Cambodia e-Arrival vs eVisa: How Long Each One Takes

The e-Arrival clock: a short form inside a 7-day window

The e-Arrival Card runs on a completely different clock, and a much faster one. It is not a visa and it does not go through a multi-day approval. It is a short pre-arrival declaration — 14 fields across three sections covering who you are, your inbound flight and stay, and a brief customs declaration. Because it is a declaration rather than an adjudicated visa, the confirmation comes back fast once you submit it. There is no 3-day equivalent here.

The catch is not speed, it is the window. You file the e-Arrival Card within the 7 days before you arrive in Cambodia — not weeks ahead, not at the gate. File it too early and it falls outside the window and will not be accepted; the card is keyed to a specific flight and arrival date, so the system wants it close to your actual travel. The practical sweet spot is two to three days before you fly, once your flight details are locked.

Why it clears faster than the visa

The e-Arrival Card is the last thing you do, not the first, precisely because it is quick. The 14 fields are mostly things you already know — your name as printed on your US passport, your passport number, your inbound flight, your arrival date, and an address in Cambodia. There is nothing to upload beyond the passport details you type in. Where Americans lose time is not the speed of the system; it is a date-format slip. The form reads day-month-year in places, so 06/07 is June 7th, not July 6th. Get that backward and your arrival date lands a month off, which is exactly the kind of thing that pulls you aside at the immigration desk.

We file a verified e-Arrival Card for $5 USD, delivered as a printable confirmation and checked end-to-end before it reaches Cambodian Immigration, so a date-format error or a name mismatch does not bounce you back to the queue at the kiosk. For a field-by-field walkthrough of all 14 entries, see our guide to filling out the Cambodia e-Arrival Card, and if you are unsure whether you even need it alongside your visa, the answer is in our explainer on the e-Arrival Card and eVisa together.

Side by side: which one takes longer, and when you do each

Put the two clocks next to each other and the plan writes itself. The eVisa is the slow, plan-ahead document with a 3-business-day approval window. The e-Arrival Card is the fast, do-it-last declaration that clears quickly inside a tight 7-day window. The visa is the one that can hold up your trip if you leave it late; the e-Arrival is the one that can hold up your entry at the desk if you file it wrong or skip it entirely.

So which takes longer? The eVisa, every time — by a wide margin. The e-Arrival Card is the quick step. The only way the e-Arrival ends up being the thing that delays you is if you forget it or file it outside the window. The only way the visa delays you is if you leave it to the last minute and run into a weekend, a holiday, or a correction with no time to fix it.

How to sequence both so neither one stalls your trip

The whole timing problem disappears when you do the two steps in the right order at the right moments. Here is the sequence that works for almost every American trip to Cambodia.

• Two to four weeks out (or more): apply for the eVisa. This starts the 3-business-day clock with plenty of margin, well clear of any Cambodian weekend or holiday cluster. Your printable PDF lands in your inbox long before you fly.
• After approval: print two copies of the eVisa PDF and tuck them with your passport. The eVisa is valid for 3 months from issue, so an early approval never expires before a normal trip.
• Two to three days before departure: file the e-Arrival Card, now that your flight details are final. This is inside the 7-day window and gives the confirmation time to come back without cutting it close to the gate.
• At the airport: carry your printed eVisa PDF and your e-Arrival confirmation together. Both are checked at the immigration desk, and having each one printed means a dead phone battery never becomes an entry problem.

Notice the gap between the two steps. You will almost always have the eVisa approved and sitting in a folder for a couple of weeks before you even open the e-Arrival form. That is by design — the slow document goes first, the fast one goes last, and the 7-day window keeps you from filing the e-Arrival too soon.

The one trap to avoid is collapsing both into the final 48 hours because you assumed they ran on the same clock. If the visa needs a correction at that point, the 3-business-day window has no room left. Start the visa early and the e-Arrival becomes the only thing left for the final week — a 14-field form, not a source of stress. For the broader picture of what each step costs, our guide to the e-Arrival Card fee for Americans breaks down why the two fees are separate, and the full overview of whether you need the e-Arrival Card with your eVisa confirms both are mandatory for every air arrival.