Cambodia Retirement Visa (ER) for Americans Over 55: Visa Type Path

The two-step path: Business eVisa, then ER conversion

The retirement route for Americans over 55 is two clean steps, and the order is fixed. Step one happens online before you fly. Step two happens in Cambodia, in person, through an agent.

Step one — enter on the Business eVisa (Type-E)

You apply for the Business eVisa online: $90 USD all-in, approved in 3 business days, delivered as a printable PDF by email. The document pack is short — a US passport with at least 6 months validity, a passport-style photo, a scan of your passport bio page, an email address, and a payment method. No bank statement, no proof of pension, no sponsor letter, no return flight required at this stage. You enter Cambodia on that Business eVisa with the standard initial 30-day single-entry stay.

Why not the Tourist eVisa? Because the Tourist eVisa (Type-T) cannot be extended at all — the old auto-extension ended in November 2025 — and it cannot be converted to ER. If you enter on a Tourist eVisa intending to retire, you would have to leave the country and re-enter on a Business eVisa before you could even start the ER conversion. Entering on the Business eVisa from the start saves you a wasted border run. This is the single most common mistake we see retirees make, and it is entirely avoidable.

Step two — convert to ER in-country through an agent

Once you are in Cambodia, you hand your passport to a Cambodian immigration agent — most retirees use one based in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, or near their chosen town. The agent lodges the ER extension paperwork, your passport is returned stamped a week or two later, and you are now on a long-stay retirement footing. You pick the extension length at this stage: 6 months or 12 months. The conversion is straightforward because the heavy lifting — identity, payment, photo — was already done at the Business eVisa stage online.

Start the ER conversion well before your initial 30-day Business eVisa stay runs out. We recommend lodging the paperwork with your agent at least 2 weeks before day 30. Cutting it close risks an overstay, and the Cambodian overstay penalty is $10 USD per day from day one, payable in cash at the airport on exit — a needless cost when the conversion is so routine.

ER lengths, renewals, and rough costs

The ER extension comes in two lengths that matter for retirees: 6 months and 12 months. Both are renewable, and the 12-month version is multi-entry, which is the one almost every settled American retiree chooses because it lets you fly home to the States, or pop to Bangkok or Singapore, without losing your extension.

On cost: the Business eVisa entry visa is the fixed, transparent part — $90 USD all-in. The ER extension itself is arranged in-country through a Cambodian agent, and agent pricing fluctuates with the local market and the extension length, so we do not quote exact figures here. As a working guide for 2026, the 12-month ER carries a higher headline fee than the 6-month but lands at a noticeably lower cost per month of stay, which is why long-term retirees default to it. Budget for the agent fee on top of the $90 USD Business eVisa, and ask your agent for the current all-in figure before you hand over your passport.

Renewal is the quiet strength of the ER route. There is no cap on how many times you can renew a 12-month ER, and renewals are lodged the same way — through your agent, before the current extension expires. An American who lands at 60 and settles in Kampot can run rolling 12-month ER extensions straight through their seventies without ever applying for a separate residency status. Our general guide to Cambodia visa extension costs for Americans lays out how the extension fee structure works across all the extension classes, including ER.

Who qualifies, and what to prepare

The ER extension is aimed at travelers who are genuinely retired and not working in Cambodia. In practice that means over 55 — Cambodia frames the ER around retirement-age travelers — though the eVisa system itself does not hard-code a minimum age into the online Business eVisa you apply for first. The honest summary: if you are over 55, retired, and intend to live in Cambodia on savings or a pension rather than local work, the ER is built for you.

What Cambodia does NOT demand is the financial gauntlet that defines retirement visas elsewhere in the region. There is no mandatory locked bank deposit, no minimum monthly pension threshold written into the eVisa flow, and no health-insurance certificate required to apply for the Business eVisa that the ER sits on. This is one of the reasons Cambodia has quietly become a magnet for American retirees who found Thailand or Malaysia financially out of reach.

• US passport — at least 6 months validity from your planned date of arrival, with at least one full blank page for the entry stamp. For a long-stay retirement, renew early if you are anywhere near the 6-month line.
• Digital passport-style photo — plain white background, taken in the last 6 months, no glasses, no hats, no smile. JPEG, under 2 MB. Used for the Business eVisa application.
• Clear scan of your passport bio page — both edges visible, no glare, all text legible.
• Working email address — the Business eVisa approval PDF lands here, so use an inbox that accepts PDF attachments.
• Payment method — Visa, Mastercard, American Express, PayPal, Apple Pay, or Google Pay for the $90 USD Business eVisa.
• A Cambodian immigration agent lined up for the ER conversion — your agent will tell you if any supporting documents are needed locally for the ER stamp itself.

Note that everything in that list is for the Business eVisa front door. The ER conversion itself is handled in-country by your agent, and any local supporting paperwork is light and agent-guided. The contrast with a US-side retirement-visa application — bank letters, apostilled documents, medical exams mailed to a consulate — is stark. Cambodia keeps the upfront pack to the same five-item Business eVisa pack every American applicant uses.

Where Americans retire, and the practical picture

The ER route has fueled a real and growing community of American retirees, and they cluster in a handful of places. Knowing where helps you picture the life the visa unlocks, and it shapes which town your immigration agent is based in.

• Kampot — the riverside favorite. A slow, walkable colonial town with a strong Western retiree community, cafes along the Praek Tuek Chhu river, and an easy run to the coast. The classic American-retiree-in-Cambodia postcard.
• Kep — Kampot's quieter coastal neighbor, known for crab markets, sea-facing villas, and a tiny but loyal expat-retiree set. Popular with Americans who want the coast without the crowds.
• Siem Reap — for retirees who want culture, Angkor on the doorstep, a big international dining scene, and an established expat infrastructure of clinics, agents, and clubs.
• Phnom Penh — the capital, for retirees who want the best hospitals, US Embassy access, direct international flights through Techo International, and a full-service city. The practical choice if healthcare access is a priority.
• Sihanoukville (Kampong Som) — coastal, in flux, and cheaper, though most retirees now prefer Kep or Kampot for a calmer pace.

On the practical side, two things matter most to retirees and neither is a visa issue. First, healthcare: serious cases are typically handled in Phnom Penh or via medical evacuation to Bangkok or Singapore, so retirees settling in smaller towns plan for that. Second, money: most US retirees fund the life from a US pension, Social Security, or savings, drawn through international cards and ATMs. Neither affects your ER extension, but both shape where you base yourself.

Arrival is identical to any Business eVisa entry. Open airports for US arrivals are KTI (Phnom Penh — the new Techo International Airport, which replaced the old PNH on 9 September 2025), SAI (Siem Reap-Angkor), and KOS (Sihanoukville). All seven Thailand-Cambodia land borders have been closed since June 2025, so an overland arrival from Bangkok is not an option in 2026 — fly in. State Department guidance publishes current entry and local-conditions information for Cambodia that is worth a five-minute read before a long-stay move, and the US Embassy in Phnom Penh is the place American retirees register and renew passports once settled.

Next steps and related reading for US citizens: apply for your Cambodia Business eVisa when you are ready to start the retirement path, read the full Business eVisa (Type-E) deep dive that this route depends on, see the EB extension explainer if your stay involves work rather than retirement, and check the student visa guide if a younger family member is joining you to study. When in doubt, the which Cambodia visa decision guide points you to the right class.