Cambodia e-Visa for Indian Citizens: $30, Two Forms, and a Closed Thai Border

Cambodia is one of the easiest and cheapest e-visas an Indian passport can get: thirty US dollars, a fifteen-minute form, and an approval PDF by email in about three working days. There is no visa-free option — India is not on Cambodia’s exemption list — but there barely needs to be, because the online process is this light.

The difficulty, as with most easy visas, is not the visa. It is three things around it: a second mandatory form that the government is publicly warning people not to pay for, an overland route from Thailand that an e-visa no longer opens, and an extension process that quietly stopped being automatic. Get those three right and Cambodia is a formality.

The visa: $30, single entry, and only on evisa.gov.kh

The official portal is evisa.gov.kh, run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Create an account or apply as a guest, select Visa T, enter your passport details, upload a passport-style photo and a scan of your bio page, give your Cambodian accommodation address, and pay thirty dollars by card. The portal accepts Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Diners, UnionPay, Alipay and WeChat. In about three business days an e-visa certificate arrives by email. Print two copies.

It is single entry, valid three months from issue, good for a thirty-day stay. The three months is your window to arrive, not permission to stay three months — the thirty days start when you are stamped in. Leave the country and the visa is spent; a return trip needs a new one.

The second form is free, and the government says so

Every air arrival must also complete the Cambodia e-Arrival card at arrival.gov.kh (or the official app) within seven days before arriving. It is not a visa — it is the digital replacement for the paper immigration, health and customs cards — and it is free. The e-visa is your permission to enter; the e-Arrival card is a declaration you file. You need both.

This split is exactly what scam sites exploit, so the distinction is worth holding onto: one form you pay thirty dollars for, one form you pay nothing for. Cambodia’s General Department of Immigration issued a press release naming an unofficial website that is not operated by the government, and reaffirming that entry registration is done through arrival.gov.kh or the Cambodia e-Arrival app, with official information at immigration.gov.kh. If a site asks you to pay for the arrival card, it is one of the sites that warning is about.

You can no longer cross from Thailand on an e-visa

This is the planning fact most likely to break an itinerary, and it is recent. The classic Southeast Asia loop runs Bangkok to Siem Reap overland through the Poipet border. As of the official portal’s notice, following the 2025 Cambodia–Thailand border conflict, the Thai land crossings — Poipet and Cham Yeam among them — are closed to e-visa holders until further notice.

At present, an e-visa admits you only through:

• Phnom Penh — Techo International Airport (KTI), which fully replaced the old Phnom Penh airport in September 2025.
• Siem Reap International Airport (SAI) — the gateway for Angkor.
• Sihanoukville International Airport (KOS).
• Bavet — the land crossing from Vietnam.
• Tropaeng Kreal — the land crossing from Laos.

So a trip that pairs Cambodia with Vietnam or Laos overland is fine; one that assumes a bus in from Thailand is not, on an e-visa. If Thailand is genuinely in your route, either fly the Bangkok–Siem Reap leg or check whether an embassy-issued visa is treated differently — the closure is specific to e-visa entry, the situation is fluid, and this is a check-the-portal-before-you-book item rather than a permanent rule.

Extending is now a deliberate process, not an airport top-up

Thirty days suits most Angkor-and-coast trips. If you need longer, note that the old convenience of extending a tourist stay automatically on arrival is reported to have ended in late 2025, making extension an in-country administrative process you arrange deliberately rather than something that happens at the airport. We could not confirm the current extension fee or the maximum total stay from a primary government source, and commercial guides that quote a sixty-day ceiling should be treated as indicative. If a longer stay matters, plan it before you fly and verify the current procedure rather than assuming you can top up on the day.

The short version

• Apply only at evisa.gov.kh. Visa T, USD 30, single entry, 30-day stay, valid 3 months from issue.
• Also file the free e-Arrival card at arrival.gov.kh within 7 days of arrival. Pay nobody for it.
• One form costs $30, the other is free — a site charging for the arrival card is a scam.
• Print two copies of the e-visa PDF; land borders still expect paper.
• You cannot enter from Thailand on an e-visa right now. Fly, or come via Vietnam (Bavet) or Laos (Tropaeng Kreal).
• Airport auto-extension is gone — arrange a longer stay deliberately and check the current fee.

Angkor at sunrise is worth the thirty dollars several times over. Just spend the thirty dollars on the government’s site, file the free form on the government’s other site, and do not turn up at Poipet with a bus ticket and an e-visa.