Cambodia Visa Document Scans: How Americans Upload Passport and Photo Without Getting Flagged
The documents needed for a Cambodia eVisa are simple — a passport scan and a photo. What flags American files is not the documents, it is the scan quality. Here is how to upload both so they clear on the first try.
How should US citizens scan and upload documents for a Cambodia eVisa?
Lay your US passport flat on a dark surface, light it with daylight from a side window (never the flash), and shoot the bio page from directly above so both edges are in frame and every character of the machine-readable zone is legible. For the photo, use a plain white wall, neutral expression, no glasses, and save it as a JPEG around 600×600 pixels or larger. The documents needed are just the passport scan and the photo — what flags American files is glare, blur, cropped corners, or a filtered image, and every one of those is a free re-upload that keeps the 3-business-day clock running.
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- The documents needed for a Cambodia eVisa are light — a passport bio-page scan and a passport-style photo — but the upload quality is what decides whether a file clears or bounces.
- A clean phone-camera capture beats a flatbed scanner: lay the passport flat, use side daylight, no flash, and keep every machine-readable character legible.
- Glare on the laminate is the number one cause of a blurry scan rejected for US applicants — tilt the passport a few degrees so the reflection slides off to the side.
- Save the photo as a JPEG, ideally 600×600 pixels or larger, and convert from HEIC if your iPhone shot it that way; oversized or filtered images get auto-flagged.
- A flagged scan or photo is a free resubmission, not a new fee, and the 3-business-day clock keeps running once you re-upload a clean file.
It is not the documents that flag you — it is the scan
The documents needed for a Cambodia eVisa are about as light as travel paperwork gets for US citizens: a scan of your passport bio page and a passport-style photo. That is the part travelers worry about, and it is rarely the part that goes wrong. What actually bounces an American file back to the inbox is scan quality — a blown-out laminate, a soft-focus photo, a corner cropped off the page, a file the size of a small movie. The document is fine. The capture is not.
On the Rejection & Resubmission desk, the same handful of upload problems repeat week after week. They are all avoidable, and none of them need a scanner, a photo studio, or any gear beyond the phone already in your pocket. The trick is knowing exactly what the upload validator looks for before you hit submit, so the file clears on the first pass instead of costing you a day.
This guide is about the upload itself — how to capture a passport scan and a photo that clear the first time, and how to fix the specific things that flag US applicants. It sits inside the wider Cambodia visa for US citizens process, so if you are still confirming which items you actually need, start with the full Cambodia eVisa documents required for Americans, then come back here for the scan-quality detail. When your files are ready, you can apply directly — most Americans finish the upload step inside three minutes.
How to capture a passport bio-page scan that clears
Cambodian Immigration needs to read every detail on your US passport bio page — full name, passport number, date of birth, issue and expiry dates, and the two lines of the machine-readable zone at the bottom. That is the whole job of the scan: legibility. A phone camera does this better than most home scanners, because you control the angle and the light. You do not need a flatbed.
Put the passport flat on a clean, plain, ideally dark surface. A wooden desk or a dark notebook works well, because contrast makes the page edges sharper for the upload validator to detect. Open it fully so the bio page lies flat with no curl at the spine. Press the page down gently if it lifts. Use daylight coming in from a side window, never the camera flash — the flash bounces straight back off the laminate and washes out the middle of the page where your number and name sit.
Hold the phone directly above the open passport, parallel to the page, at about a foot. Tap the screen to focus on the printed text before you shoot, and wait for it to lock — a half-second of patience here saves a resubmission. Frame both edges of the page with a thumb-width of margin on all four sides. The single most common scan rejection for US applicants is a corner of the bio page cropped out of frame, so give yourself room rather than filling the shot edge to edge.
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What documents do I need to scan and upload for a Cambodia eVisa?
Two: a clear scan of your US passport bio page and a recent passport-style photo. That is the whole upload. You do not need a return flight, hotel booking, bank statement, or itinerary. What decides whether the file clears is the quality of those two captures — legible passport text and a plain, unfiltered headshot.
Can I use my phone to scan my passport, or do I need a scanner?
A phone camera is fine and usually better than a home scanner, because you control the angle and the light. Lay the passport flat on a dark surface, use daylight from a side window rather than the flash, hold the phone parallel to the page about a foot above, tap to lock focus, and keep both edges in frame. No flatbed scanner needed.
Why does my Cambodia eVisa passport scan keep getting rejected?
The usual culprits are glare on the laminate, soft focus, or a corner cropped out of frame. Tilt the passport a few degrees so the reflection slides off to the side, brace your elbows to avoid blur, and leave a thumb-width margin around all four edges. Then zoom in and confirm every character of the name, number, and machine-readable zone is legible before uploading.
What file format and size should the photo be?
Save it as a JPEG, ideally around 600×600 pixels or larger. iPhones shoot in HEIC by default, which may not be accepted, so convert to a JPEG copy first. Do not upload the raw full-resolution original — an oversized file can be refused. Crop to a clean square of your head and shoulders rather than the whole room.
Will a blurry scan get my Cambodia eVisa rejected?
A blurry scan gets flagged for re-upload, not your trip rejected. You get an email listing exactly what to redo, with no extra charge. Re-shoot the page with side daylight and locked focus, confirm the text is crisp, and re-upload. Reply quickly and the 3-business-day clock keeps running.
Can I apply a filter or edit my passport photo before uploading?
No. The auto-checker looks for natural skin texture and rejects heavily smoothed, beautified, or color-shifted images. Skip portrait mode and any filter. A plain, unfiltered, evenly lit JPEG against a white wall with a neutral expression is exactly what clears.
How many blank pages and what passport quality does the scan need to show?
The scan only needs to show your bio page clearly — the page with your photo and details. Your passport itself should have at least 6 months of validity from your date of entry and one full blank page for the entry stamp, but the upload validator is checking that the bio-page text is legible, not counting blank pages. Make sure the machine-readable zone at the bottom is fully readable.
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