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The passport number is the key — not your identity

Here is the mechanism in plain terms. When you apply for a Cambodia eVisa, the approval is bound to the exact passport number you enter. The PDF that lands in your inbox shows that number, and Immigration matches it against the physical passport you present on arrival. If the number on the eVisa and the number in your passport do not match, the eVisa is not valid for that book — full stop. There is no manual override at the gate for "but it is still me."

A US passport renewal always issues a new passport number. It is not the same book with a later expiry; it is a new document with a new number, even though your name and photo carry over. So the instant you renew, any eVisa attached to your old number stops being usable, regardless of how many months of validity it had left. An eVisa you bought for a trip you ended up postponing does not survive a renewal in between.

The upside of this design is that your prior Cambodia history does not follow you into the new application in any way that complicates it. MFAIC has no link between your old passport number and your new one at the application stage, so you are processed as a clean, new applicant — same fee, same 3-business-day timeline, no flags inherited from past trips. If you are weighing whether anything about your visa history can resurface, our guide on what is different the second time you apply for a Cambodia eVisa covers what changes and what does not for returning travelers.

What stays the same and what changes when you reapply

For a returning American, almost everything about reapplying is identical to your first time. The price is the same, the processing time is the same, the document list is the same, and the delivery is the same. What changes is small but specific: the passport details you enter, and the small habit of double-checking that none of your old-passport information has crept into the form from memory or autofill.

The cost does not change for having visited before. The Tourist eVisa is $80 USD all-in and the Business eVisa is $90 USD all-in, each approved in 3 business days and delivered as a printable PDF by email. There is no loyalty discount, no returning-traveler rate, and no express tier — Cambodia processes every eVisa on the same 3-business-day track whether it is your first trip or your tenth. If anyone tells you a repeat application is cheaper or faster, it is not.

What you actually do differently is enter the current passport details and nothing else. New passport number, new issue date, new expiry date, name exactly as printed on the new book, and a fresh scan of the new bio page. Your photo can be a new compliant shot — you do not reuse the one from years ago. If you want the reapplication boiled down to a tight checklist, our faster reapply checklist for returning Americans lists every field worth a second look before you submit.

Field by field: copy your current passport exactly

The single most common stumble for a returning American is muscle memory. You have done this before, so you type from recall, and a digit of the old passport number or last cycle's expiry date slips in. The fix is mechanical: have your new physical passport open in front of you and copy each field directly off the page rather than from memory. Treat it as if you have never applied before, because as far as Cambodia is concerned, this passport never has.

Start with the passport number. US passport numbers can mix letters and digits, and a renewed book is a completely different string from your last one — there is no shared pattern. Read it straight off the bio page, character by character, and check it twice. Then the issue date and the expiry date, both taken from the new book. The new passport must have at least 6 months of validity from your date of entry into Cambodia and one blank page for the entry stamp; a freshly renewed passport comfortably clears both, which is one quiet benefit of renewing.

Next, your name. Enter it exactly as printed on the new passport, including middle names and any hyphenation, in the same order the bio page shows. If you renewed and also changed your name — marriage being the usual reason — the application must follow the new passport, not the name you traveled under last time. Do not blend the two. The name on the eVisa has to match the machine-readable zone of the passport you will actually hand over at Immigration.

Finally, upload a fresh scan of the new bio page and a recent passport-style photo — both edges of the page visible, no glare, the photo against a plain light background with a neutral expression. Do not reuse the scan or photo from a previous application; they belong to the old book. For the full validity and blank-page rules on the US passport itself, our Cambodia passport requirements for Americans guide lays out exactly what Immigration checks.

Your old passport, your old visa, and your travel history

A frequent worry from returning Americans is whether they need to prove they have been to Cambodia before — carry the old passport, show the old stamps, reference the prior eVisa. You do not. Cambodia does not ask for your travel history at the application stage, and the eVisa form has no field for a previous visa. You apply on the new passport alone, and your past trips are simply not part of the paperwork.

You also do not need to bring the old passport to the airport to bridge the two books. Some countries want to see a prior visa stamped in an expired passport; Cambodia does not work that way for the eVisa. Immigration matches the eVisa to your current passport number and your biometrics, and that is the entire check. Leave the old book at home unless you have a separate reason to carry it, such as a still-valid visa for another country printed inside it.

There is one place your identity quietly persists across the passport change: biometrics. Cambodia captures face and fingerprint data on entry, and that can tie you to a prior visit even though your passport number is new. For the overwhelming majority of travelers this is invisible and irrelevant — it only ever matters if your earlier history included something like an overstay, a deportation, or a fraud flag. If your past trips were clean, the new passport simply reads as a new applicant and you move through normally.

If you happen to be returning on a genuinely different passport rather than a straight renewal — a second passport, or a new nationality — the logic is the same but the supporting paperwork can differ. Our guide on fixing wrong information on a Cambodia eVisa for US citizens covers what to do if you already bought an eVisa before the renewal landed and now hold a book it does not match.

The e-Arrival Card keys to the new passport too

The eVisa is not the only thing tied to your passport number. The Cambodia e-Arrival Card — the separate, mandatory step every air arrival files — also records your passport details, and it must match the book you actually travel on. If you reapply for the eVisa on your renewed passport, file the e-Arrival Card on the same new passport. A card carrying your old number will not line up with your eVisa or your physical passport at the kiosk.

The e-Arrival Card is $5 USD verified through us, 14 fields across three short sections, submitted within 7 days before you arrive. It is a fresh submission every trip regardless of your passport situation — there is no carry-over from a previous visit any more than there is for the visa. The same discipline applies: copy the new passport number, dates, and name straight off the book, not from memory of last time.

Because both the eVisa and the e-Arrival Card key to the same new number, the cleanest approach is to do them together off the one open passport in a single sitting — apply for the eVisa, then file the e-Arrival inside its 7-day window before departure. Our returning-traveler reapply checklist sequences both steps so nothing on the new book gets missed.

Reapply clean, and you are through in three business days

To pull it together: a renewed US passport means a new eVisa, no exceptions, because Cambodia keys the approval to the passport number and the new number replaces the old. You reapply as a fresh applicant — $80 USD Tourist or $90 USD Business, approved in 3 business days, delivered as a printable PDF by email — with no discount and no penalty for having visited before. The only real task is accuracy: every field copied off the current passport, nothing inherited from the old one.

Get that right and reapplying is genuinely uneventful. The mistakes that cost a returning American a day are all the same shape — an old passport number typed from memory, last cycle's expiry date, a name that no longer matches a post-marriage book, or a stale scan from a previous application. None of them happen if you fill the form with the new passport open in front of you. And if Immigration ever flags a correction, the resubmission is free; you are not charged again to fix a field.

Next steps and related reading for Americans: apply for your Cambodia eVisa on your current passport when you are ready, confirm the rule in our guide on needing a new eVisa for every trip, and review the US passport validity and blank-page rules so the details on your renewed book are squared away before you submit.