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Cambodia e-Arrival Card on Mobile vs Desktop: Which Works Better for Australians
The 14-field Cambodia e-Arrival Card behaves very differently on a phone than on a laptop. Here is the device-by-device breakdown for Aussies — the iPhone autofill resets, the US-format date picker on mobile, the bigger PDF preview on desktop — and the start-on-desktop, finish-on-mobile sequence we recommend.
Should Australians fill the Cambodia e-Arrival Card on mobile or desktop?
Desktop first, mobile second. The 14-field e-Arrival form is easier to proofread on a laptop — bigger fields for the passport number, a full-size PDF preview before submit, fewer autofill collisions. But you need the QR code on a phone at the airport gate, so the right sequence is: fill on desktop, screenshot the QR code, save it to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet on your phone. Every traveller needs their own form, submitted inside the 7-day window before flight. Our verified e-Arrival is $5 USD (~$7.50 AUD) per person, delivered as a printable PDF by email and checked end-to-end before it reaches Immigration.
Punti chiave
- Mobile is faster to start but more prone to autofill resets, US-format date pickers, and screen-rotation glitches that wipe half-filled forms.
- Desktop is slower to open but easier on long fields like passport numbers and addresses, and the PDF preview is large enough to actually proofread.
- The sweet spot for Aussie travellers: fill the form on a laptop, save the QR code PDF, then add it to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet on your phone for the airport gate.
- Every traveller needs their own Cambodia e-Arrival — couples, kids, grandparents all submit individually within the 7-day window before flight.
- Our verified e-Arrival is $5 USD (~$7.50 AUD) per person, delivered as a printable PDF by email, checked end-to-end before it reaches Immigration.
Why the device you fill it on actually matters
Most Australians treat the Cambodia e-Arrival the way they treat any 14-field online form — open it on whatever screen is closest, tap through, hit submit. For a single solo traveller on a brand-new iPhone with a stable home WiFi connection, that usually works. For a family of four on the night before flying, a six-year-old laptop with the wrong autofill profile, and a phone that decides to rotate to landscape mid-form, it does not.
The e-Arrival portal is technically the same form on every device. Same 14 fields, same QR code at the end. But the way each device handles the date picker, the way autofill behaves, how big the PDF preview is, and what happens if you rotate the screen — those differ enough that the device you choose can change whether the form takes seven minutes or seventy. This guide is the device-by-device breakdown for Aussies, plus the sequence we recommend after watching thousands of submissions.
If you have not yet seen the field-by-field structure of the form, the Cambodia e-Arrival 14-fields walkthrough is the place to start — it covers what each block actually wants. This article assumes you know the fields and focuses purely on the device experience: phone versus laptop, what each gets right, what each gets wrong, and how to combine both. The smoothest way to get sorted before your flight is to apply for your Cambodia eVisa on our site.
The mobile experience — fast to start, easy to get wrong
Mobile is the default for almost every Aussie traveller. The reminder email arrives, you read it on your phone in bed, you tap the link, and the form opens in Safari or Chrome. The first three fields go quickly — full name, passport number, nationality — and you start to think this will take five minutes. Then something quietly goes wrong.
The iPhone autofill reset
Modern iPhones aggressively try to autofill passport data from your contacts card or from a previous form submission. If your contacts card has a passport number from an expired passport, or if a previous Indochina form is still cached, Safari may overwrite the field you just typed with stale data. Worse, if Safari decides mid-form to refresh the page — common when you switch apps to grab your hotel booking — the form resets to blank and you start over. We see this on roughly 1 in 8 Aussie iPhone submissions.
The MM/DD/YYYY date picker
The mobile date picker on the e-Arrival defaults to US format — MM/DD/YYYY — on many phones, especially iPhones with the region set to a non-Australian default. So 4 May 1985 entered as you would write it at home (04/05/1985) gets parsed as 5 April 1985. The form accepts it, the kiosk reads it, and the mismatch with your passport bio page sends you to the manual desk on arrival. The fix is to slow down on every date field and confirm the order before tapping next.
Domande frequenti
Can I fill the Cambodia e-Arrival on my phone, or do I have to use a laptop?
You can fill it on either, but a laptop has lower error rates for Australians. The passport-number field is bigger, the date picker usually defaults to your Australian locale (DD/MM/YYYY) instead of US format, and the PDF preview before submit is large enough to actually proofread. Mobile is faster to open but more prone to autofill resets, screen-rotation glitches, and US-format date traps. The sequence we recommend: fill on desktop, save the QR code, then add it to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet on your phone for the gate.
Why does my iPhone keep resetting the form when I switch apps?
Safari on iOS aggressively refreshes background tabs to save memory. When you switch apps to grab your hotel booking or eVisa PDF, Safari may reload the e-Arrival tab and clear what you have typed. The workarounds: turn on Low Power Mode (which slows refresh), open the form in a Private Browsing tab (less aggressive refresh), or keep the form open as the only Safari tab. The fundamental fix is to use a desktop browser, where tab-switching does not trigger a refresh.
The date picker keeps showing month first — is that wrong?
Yes, that is the US MM/DD/YYYY format, and entering 4 May 1985 as 04/05/1985 in that format makes it 5 April 1985 — a mismatch with your passport that the kiosk will catch on arrival. Check the date picker order before tapping the first date field. If your phone is set to a non-Australian region, the form may default to US format; either change your phone's region to Australia first, or use a laptop where the browser locale is usually set correctly. Always confirm the date reads as you intended before tapping next.
Should I screenshot the QR code or save the full PDF?
Both. The QR code on its own is what the kiosk scans, so a screenshot at full screen resolution is enough for the gate. The full PDF is your insurance — it has your name, passport number, and submission timestamp printed alongside the QR, so if there is a question at the manual desk, the PDF answers it. Save both: screenshot to Wallet for the kiosk, PDF to email for backup, and one A4 printed copy in your carry-on as a third line of defence.
Can I fill the e-Arrival for my partner and kids on my account?
There is no account — each submission is standalone — but you can fill multiple Cards from the same device. Each person still needs their own form with their own passport details, accommodation, and contact email. The common Aussie family mistake is putting one parent's passport number on every Card; the kiosk catches it on arrival and the rest of the family ends up at the manual desk. Fill each form fresh, double-check the passport block matches each individual passport, and label the QR codes by initials before saving to Wallet.
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