Three business days. That is the Cambodia eVisa processing time for US citizens in 2026 — but the number that matters more is when those three days start counting, and how the time difference between the United States and Phnom Penh shifts your finish line.
A Cambodia eVisa for US citizens is approved in 3 business days in 2026, for both the Tourist eVisa ($80 USD) and the Business eVisa ($90 USD). The clock counts business days only — it skips weekends and Cambodian public holidays — and it starts once your application is complete, not the instant you submit. Because Cambodia runs 11 to 14 hours ahead of the United States, a submission made late in your US evening is often picked up on the next business day in Phnom Penh. Plan to apply about one to two weeks before you fly so weekends, holidays, and any flagged correction all fit comfortably inside the window.
A Cambodia eVisa for US citizens is approved in 3 business days. That is the headline, it is the same for the Tourist eVisa and the Business eVisa, and it has held steady through 2026. If you are scanning for one number, that is it: three business days from a complete application to a printable approval in your inbox.
But the number Americans actually trip over is not the three. It is the word business, and it is the moment the clock starts. Business days skip Saturdays, Sundays, and Cambodian public holidays. The clock starts when your application is complete and clean — not the second you hit submit, if something on the file still needs a fix. And because Cambodia is most of a day ahead of the United States, the calendar date you submit on your side is often not the calendar date Phnom Penh logs on theirs.
This guide walks through exactly how the 3-business-day window is counted, how the US-to-Cambodia time difference shifts your finish line, what pauses the clock and what does not, and how far ahead to apply so none of it ever becomes a problem. For the wider picture on what you are applying for, the full Cambodia visa for United States citizens hub ties cost, documents, and timing together, and the documents checklist for US citizens shows what a complete file looks like before the clock can even start.
Three business days means three working days, not three calendar days. The difference is the whole game when your trip is close. A complete application submitted on a Monday is generally approved by Thursday. The same application submitted on a Thursday does not finish on Sunday — it carries across the weekend and lands the following Tuesday. Same three business days, five calendar days apart on the wall.
Cambodian public holidays extend it the same way a weekend does. Cambodia keeps a generous public-holiday calendar — Khmer New Year in April and Pchum Ben in the fall are the two long stretches that most often catch travelers out, when offices close for several days running. A submission that lands just before one of those breaks waits for the office to reopen before the clock resumes. None of this is unusual or a delay in any real sense; it is simply how business days are counted everywhere.
The clock also starts on a complete application, not on a submitted one. If your photo or passport scan needs a correction, the three days do not begin until the corrected, clean version is in. In practice the vast majority of US applications go in complete the first time and run the full three business days without a hitch — but it is worth knowing the distinction, because it explains why two people who clicked submit on the same afternoon can finish on different days.
The processing time is identical whether you choose the Tourist eVisa or the Business eVisa — three business days for both, with no premium tier that buys a faster result. If you are still deciding which type you need, our guide to the Tourist vs Business eVisa for Americans lays out the difference, and the Business eVisa processing time guide covers the Type E timing in its own detail.
Cambodia sits in a single time zone, Indochina Time, that runs 11 to 14 hours ahead of the continental United States depending on your coast and the season. When it is 9 p.m. on the East Coast, it is already mid-morning the next day in Phnom Penh. From the West Coast the gap is wider still. That offset is the most common reason an American expects approval on one date and sees it land on another.
Here is how it plays out. Submit a complete application at 10 p.m. Pacific on a Tuesday, and in Cambodia it is already Wednesday lunchtime. So your three-business-day count effectively begins on the Cambodian Wednesday, not your US Tuesday — and the approval arrives on what is, for you, late in the week. It is not slower processing. It is the same three business days, simply counted on Cambodia’s calendar rather than yours.
The practical takeaway is to think in Cambodian business days, not US clock time. If you submit during your US daytime, Cambodia is already into the evening or the small hours, so that work picks up the following Cambodian morning. If you submit during your US evening, Cambodia is often already in its next business day. Either way, build your plan around the Phnom Penh calendar and you will never be surprised by the date in your inbox.
A simple rule for the time difference
Whatever evening you submit on in the United States, assume Cambodia logs it on the next day. Count three Cambodian business days forward from there, skipping weekends, and you have a realistic finish line. When in doubt, give it one extra day rather than cutting it fine against a flight.
The single thing that pauses the 3-business-day clock is a correction request. If Cambodian Immigration flags something on your file — most commonly the photo or the passport scan — the timer holds until the corrected version is back in. The good news is that this is rare on a well-prepared application, the fix is almost always small, and there is no extra charge to resubmit. Reply quickly and the clock picks up where it left off rather than starting over.
The two corrections that surface most often are photo issues and passport-scan issues. A photo gets flagged for a smile, glasses, a busy or off-white background, or low resolution. A passport scan gets flagged for glare on the laminate, a cropped corner, or text that is not fully legible. Both take a couple of minutes to redo against a plain wall or on a flat surface in daylight. The faster you turn the correction around, the less it moves your finish line.
Plenty of things that feel like they should slow you down do not. The visa type does not — Tourist and Business run the same three business days. The number of travelers in your party does not change the per-person window. Paying by debit card, PayPal, Apple Pay, or Google Pay rather than a credit card does not. And the e-Arrival Card, which you file separately closer to departure, runs on its own track and never holds up the eVisa itself.
If your application has been sitting longer than the window suggests it should, the usual cause is a quiet correction request that landed in a spam folder or a corporate inbox that blocks PDF attachments. Our guide to a Cambodia eVisa that is pending too long walks through how to read the situation, and the status-checking guide for Americans shows exactly where to look so nothing waits on you unnoticed.
Apply about one to two weeks before you fly. That is the sweet spot for US citizens in 2026 — comfortably clear of any weekend or Cambodian holiday, with room for a correction if one ever comes up, and not so early that you bump against the validity window. It turns the whole question of processing time into a non-event, because the buffer absorbs everything that could otherwise shift the date.
You can apply earlier than that without any downside on the visa side, because the eVisa is valid for 3 months from the date it is issued, and your 30-day stay is counted from when you enter Cambodia, not from when the visa is approved. So an approval that lands six weeks before your trip is perfectly fine — you simply carry the printable PDF until you travel. The only thing not to do is leave it to the last minute and hope the calendar cooperates.
If you want the full lead-time picture — including how the 3-month validity and the 30-day stay interact with when you book flights — our guide to how far in advance to apply for a Cambodia eVisa for Americans breaks it down, and the companion piece on how long a Cambodia eVisa takes for Americans covers the same 3-business-day window from the angle of a first-time applicant.
Three business days, counted on Cambodia’s calendar, starting from a complete application. That is the entire processing story for US citizens in 2026. Skip the weekends, watch for the two big holiday stretches, assume your US-evening submission logs the next day in Phnom Penh, and give a flagged correction a fast reply if it ever shows up. Apply one to two weeks out and every one of those variables disappears into the buffer.
When your documents are ready, the rest is quick: a Cambodia eVisa is approved in 3 business days and 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 as soon as your passport and photo are squared away, and the timing will take 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 the Cambodia visa for United States citizens hub as your single reference for cost, documents, and timing.
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First trip to Cambodia? Here is the honest first-timer checklist for Americans — the visa, the US-dollar money quirk, the safety reality, the vaccines, the temple dress code, and what arrival at the new airport actually looks like in 2026.
تھائی لینڈ – کمبوڈیا کی ساتوں زمینی سرحدیں جون 2025 سے بند ہیں، اس لیے 2026 میں تھائی لینڈ سے کمبوڈیا جانے کا امریکیوں کے لیے واحد طریقہ ہوا کے ذریعے جانا ہے۔ یہاں بینکاک سے سیئم ریپ اور بینکاک سے پنوم پنھ کے راستوں کا طریقہ کار ہے، کمبوڈیا ای ویزا جس کی آپ کو اپنے بورڈنگ سے پہلے ضرورت ہے، اور پرانے پوئ پیٹ کے زمینی منصوبے کی وجہ سے کیوں اب نہیں ہے۔
کمبوڈیا کے دارالحکومت اور انگکور واٹ کے درمیان 195 میل کا فاصلہ طے کرنے کے تین طریقے: $15 میں ایکسپریس بس، 45 منٹ کی پرواز، یا آہستہ دریائی کشتی۔ یہاں بتایا گیا ہے کہ ہر ایک کی اصل قیمت امریکی مسافر کے لیے کتنا ہے، اس میں کتنا وقت لگتا ہے، اور کون سا آپ کے سفر کے لیے موزوں ہے۔
The quieter third stop on the regional route for US travelers.
