Name fields: surname and given names — copy your passport exactly
The first two fields on the form are surname and given names, and they cause more bounce-backs for Australian travellers than any other input on the page. The rule is simple — copy your Australian passport word-for-word. Not your driver licence, not your Medicare card, not what you go by at work or what your mum calls you. Open the passport bio page and type each letter as it appears on the document.
Surname (family name)
Type your surname exactly as it appears in the SURNAME field of your Australian passport. If your passport shows "O'BRIEN" with the apostrophe, type the apostrophe. If it shows "SMITH-JONES" with the hyphen, keep the hyphen. If it is double-barrelled with a space — "VAN DER BERG" — keep the space and the lowercase "van" or "der" if your passport uses them. Do not invent a capitalisation pattern that is not on the passport, and do not "tidy" the spelling. Examples Australian travellers commonly get wrong: missing the apostrophe in O'Connor, dropping the silent letter in McKenzie, swapping the hyphen for a space in Smith-Jones.
Given names (first and middle)
The GIVEN NAMES field on your passport almost always contains every given name on your birth certificate, separated by spaces. Type them all. If your passport says "JESSICA MARIE ELIZABETH", type "JESSICA MARIE ELIZABETH" — not "Jessica" because that's what your boarding pass usually shows. The most common Aussie mistake is dropping the second or third middle name because you forgot it was even on your passport. Your eVisa, your flight booking, and your e-Arrival Card must all match the passport given-names field exactly. If a name mismatch is already on your radar, the name mismatch fix guide walks through the options.
Match the boarding pass, not the other way round
When you book the flight to Cambodia, book under the full name on your passport — including middle names. If your flight booking is in "Jessica Smith" but your passport reads "Jessica Marie Elizabeth Smith", airlines occasionally flag the discrepancy at check-in. The visa, the flight, and the e-Arrival Card should all match the passport.
Gender, date of birth, nationality and place of birth
Past the name fields, the form moves into your core personal details. These are simple if you just read them off the passport in order. Most Aussies get through this block in about ninety seconds.
Gender (M / F)
Pick the value shown in the SEX field on your Australian passport — M or F. Australian passports also recognise X as a non-specified gender; if your passport shows X, the Cambodia eVisa form has a third option on the dropdown labelled X or Other depending on which version of the portal you are using. Pick the value that matches your passport, not what you would prefer or what your driver licence shows. The eVisa must align with the passport bio page or it will not match at the border.
Date of birth (DD/MM/YYYY)
Format is DD/MM/YYYY — the same Australian-style date format you grew up with, day first then month then four-digit year. So 13 June 1985 is 13/06/1985, not 06/13/1985 in US style. The portal will quietly refuse to advance if you mistype the format, which catches out a small number of Australian travellers who default to US-style for online forms. Type it slow, day-month-year, and double-check it against the DOB line on your passport before tabbing out of the field.
Nationality and country of birth
Nationality is Australian — select it from the dropdown. The list is alphabetical and you can type "A" to jump to the start of it. Country of birth is the country where you were physically born, which is not always Australia. Aussies born in the UK, New Zealand, South Africa or anywhere else should select that country from the same dropdown. The visa office cross-checks against the place-of-birth line on your passport, so copy it from there. Dual citizens have an extra layer to think about — the dual citizens guide covers which passport to apply under and why the Australian one is almost always the right call.
Passport number, issue date, expiry date and issuing authority
The passport block is the third major section on the form and the second most common source of bounce-backs after the name fields. Open your passport to the bio page and read each number off slowly. Do not type from memory — Australian passport numbers are eight characters and a single transposition makes the whole eVisa unusable at the border.
Passport number
Australian passport numbers are typically a letter followed by seven digits — for example, P1234567 or PA123456. Type the letter or letters in uppercase, then the digits with no spaces and no hyphens. The number is in the top-right of the passport bio page and also at the start of the machine-readable zone at the bottom. Read it off the top-right printed field — the MRZ at the bottom is harder to read and uses a slightly different format with check digits that should not be typed. If you are unsure your passport meets the broader rules, the passport validity rules guide covers the six-month buffer Cambodia enforces.
Date of issue and date of expiry (DD/MM/YYYY)
Both passport dates use DD/MM/YYYY format, the same as your date of birth. Australian passports show the issue date and expiry date on the right side of the bio page, formatted as DD MMM YYYY (e.g. 14 MAR 2022). Convert the month to its number — JAN=01, FEB=02, MAR=03, and so on — and type the DD/MM/YYYY equivalent. Confirm the expiry date is at least six months after your planned Cambodia arrival; the visa office cross-checks this automatically and will reject the application during review if the buffer is short.
Issuing authority and place of issue
The issuing authority for Australian passports is the Australian Passport Office, which the form usually pre-fills if you have picked Australian as the nationality. The place of issue is shown on your passport bio page in the AUTHORITY field — common values are AUSTRALIA, SYDNEY, MELBOURNE or BRISBANE. Type whatever is printed. If your passport was issued overseas at an Australian consulate (LONDON, NEW DELHI, BANGKOK and so on), type that instead.
Occupation and purpose of visit — keep them plain English
Two fields on the Cambodia eVisa form are free-text — occupation and purpose. They are where Australian travellers most commonly over-think the form. The visa office reviewer is reading hundreds of these a day; plain, clear, recognisable wording moves through fastest. Anything that looks vague, jargon-heavy or industry-internal gets a second look and slows the file down.
Occupation — what to write
Use the most plain-English version of your job title that a person on the street would understand. "Software Engineer" beats "IT Specialist". "Registered Nurse" beats "Healthcare Professional". "Tradesman" or "Electrician" beats "Skilled Tradesperson". "Teacher" beats "Educator". "Retired" is a fine standalone answer if you are no longer working. "Student" works for full-time studies. "Self-employed" or "Business owner" is acceptable but follow with what the business actually does in the next phrase if the form lets you — for example, "Self-employed (cafe owner)". The instinct to write impressive corporate titles like "Strategic Account Director" or "Global Talent Partner" works against you here. The reviewer wants to recognise the job, not be impressed by it.
Purpose of visit — Tourism, Business, or other
Purpose of visit is a dropdown with a small list of choices — usually Tourism, Business, Visiting Family, Transit, and a couple of less-common ones. If you are going to Cambodia for a holiday, pick Tourism. If you are going for meetings, paid work, conferences, sales calls, supplier visits, due diligence or any sponsored event, pick Business — that requires the business eVisa at $90 USD (~$137 AUD) and the business visa for Australians page covers when the upgrade is genuinely needed. If you are visiting family, that's its own option. Picking the wrong purpose is not a rejection cause, but picking Tourism when you'll actually be working can create an awkward conversation at the border.
Honesty is the easy path
Cambodian Immigration officers at KTI, SAI and KOS occasionally ask the purpose-of-visit question on arrival as a verbal check. Your verbal answer must match what is on the eVisa. If you wrote Tourism and tell the officer you are flying in for a sales meeting, expect a longer conversation. Pick the right purpose at form time, and arrival is forty-five seconds.
Accommodation in Cambodia, arrival details and the final review
The last block on the form is travel logistics — where you are staying in Cambodia, your planned arrival date, and which airport or border you will enter through. None of these are technically binding (the eVisa is valid for entry at KTI, SAI, KOS and the major land borders regardless of what you tick), but the form will not let you submit with the fields blank.
Accommodation name and address — book first, then apply
Type the name and street address of where you are staying in Cambodia on your first night. The visa office wants a real booking — a hotel, guesthouse, hostel, or family-member address is fine. Booking.com, Agoda, Airbnb and direct hotel bookings all count. If you have not booked anything yet, stop here. Open Booking.com, find a free-cancellation hotel in Phnom Penh or Siem Reap for your first night, book it, and come back. Typing "TBC" or "unsure" in this field causes a fail every time. The first trip planning checklist is the place to start if you are still mapping out the trip.
Arrival date and entry point
Type your planned arrival date in DD/MM/YYYY format — the day you land at KTI, SAI or KOS, or cross a Vietnam or Laos land border. The date can be up to three months ahead; the eVisa is valid for 3 months from issue. Entry point is a dropdown with the main airports (Phnom Penh KTI, Siem Reap SAI, Sihanoukville KOS) and major land crossings (Bavet from Vietnam, Tropaeng Kreal from Laos). Pick whichever matches your flight or overland plan. If you change your entry point later, that is fine — the eVisa is not locked to the specific border you ticked.
Final review before payment
Before you click Pay, scroll the entire form once more from the top. The two fields most worth a second pass are the surname and the passport number — they account for the majority of avoidable bounce-backs. Read both letter-by-letter against your passport. Confirm dates are DD/MM/YYYY everywhere. Confirm your accommodation field is filled. Then pay — $80 USD (~$122 AUD) all-in for tourist or $90 USD (~$137 AUD) for business — and the approval lands in your inbox in 3 business days as a printable PDF by email. Free resubmission if Immigration flags a correction, and Aussie-timezone support is on the email thread if anything needs adjusting. Smartraveller Cambodia is the official DFAT entry-rules briefing if you want a final sanity check.
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
