The Cambodia e-Arrival Card was built for air arrivals. If you fly in, you file it within 7 days before you land. If you cross overland from Vietnam, the rules play out differently — here is exactly what changes for Americans.
The Cambodia e-Arrival Card was built for air arrivals, and that is where it is unambiguously required: every American flying into Cambodia files it within the 7 days before landing. At a land border the arrival declaration is handled at the crossing itself, so the digital card does not work the same way it does at an airport. What does carry across both routes is your eVisa — you need an approved Cambodia eVisa whether you fly in or cross overland from Vietnam. For most US travelers the land-border question only arises on the Vietnam side, because all seven Thailand-Cambodia land borders have been closed since June 2025. If you are flying in, the e-Arrival Card is mandatory and you file it before you go.
Here is the clean way to hold it: the Cambodia e-Arrival Card was designed for people stepping off a plane. If you fly into Cambodia, it is mandatory and you file it in the week before you land. The land-border picture is different — the arrival declaration there happens at the crossing, in person, not through the same digital card you would file from your couch before a flight. So the honest answer to "does the e-Arrival Card apply at land borders?" is that it is an air-arrival tool first, and you should not assume the airport process copies straight onto an overland entry.
The reason this question even comes up is geography. The e-Arrival Card replaced the little paper card a flight attendant used to hand you on the descent into Phnom Penh, so it is wired to flights, ports, and manifests. The moment you are arriving in a bus or a private car instead of a seat in row 24, the neat assumptions behind the digital form stop lining up. Americans who are doing a Vietnam-and-Cambodia trip overland are the ones who run into this, and they are right to ask before they get to the gate.
This guide separates the two routes cleanly: what you file flying in, what actually happens crossing overland from Vietnam, and the one document that does not care which way you enter. If you are still nailing down whether you need the card at all, our explainer on whether US citizens need a Cambodia e-Arrival Card sets the baseline. And if your route is overland, the detailed walkthrough on whether you need the e-Arrival Card at a Cambodia land border goes deeper on the crossing itself.
Start with the easy half, because it covers almost every American. If you reach Cambodia by air, you file the e-Arrival Card. Full stop. There is no nationality exemption, no minimum-stay exemption, and no version of an air arrival in 2026 that skips it. It does not matter whether you land at Techo International (KTI) near Phnom Penh, Siem Reap-Angkor (SAI), or Sihanouk (KOS) — the card is required at all of them.
The card is 14 fields across three sections: who you are, how you are arriving, and what you are bringing in. You file it within the 7 days before you land, not months ahead — the system is tied to a specific flight and will not accept it earlier. A good anchor is to do it the same day you check in online for your flight, when your flight number and date are locked and you can enter them correctly the first time. The output is a confirmed submission with a QR code you scan on arrival.
The single thing that trips Americans up here is the date format. The form uses a day-month-year layout in places, and US travelers default to month-day-year — enter 06/07 meaning July 6th when the system reads June 7th, and your arrival date is suddenly a month off. That is the most common reason a US-filed card gets flagged at the kiosk. Our step-by-step walkthrough of the e-Arrival Card shows every field in the order the form presents them, so the date trap and the flight-number trap are easy to sidestep before you ever reach immigration.
Now the half that actually prompted your search. When you arrive overland, the e-Arrival Card you would file before a flight is not the mechanism that gets you through the gate. The arrival declaration at a land crossing is handled at the border post itself, in person, on the day you cross. The digital card is purpose-built for the airport flow — flight number, port of entry, a QR code matched against a passenger manifest — and a bus rolling up to a land checkpoint does not feed any of that the way a flight does.
That is the core of the confusion. Because the card is called "e-Arrival," travelers assume it is a universal pre-arrival step for every way into Cambodia. It is not. It is an air-arrival instrument that replaced the paper card on the plane. At a land border you are dealing with officers and paperwork at the crossing, not a manifest-linked digital submission filed days earlier. Do not file an air-style card and assume it has covered your overland entry — that is the mismatch that leaves people uncertain at the checkpoint.
The practical upshot for an American on an overland leg is to treat the crossing on its own terms rather than porting the airport routine across. The arrival side is settled at the border; your job before you get there is to have the eVisa sorted and the right supporting bits in hand. Our dedicated land-border guide walks the crossing step by step, and it is the page to read if your route is overland rather than by air.
Here is the part that does not change based on how you enter. You need an approved Cambodia eVisa whether you fly in or cross overland from Vietnam. The eVisa is your permission to enter the country; the e-Arrival Card is only ever the arrival declaration that sits on top of it. So while the arrival step looks different by air versus land, the visa step is the same job either way — get it approved before you travel.
As a US citizen you apply online ahead of time, it is approved in 3 business days, and it lands as a printable PDF by email. That single document is what you present at an airport kiosk and what you carry to a land border. Print it or save it offline so you have it regardless of signal — a checkpoint in the countryside is not the place to discover you cannot load your inbox. Our complete guide to the Cambodia visa for US citizens walks the whole approval side end to end.
One thing to keep straight on a multi-country trip: the standard tourist eVisa is single entry. If your plan is Cambodia, then a hop back into Vietnam, then back into Cambodia, that second Cambodian entry needs its own visa coverage — the first eVisa is spent the moment you exit. Map your border sequence before you book, because a single-entry visa and a loop itinerary do not mix without planning.
For US travelers, the land-border question is almost entirely a Vietnam question. That is because the other overland option people remember — the Bangkok-to-Siem Reap run from Thailand — is off the table. All seven Thailand-Cambodia land borders have been closed since June 2025, so if Thailand is in your plans, you fly between the two countries. That leaves Vietnam as the realistic overland entry, most commonly the Moc Bai-Bavet crossing on the Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh route.
On that Vietnam route, the sequence is straightforward once you stop trying to file an airport-style card for it. Get your Cambodia eVisa approved before you leave, carry it printed, and handle the arrival declaration at the Bavet crossing itself. Our Vietnam to Cambodia land border guide for the Bavet crossing covers the bus logistics, the document order, and what the crossing actually looks like on the ground — read it alongside this page if your trip runs overland from Ho Chi Minh City.
A few practical notes specific to crossing from Vietnam. Have a sense of where you are staying in Cambodia and a rough onward plan in your head — border officers ask, and a vague answer slows you down. Keep small US dollars accessible; Cambodia runs heavily on USD and a land crossing is not the spot to rely on a card. And give yourself buffer time: an overland day from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh is long, and a missed connection on the Cambodian side is a worse headache than an hour of slack in the schedule.
The mistake to avoid is treating the overland entry as if it were an afterthought of the air process. It is its own thing. Americans who plan the crossing as a crossing — eVisa in hand, arrival sorted at the post, cash ready — move through fine. The ones who show up assuming a card they filed for a flight has somehow covered a bus crossing are the ones standing at the checkpoint working it out in real time.
Flying in is how almost every American reaches Cambodia; the only realistic overland route is from Vietnam, since all seven Thailand land borders are closed.
Apply online either way — it is approved in 3 business days and arrives as a printable PDF by email.
Submit the 14-field card for $5 USD within the 7 days before you land, then scan the QR code at the airport.
Carry the eVisa printed or offline and settle the arrival declaration in person at the crossing on the day.
The standard tourist eVisa is single entry, so a second Cambodian entry after a Vietnam hop needs its own visa coverage.
Decide your route first, because it sets which arrival step is yours. If you are flying in — which is how almost every American reaches Cambodia in 2026 — your two jobs are clear: get the eVisa approved, then file the e-Arrival Card in the week before you land. When you file a verified card with us for $5 USD, it is checked end-to-end before it reaches Cambodian Immigration — name spelling against your passport, flight number against your final leg, and the date format that catches so many US travelers out.
If you are crossing overland from Vietnam, your front-loaded job is the eVisa, approved in 3 business days and carried printed or offline. The arrival declaration is settled at the border post on the day, so you are not filing an airport-style card for it. Either way the eVisa is the constant — it is the document that works at a kiosk and at a checkpoint, and it is the one to lock in first.
Two routes, one visa, different arrival steps. Fly in and the e-Arrival Card is mandatory and filed before you go; cross overland and the arrival is handled at the border. Get the eVisa approved either way, and match the arrival step to how you are actually entering. If your route is the Vietnam overland leg, our deep dive on the land-border crossing settles the detail.
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หากการเดินทางของคุณไปกัมพูชาเกิน 30 วัน วีซ่าที่คุณใช้เข้าประเทศจะเป็นตัวตัดสินทุกอย่าง วีซ่าท่องเที่ยวอิเล็กทรอนิกส์ (Type T) จำกัดอยู่ที่ 30 วันเท่านั้นและไม่สามารถต่ออายุได้ วีซ่าธุรกิจอิเล็กทรอนิกส์ (Type E) เป็นประเภทเดียวที่คุณสามารถต่ออายุในประเทศได้ — 1, 3, 6, หรือ 12 เดือน นี่คือวิธีที่ชาวอเมริกันเลือกอย่างถูกต้องก่อนบิน
Three things cross the counter at Cambodia Immigration: your US passport, your eVisa, and your e-Arrival QR code. Here is exactly what the officer wants to see, in what order, and the small mismatches that turn a 30-second stamp into a side-desk detour at KTI.
With every Thailand–Cambodia land border still closed, Bavet is now the main overland way into Cambodia from Vietnam. Six hours from Ho Chi Minh City, one printed eVisa, no e-Arrival Card — here is how US citizens actually do it in 2026.
Bangkok in, Siem Reap out — but the land border is closed, so fly between them.
Read the 2026 update →The overland leg most Americans actually cross — Moc Bai to Bavet.
See the combo guide →The overlooked third stop on the Indochina loop.
Plan the Laos route →
