Does the Cambodia eVisa Process on Weekends and Holidays?

How the US–Cambodia time difference adds a day around weekends

There is a second layer that catches Americans specifically: the time difference. Cambodia sits in a single time zone, Indochina Time, that runs roughly 11 to 14 hours ahead of the continental United States depending on your coast and the season. When it is Friday evening on the East Coast, it is already Saturday morning in Phnom Penh. From the West Coast the gap is wider still. So your sense of which day you submitted on and Cambodia’s sense of it are often two different dates.

Around weekends, that offset matters more than usual. Picture a complete application submitted at 9 p.m. Pacific on a Friday. In Cambodia it is already Saturday afternoon — a non-working day. So the work does not begin Friday in any meaningful sense; it begins on the next Cambodian business day, which is Monday. Your three-business-day count effectively starts Monday in Phnom Penh, and the approval lands later in the following week than the US date on your screen would suggest.

The practical move is to think in Cambodian business days rather than US clock time. Whatever evening you submit on in the United States, assume Cambodia logs it on the next day. If that next day is a Saturday or a holiday, the real start slides to the next working day after it. Count three Cambodian business days forward from there, skipping weekends, and the date in your inbox will match your expectation every time.

Cambodian public holidays that pause the clock

Cambodia keeps one of the more generous public-holiday calendars in the region, and those holidays pause the 3-business-day clock exactly the way a weekend does. The office is closed, so the day does not count. Most are single days that barely register, but two stretches are long enough to reshape your timeline if you submit near them — and they are the two most likely to catch an American off guard.

Khmer New Year, in mid-April, is the big one. It is a multi-day national celebration where offices close for several days running, and the days on either side often go quiet too. An application that lands just before Khmer New Year waits for the office to reopen before the count resumes — so what looks like a 3-business-day file on the calendar can stretch well past a week in real time. If your trip is in April, this is the single most important date to plan around.

Pchum Ben, in the fall (its date moves with the lunar calendar, usually September or October), is the other long break, again running several days. Beyond those two, watch for clustered single-day holidays — independence and royal observances among them — that can fall adjacent to a weekend and create a four-day gap. None of these change the count of three business days; they simply move the calendar date on which that third business day finally arrives.

If your travel falls anywhere near April or the fall, build in extra room and apply earlier than usual. Our dedicated guide to Cambodia visa processing during Khmer New Year and Pchum Ben breaks down the specific holiday windows and how much buffer to add, and the companion piece on how far in advance to apply for a Cambodia eVisa for Americans helps you set a submission date that clears every break comfortably.

How to plan so weekends and holidays never matter

The fix for every one of these wrinkles is the same: apply about one to two weeks before you fly. That buffer is wide enough to absorb a weekend, a Cambodian holiday, the time-zone slide, and a flagged correction all at once. When you give the window that much room, the question of whether processing happens on a Saturday becomes irrelevant — there is enough slack that the exact finish date stops mattering.

Applying early carries no downside on the visa side. The eVisa is valid for 3 months from the date it is issued, and your 30-day stay is counted from when you actually enter Cambodia, not from when the visa is approved. So an approval that lands two or three weeks ahead of your trip is completely fine — you simply hold the printable PDF until you travel. The only timing mistake that genuinely bites is leaving it to the last working day and hoping a weekend or holiday does not get in the way.

If you want to see the timeline laid out end to end, our Cambodia visa processing time guide for US citizens walks through the full 3-business-day window, including the timezone math, and the guide to when your Cambodia eVisa arrives by email shows what the final delivery looks like once those business days clear.

Putting the weekend math together

So, to settle the question: no, the Cambodia eVisa does not process on weekends or Cambodian holidays. It runs on 3 business days, counted Monday to Friday on Cambodia’s calendar, skipping every weekend and every national break. Friday submissions carry into the following week, the 11-to-14-hour time difference often pushes a US-evening file onto the next Cambodian day, and Khmer New Year and Pchum Ben are the two stretches worth planning hard around.

Get the buffer right and none of it touches you. Apply one to two weeks before you fly and a Cambodia eVisa is approved in 3 business days, delivered as a printable PDF by email, with free resubmission if Immigration flags a correction and US-timezone support behind it. You can start your Cambodia eVisa application the moment your passport and photo are ready, and the weekend math takes care of itself.

Next steps and related reading for Americans: apply for your Cambodia eVisa once your file is complete, confirm everything you need with the documents checklist for US citizens, and bookmark this US hub as your single reference for cost, documents, and timing.