Cambodia Business Visa for Aussie Supplier & Factory Visits: 2026 Buyer Guide

The typical supplier-visit cadence: travel days, site days, wrap-up

The realistic cadence of a Cambodian supplier visit is rarely a single day on-site. The pattern that works for nearly every Aussie buyer we have briefed in the past five years runs roughly like this: one travel day in (Sydney or Melbourne overnight via Singapore, Bangkok, or Kuala Lumpur), one or two site days at the supplier's facility, half a day of Phnom Penh meetings, and one travel day out. That is a 4-5 day trip total, comfortably inside a 30-day Business eVisa stay, with plenty of buffer for the things that go sideways.

• Day -14 to -10 (two weeks out): lodge the Business eVisa from Australia. $90 USD (~$137 AUD), approved in 3 business days, delivered as a printable PDF by email. Check passport validity (6+ months, one blank page). Confirm site-visit dates with the supplier in writing.
• Day -7 (one week out): file the e-Arrival Card. Separate from the eVisa, mandatory for every air arrival, $5 USD (~$7.50 AUD) verified through us, checked end-to-end before it reaches Immigration. Screenshot the QR for offline access.
• Day -3 (final week): confirm hotel (BKK1 Phnom Penh for Kandal-area visits, Toul Kork or Russian Market for industrial-east, Sihanoukville hotel direct for KOS-area SEZ visits). Confirm the driver or supplier transfer. Pack lightweight cotton or linen, closed-toe shoes for the factory floor, a small notebook, and your printed eVisa PDF.
• Day 0 (arrival): land at KTI, immigration desk 10-20 minutes, taxi or rideshare to hotel. Light dinner with colleagues, early night, your supplier's general manager may invite you to a kickoff dinner — accept if offered.
• Day 1 (kickoff + first site day): morning meeting at the supplier's office in Phnom Penh, drive out to the facility after lunch, 3-4 hours on the floor with the QC lead and production manager, return to the hotel for dinner.
• Day 2 (second site day or second facility): full day on-site, sample reviews, costing discussions, walk through the cutting and finishing rooms, photograph processes with permission.
• Day 3 (wrap-up + flight): morning wrap-up meeting in Phnom Penh, lunch with the supplier's commercial lead, transfer to KTI for the afternoon flight out.

The two corners most often cut. People skip the e-Arrival Card thinking the eVisa covers it (it doesn't — they are separate products). People also under-pack for the factory floor; tropical industrial environments in Kandal and Kampong Speu run hot, humid, and dusty, and a stiff business shirt becomes uncomfortable inside an hour. Lightweight cotton with a soft collar is the working buyer's default. The Australian eVisa application walkthrough has the click-by-click for the Business eVisa form.

What factory hosts expect from your visa documentation

This part trips up first-time buyers. Cambodian factory hosts and supplier general managers do not, in practice, ask to see your visa. They assume you have the right paperwork — that is the job of your travel coordinator or your supplier's own logistics team before the trip is confirmed. The factory gate is not the place for a visa conversation, and pulling out a printed PDF at reception reads as either inexperienced or oddly defensive. A confident buyer arrives, shakes hands with the host, signs the visitor book if asked, and goes through to the meeting room.

Where the visa does occasionally come up, politely, is at the hotel desk on check-in. Higher-end Phnom Penh hotels ask to see your passport and visa as part of the check-in process, scan both, and file them for the standard tourism-police registration. This is a paperwork formality, not a verification of your trip purpose. The Business eVisa PDF page is what they want — print one extra copy for your wallet, alongside the two copies you carry for entry and exit at Immigration.

The other moment it can come up is at the immigration desk itself, on arrival. The officer may casually ask the purpose of your trip — a clean, honest answer is best: 'supplier visit with our garment manufacturer in Kandal' or 'site audit at our packaging partner in Sihanoukville.' This matches the Business class in your passport and closes the conversation. Carrying a printed copy of your supplier's invitation email or the calendar invite for the site visit is a sensible backup if asked, but it is not a formal requirement of the Business eVisa application.

If you are travelling on a frequent buyer cadence — quarterly site visits across the year, or monthly during a peak production run — the multi-entry Business eVisa option is worth a serious look. It costs more upfront ($150 USD (~$229 AUD) government fee plus service margin) but removes the per-trip application step. Our frequent traveller Cambodia visa strategy guide for Australians runs the maths on when multi-entry pays off, and the Tourist vs Business detailed comparison covers the wider visa-class decision.

Dressing for tropical industrial sites in Cambodia

Cambodian factory floors run hot. Garment cutting rooms in Kandal can sit at 32-35 degrees with high humidity, footwear and assembly halls in Sihanoukville SEZ are similar, and rice-mill or cassava-processing yards in Battambang are open-walled with full tropical exposure. A stiff Sydney business shirt and merino tailoring become unbearable within an hour. The working buyer's uniform is lightweight cotton or linen in a soft mid-tone, an open collar (no tie), chinos or lightweight trousers, and closed-toe shoes you can walk five kilometres in without complaint.

Closed-toe is non-negotiable on most production floors for safety reasons. Open sandals or slip-ons will see you politely redirected to the visitor office, missing the floor walk you flew over for. A clean pair of low-profile leather or canvas shoes is the right choice — formal enough for the morning meeting, robust enough for the factory floor in the afternoon. Pack a small bottle of water, a thin notebook (not a leather portfolio, which feels heavy in the heat), and a phone with the camera ready if you have photograph permission.

KTI to Sihanoukville (KOS) for coastal industrial zones

If your supplier sits in the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone or one of the smaller coastal industrial parks along the Gulf of Thailand, your routing usually flows through Techo International (KTI) in Phnom Penh and then onward to Sihanoukville International (KOS). Two practical options. The faster path is the Cambodia Angkor Air or PMT Air domestic hop — roughly 45 minutes airborne, $80-130 USD (~$122-198 AUD) one way, two daily departures most weekdays. The cheaper path is a road transfer down the coastal highway — roughly four hours by private car or van, $120-180 USD (~$183-275 AUD) for a comfortable vehicle with a driver.

The choice usually comes down to how much weight you are carrying and how the supplier prefers to receive you. The road transfer wins for buyers carrying bulky sample bags, for groups of three or more colleagues sharing a van, and for trips where the supplier wants to show you a second facility en route. The flight wins for solo buyers on a tight schedule, for the rainy season (June-October) when the highway can flood in patches, and for any trip where you want to spend a productive Phnom Penh morning before heading to the coast in the afternoon.

KTI itself is the new Phnom Penh gateway — it replaced Pochentong (PNH) on 9 September 2025 and is now the single arrivals airport for the capital. Sihanoukville (KOS) is the second major southern gateway and the closest airport to the coastal SEZs. Our Cambodia airports KTI, SAI, and KOS guide for Australians runs the full comparison, the KTI airport guide for Phnom Penh covers the new terminal in detail, and the SAI airport guide for Siem Reap is the parallel reference if your supplier itinerary also touches the northern temple region.

Next steps and related reading for Australians: apply for your Cambodia eVisa when you are ready to lodge, bookmark our Cambodia visa hub for Australian citizens as the single canonical reference, skim the FAQ on Cambodia visa business visa for quick answers, and use our glossary of Cambodia visa terms to decode any acronym in this guide.