Cambodia eVisa Says Pending: How Long It Takes and What to Do

Pending is normal — here is what it actually means

If your Cambodia eVisa status says pending, take a breath: that is exactly what it is supposed to say. Pending is the normal, expected state for an application that has been received and is sitting in the review queue. It is not an error, not a flag, and not a sign that something has gone wrong. For travelers working through the Cambodia visa for US citizens, pending clears within 3 business days — start to a printable PDF in your inbox — and most of the worry people feel comes purely from not knowing that the wait is built into the process.

The confusion is understandable. You are used to airline confirmations, hotel bookings, and Amazon orders that ping back "confirmed" the instant you pay. A government visa does not work that way. The fee transaction confirms immediately, but the visa itself has to be reviewed and issued on Cambodia's timeline. So you pay, the screen says pending, and then — if nobody has told you the 3-business-day rule — you start refreshing the page every hour wondering if you did something wrong. You did not.

This guide explains exactly why your application sits at pending, how the 3-business-day clock counts the days, when pending is genuinely nothing to worry about, and the rare moment it is worth acting on. If you want the full timeline picture, our guide to how long the Cambodia eVisa takes for Americans lays out the whole processing window, and when you are ready you can always apply online in about ten minutes.

Why your application sits at pending

Pending means one specific thing: your application has been received, your payment has gone through, and your file is now in the queue to be reviewed and approved. That review is a real step, not a formality, and it is the reason the status does not flip to approved the moment you hit submit. Every application moves through the same queue, and pending is simply the label for the time it spends there.

What is happening while it says pending

During the pending window, the application is checked against the details on your passport and the photo and scan you uploaded. The most common reason a file moves from pending to approved without a hitch is that everything matched the first time — the name, the passport number, the photo specs, and the bio-page scan all lined up. When something does not match, that is when pending lasts a touch longer, because a correction has to come back in before the review can finish. We catch most of those issues before the file ever reaches Cambodian Immigration, which is why the vast majority of US applications clear inside the standard window.

It helps to separate two things in your head: the payment and the visa. The payment confirms instantly — that is why your card statement updates right away. The visa is a separate outcome that follows the review. So seeing pending while your card has already been charged is completely normal and expected. The charge is not the visa; the approved PDF is. Pending is just the gap between the two, and for US citizens that gap is 3 business days.

How long pending should last — and why the dates shift

Pending should last up to 3 business days, and the word that does the heavy lifting there is "business." The clock counts Monday through Friday and skips weekends and Cambodian public holidays entirely. It also starts from a complete submission, not from the moment you began typing. So a file submitted clean on Tuesday is typically approved by Friday, while one submitted late on a Friday night does not begin counting until the following Monday — and lands closer to the following Wednesday.

The other thing that moves the calendar date is the time difference. Cambodia runs 11 to 14 hours ahead of US time zones, so a Monday-evening application from Denver is already Tuesday in Phnom Penh. That usually works in your favor: your "day one" often starts the same calendar day you apply, or even a day earlier than you would expect. None of this changes the 3-business-day window itself — it only changes which calendar days those three business days fall on, which is exactly why pending can feel longer than it really is when you are counting in your own time zone.

• Weekends are dead air. A pending status that carries across Saturday and Sunday has not stalled — those days simply do not count toward the 3 business days, so the clock picks back up on Monday Cambodia time.
• Cambodian holidays pause it, not US ones. Khmer New Year in April and Pchum Ben in autumn can add a day or two to pending. The Fourth of July or Thanksgiving do not affect Cambodian Immigration at all.
• The 11-to-14-hour gap shifts the date. Because Cambodia is well ahead of every US time zone, the calendar date your status flips to approved is often a day off from what a literal "three days from now" count would suggest.

If you want to watch the status change rather than wonder about it, you can track it directly. Our step-by-step guide to checking your Cambodia eVisa status walks through where to look, what each stage means, and how to read the queue without refreshing every five minutes.

When pending is fine, and the rare time to act

Here is the simple rule. Within 3 business days, pending is fine — full stop. You do not need to email anyone, resubmit anything, or start a second application. In fact, starting a second application is one of the few things that genuinely causes problems, because a duplicate file under the same passport can confuse the review and slow both down. If you are inside the window, the best thing you can do is nothing.

There are exactly two situations where pending warrants action. The first is an email asking you to correct something — almost always a photo that got auto-flagged or a passport scan with glare on the laminate. That email is not a rejection; it is a quick fix. Reply with the corrected file and the clock keeps running from there. The second is when pending runs clearly past 3 business days with no email at all. That is uncommon, and it usually traces back to a weekend, a Cambodian holiday, or an approval PDF that quietly landed in your spam or promotions folder.

So before you assume something is wrong, check your spam and promotions folders first — automated approval emails filter there more often than you would think. If pending is genuinely past the window and your inbox is empty, that is the point to reach out, and our breakdown of what to do when a Cambodia eVisa takes longer than expected covers the common fixable causes and the exact steps to get it moving again.

It is also worth knowing why fixing a flagged file is painless rather than costly. The 3-business-day clock only runs on a complete submission, so a corrected photo or scan effectively restarts that clock from the day you re-upload — and free resubmission is part of the all-in price, not a paid do-over. You will never be charged again to fix a flag. If you would rather just see the moment the PDF arrives, our note on when the Cambodia eVisa arrives by email explains the delivery side of the same timeline.

Things that quietly extend a pending status

Most of the time pending is doing nothing more than counting down 3 business days. But a handful of avoidable things can stretch it, and all of them are within your control before you submit. Knowing the list ahead of time is the single best way to make sure your status moves straight from pending to approved without a detour.

• A flagged photo. Smiles, glasses, hats, off-white backgrounds, shadows behind the head, and low resolution are the usual auto-flags. A clean photo against a plain white wall is what keeps pending short.
• A hard-to-read passport scan. Glare on the laminate or a cropped corner forces a correction. A flat, evenly lit bio-page capture with all four edges in frame avoids it.
• A name or passport-number mismatch. The details on the application must match the passport machine-readable zone exactly. A single typo can hold a file at pending until it is corrected.
• Applying right before a Cambodian holiday. Khmer New Year and Pchum Ben pause the clock, so a file submitted just before either will sit at pending longer than usual through no fault of its own.
• A second, duplicate application. Submitting twice under the same passport can cross the wires on the review. If you think your first application did not go through, check its status before starting a new one.

The throughline is simple: a clean file the first time keeps pending short. That is the whole reason a checked-before-it-reaches-Immigration application earns its keep — the issues above get caught and fixed before they can stall your status. If you want the full month-by-month picture of how timing affects the queue, our complete guide to Cambodia visa processing time for US citizens maps it out.

One more status that is not your visa: the e-Arrival card

While you are watching your visa sit at pending, it is worth knowing about a second, separate step that catches Americans out — the e-Arrival card. It is the digital immigration, customs, and health declaration every air traveler files, and it runs on the opposite clock from the visa: you file it within 7 days before you land, not weeks ahead. It is 14 fields and $5 USD verified through us. Do not confuse it with your visa being pending; they are two different things on two different timelines. Our explainer on whether you need the Cambodia e-Arrival card covers exactly who files it and when.

Keep the two clocks separate and pending stops being stressful. The visa is the early task: submit it 2 to 3 weeks before you fly, let it sit at pending for its 3 business days, and forget about it once the PDF arrives, because it stays valid for 3 months from issue. The e-Arrival card is the late task: file it in the final week, inside the 7-day window. Americans who plan both at the start sail through arrivals at Techo International (KTI), the new Phnom Penh airport that replaced the old PNH code on September 9, 2025.

Put it all together and pending is the least dramatic part of the whole process: it is the normal state, it clears in 3 business days, it is delivered as a printable PDF by email, with free resubmission if Immigration flags a correction and US-timezone support if anything stalls — a Tourist eVisa at $80 USD or a Business eVisa at $90 USD, one flat fee. When you are ready, you can apply for your Cambodia eVisa and have the whole thing handled in about ten minutes.