi or Changi while waiting for the return flight — three business days still applies, so a Friday application is back in your inbox by Wednesday.
The other corner that catches Aussies on extending trips: the e-Arrival Card resets on every air entry. If you exit and re-enter on a fresh Business eVisa, you file a fresh e-Arrival Card 7 days before the new flight in. The card is not a multi-entry product.
Most Aussie business travellers in 2026 land at Techo International Airport (KTI), the new Phnom Penh gateway that replaced Pochentong in late 2025. KTI is roughly 30km south of central Phnom Penh, a 35–55 minute drive depending on traffic, and the standard taxi or rideshare fare into the BKK1 business district sits around $20–30 USD (~$30–46 AUD). Grab and PassApp both operate from the arrivals concourse — PassApp tends to be cheaper, Grab tends to have shorter wait times during peak arrivals.
At the immigration desk, the officer will scan your passport, scan the e-Arrival QR from your phone, and check the printed Business eVisa PDF you carry. Queue time at KTI is typically 10–20 minutes through the manual desk, faster through the automated e-gate if you have biometric clearance. The officer may casually ask the purpose of your visit — "business meetings with a Phnom Penh client" or "sponsored conference at the Sofitel" are standard answers and match cleanly to the Business eVisa in your passport.
Hotel pick for short business trips: most Aussie executives stay in BKK1 (the standard business district), Riverside (closer to government meetings), or in one of the international chains near the Independence Monument. Walking distance to your client's office matters more than star rating for a 3-day trip — Phnom Penh traffic between 8am and 10am makes a 2km drive into a 35-minute trip more often than not. The Cambodia airports KTI / SAI / KOS guide for Australians covers each gateway, transfer options, and the realistic timing between landing and your first morning meeting.
The Business eVisa (E-Class), at $90 USD (~$137 AUD) all-in, approved in 3 business days. Even for a 3-day meeting trip, the Business eVisa is the technically correct class if your purpose is meetings, sales calls, supplier visits, due-diligence, or a sponsored conference. The Tourist eVisa at $80 USD (~$122 AUD) covers leisure activities only, and using it for a business trip is a misclassification — usually invisible at the border, but occasionally flagged, and increasingly relevant for corporate-travel-policy compliance and travel-insurance claims.
Can I use the Tourist eVisa if my trip is just a meeting?
Technically no, even for a single meeting. The Tourist eVisa restricts the trip to leisure, family visits, and sightseeing — it does not, on paper, cover any commercial activity, however brief. Cambodian Immigration rarely rejects a Tourist-visa holder over a small number of meetings, and we have processed plenty of Aussies who did it without issue. But the $10 USD (~$15 AUD) price gap between Tourist and Business is the cheapest insurance you can buy: it matches your visa class to the trip's stated purpose on the e-Arrival Card, avoids any awkward officer questions, and keeps your corporate-travel-policy and insurance documentation clean.
How quickly can I get the Cambodia Business eVisa?
Three business days is the standard processing time, and we hit that target on the overwhelming majority of Aussie applications. Some applications come back inside 24 hours, particularly if you lodge early in the week. For genuinely last-minute trips — flight in 48 hours — the eVisa is usually still workable, but we recommend allowing 10–14 days from application to flight as a safety margin in case Immigration asks for clarification on any field. The Cambodia visa processing time from Australia guide has the full timing picture.
Will my company reimburse the Cambodia visa fee?
Almost certainly yes. The $80 USD (~$122 AUD) Tourist or $90 USD (~$137 AUD) Business eVisa fee is treated as a standard travel expense under nearly every Australian corporate travel policy — the same line-item bucket as airport transfers, departure taxes, or ESTA-style entry permits. The AUD line on your card statement is the receipt; the eVisa email confirmation is the secondary evidence. Submitting the Business eVisa receipt for a business trip is actually easier to expense than the Tourist, because it removes any internal-audit question about why a leisure visa was used for a business purpose.
Can I attend a conference on the Tourist eVisa?
Technically no. Cambodia treats sponsored or paid attendance at a conference, trade fair, summit, or industry event as business-purpose travel — whether you are speaking, attending, sponsoring, or on a corporate ticket. The Business eVisa (E-Class) is the correct class. The only conference scenario that arguably fits the Tourist eVisa is a self-funded, personal-interest attendance at an open public event with no corporate sponsorship or commercial outcome attached, and even there we would lean Business as the cleaner answer for the $10 USD (~$15 AUD) price step.
What if my Cambodia business meeting runs over 30 days?
If you are on the Business eVisa, you can extend in-country through a Cambodian immigration agent — 1, 3, 6, or 12 months are all available, processed in 7–14 business days. Start the extension paperwork at least 2 weeks before your initial 30-day stay expires. If you are on the Tourist eVisa, you cannot extend in-country — the old auto-extension ended in November 2025. Your only legal options are to exit Cambodia before day 30 and re-enter on a fresh Business eVisa, or to leave permanently. Overstay is not a viable option: $10 USD (~$15 AUD) per day penalty payable at the airport, and overstay marks affect future visa applications.
Do I need a company invitation letter for the Cambodia Business eVisa?
No. The Cambodia Business eVisa is unusually light on documentation at the application stage — no sponsor letter, no Cambodian company invitation, no employment contract, no hotel booking, no return flight, no bank statement. Just your passport, a fresh passport-style photo, an email address, and a payment method. Cambodian Immigration may casually ask the purpose of your visit at the border, and carrying a printed copy of your meeting agenda or host's confirmation email is a sensible precaution, but it is not part of the formal eVisa application requirements.
Can I bring my partner on a business trip on the same visa?
Each adult traveller applies for their own eVisa — there is no Cambodia 'spouse' or 'dependant' variant of the Business eVisa. If your partner is joining you on a 3-day Phnom Penh business trip with no business activity of their own, they should apply for the Tourist eVisa at $80 USD (~$122 AUD); you apply for the Business at $90 USD (~$137 AUD). Both are processed in 3 business days through the same online flow. If your partner will be attending business dinners or meetings with you in any structured capacity, the Business eVisa is the right call for them too. Children's visa requirements vary by age — under-12s sometimes have different fees and document needs; we cover the family side separately when asked.
Stephen heads the Business & Long-Stay desk at VisaToCambodia. He owns visa logistics for Aussie consultants, AusAID delivery teams, supplier-visit travellers, and conference attendees, and has facilitated more than 1,500 Business eVisa applications since 2021.
