Can A Cambodian Visa Actually Be Had For Us$20 At Poipet?

[craigtraveller]

I found the following paragraph on WikiTravel.com, and as I've got a run to Cambodia and back to Bangkok ahead of me at the end of the week, was curious just how accurate it was:

A passport photo is required for the visa; that's the easy part. The hard part is the cost. A sign posted by the Cambodian government over the window of the visa counter states clearly and unambiguously that a tourist visa costs US$20, and that sign is the bane of the visa officer's existence. What he does when you hand over your $20 varies from day to day. He'll usually decline and ask for 1000 baht instead, which works out to almost US$30. If you agree to that, you'll have your visa within five minutes. If you hold him to the price on the sign over his head, though, he'll probably ask for anything from 100-300 baht as an expedite fee, and if you decline that, he'll angrily tell you the wait is "long time" and stare off into space or simply shut the window and go back to sleep. In that case, you can stand there for a while or claim that you have no Thailand baht to expedite the visa. After a while the officer will likely come back and tell you the price has miraculously dropped to US$25 for a visa. After this quote you can either pay the fee and have the visa in a few minutes or continue your quest to pay the clearly posted price. In the latter case you can usually expect to finally obtain a visa within a few hours. This is another reason to arrive at the border early in the morning as in the late afternoon the official knows you want to get to your onward destination that same day, and therefore he has the leverage.

I'll be traveling with my Peruvian fiancée and our 19-month-old son -- so the difference between paying 3000 baht, $60, and $75 is actually quite significant. I'm also reading that some are getting hit up by (Cambodian?) officials for 100-200 baht "fee" for turning back around and entering Thailand. Again, I can think of better ways to spend 300-600 baht... possible to avoid this by standing your ground?

Edited August 25, 2009 by craigtraveller

[visarunner]

I suggest that you apply for the Cambodia Visa at the Cambodian Embassy in BKK.

Cost USD 20.- for adults, free for children.

At the border you have to prepare at least THB 200.- for the in and out stamp on the Cambodian side.

[teddy_bare]

I suggest that you apply for the Cambodia Visa at the Cambodian Embassy in BKK.

Cost USD 20.- for adults, free for children.

At the border you have to prepare at least THB 200.- for the in and out stamp on the Cambodian side.

I agree, cos they still charge the 1000 baht fee at the border as of the 9th August 2009.

I didnt pay anything after that although I did see some Thais paying the 200 baht at the second counter. I never offered and they (the official) never asked.

[Thanyaburi Mac]

I found the following paragraph on WikiTravel.com, and as I've got a run to Cambodia and back to Bangkok ahead of me at the end of the week, was curious just how accurate it was:

A passport photo is required for the visa; that's the easy part. The hard part is the cost. A sign posted by the Cambodian government over the window of the visa counter states clearly and unambiguously that a tourist visa costs US$20, and that sign is the bane of the visa officer's existence. What he does when you hand over your $20 varies from day to day. He'll usually decline and ask for 1000 baht instead, which works out to almost US$30. If you agree to that, you'll have your visa within five minutes. If you hold him to the price on the sign over his head, though, he'll probably ask for anything from 100-300 baht as an expedite fee, and if you decline that, he'll angrily tell you the wait is "long time" and stare off into space or simply shut the window and go back to sleep. In that case, you can stand there for a while or claim that you have no Thailand baht to expedite the visa. After a while the officer will likely come back and tell you the price has miraculously dropped to US$25 for a visa. After this quote you can either pay the fee and have the visa in a few minutes or continue your quest to pay the clearly posted price. In the latter case you can usually expect to finally obtain a visa within a few hours. This is another reason to arrive at the border early in the morning as in the late afternoon the official knows you want to get to your onward destination that same day, and therefore he has the leverage.

I'll be traveling with my Peruvian fiancée and our 19-month-old son -- so the difference between paying 3000 baht, $60, and $75 is actually quite significant. I'm also reading that some are getting hit up by (Cambodian?) officials for 100-200 baht "fee" for turning back around and entering Thailand. Again, I can think of better ways to spend 300-600 baht... possible to avoid this by standing your ground?

Check the treads here for travel to the Cambodian border at Ban Laem, Chanthaburi. Might be easier, and at least one of the "Visa Run" bus companies that depart Sukumvit goes there.

Mac

[craigtraveller]

Thanks all for your suggestions. I returned from the run last night and wanted to add a resolution to the thread.

In short, the workers at the Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok are really a bunch of shady bloodsuckers. What a complete and total waste of time and money it was going there.

First, the location of the embassy (despite all Web resources save for this site and a few blogs) point to a very dated location in downtown. The new location is in the vicinity of the Huai Kwang MRTA (subway) station, at the intersection of Pracha Uthit road and Soi Saha Kan Pramun. 518/4 Pracha Uthit, to be specific (not that it matters, as there are TWO 518's on Pracha Uthit, which lead to much confusion on the part of me & the family I was dragging along with me. I believe this is the GPS location (type it into Google Maps): 13.768295, 100.596296

Anyways, I decided to go with the embassy, just because I didn't want to get scammed at the border -- little did I know the same bullshit was awaiting with the embassy workers.

Cambodian Embassy sequesters you inside a sweatbox of a room with next to no ventilation for the duration of your ordeal. You know it's bad when the Asians and Africans are sweating buckets alongside you. Yes, our child's visa was free (very nice, as all are for children under age 14), but you're required to toss them 20 baht to photocopy the application form w/ photo.

What our Thursday morning experience basically boiled down to was getting bent over for the same US$25 in the embassy that you'd pay for at the border for an 'express fee'. Oh trust me, we raised hel_l, and the answer we got was "you can pay $25 and get your visas in 3 minutes, or you can pay $20 and claim it on the third business day (Monday)." Should you decide to pay in baht, that my friend would cost you a cool 1,100 baht/visa.

Ultimately, we had to make a decision as to condone the shady behavior of the embassy staff or the shady behavior of the border staff. We discussed it, and angerly slapped down a $50 note.

What a waste of energy and cash. Factoring in the cost of transport there and back, it completely nullifies any financial advantage a tourist would have to make a trip over there to them.

Note: We were not extorted any additional baht at the border to get stamped into or out of Thailand/Cambodia.

Edited August 29, 2009 by craigtraveller

[Crossy]

Next time get the e-visa http://www.mfaic.gov.kh/e-visa/vindex.aspx?PortDir=Asc it's still $25 but it doesn't use up a page in your passport (in itself worth the $5 extra 'processing fee') and you can apply in the comfort of your own home

[welo]

Next time get the e-visa http://www.mfaic.gov.kh/e-visa/vindex.aspx?PortDir=Asc it's still $25 but it doesn't use up a page in your passport (in itself worth the $5 extra 'processing fee') and you can apply in the comfort of your own home

I am usually an advocate for the Cambodian eVisa, mainly because it saves you a page in the passport. But the Cambodia eVisa website has unfortunately been under repeated attacks and has successfully been hacked at least two times recently. The first time was about a month ago when I visited the website myself, the last time was 3 weeks ago according to Google's 'Safe Browsing' service, check out the report here. If you visit the website with Firefox you will be presented a big red warning message.

Of the 36 pages that we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 3 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time that Google visited this site was on 2009-08-27, and the last time that suspicious content was found on this site was on 2009-08-08.

Side note: The issued visa is actually not fake and quite a few TV members have used the service in the past weeks. The billing process is actually run on a different server by another company that is specialised on online payment - don't know about their reputation though.

The attack seems to aim at installing malicious software at the client's computer (trojans, viruses, etc).

So I would recommend the e-Visa only for experienced users and those who don't need to play it too safe.

Checkout the discussion from a month ago here and here.

welo

Edited August 30, 2009 by welo

[Briggsy]

If getting hit up for $10 ($5 x 2) bothers you so much, I strongly suggest you don't want to go to Cambodia.

[craigtraveller]

Great info, as I got that message in FireFox, and of course had no intention of giving my credit card number online over to Cambodia or their affiliates -- just no level of trust there. Besides, us Yanks get free passport page inserts, so a full-page visa is /was no worries.

[craigtraveller]

If getting hit up for $10 ($5 x 2) bothers you so much, I strongly suggest you don't want to go to Cambodia.

With that $10 I could purchase my son lunch for two weeks. It's all relative, and I don't like being bullied into payoffs.

[welo]

If getting hit up for $10 ($5 x 2) bothers you so much, I strongly suggest you don't want to go to Cambodia.

With that $10 I could purchase my son lunch for two weeks. It's all relative, and I don't like being bullied into payoffs.

One from me!

And you CAN get the visa for USD 20 at the Visa on Arrival booth! (I know that from personal experience and from other traveller reports). You just need to stand your ground, stay friendly at the same time, and KNOW that you can get if for 20 USD (attitude! but friendly!).

Just keep repeating that you KNOW it is 20 USD whenever they try to come up with a story why not ("old sign"; "20 USD only at the embassy in Bangkok"; "express fee"; "we only accept Baht"; "blah blah"). You may through in that you called the Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok just the week before and they told you the Visa fee is 20 USD, AT THE BORDER!

But ultimately just target your attention to the office counter and show that you are ready and confident to hand in your passport.

If they should really not accept it and close the window (happened to me once long time ago) you might just leave it there and go sit down in the waiting area.

But my experience during the last couple of months (and this is supported by latest reports) is that the typical result of this conversation is that the officer tells you that 'you will have to wait long time'! You will get the visa within 5 minutes nevertheless.

Just make sure that

• you bring a photo
  
• you bring US dollars*
  
• you go to the real Visa on Arrival office**
  
• you do some reading before you go for the first time (discussion here and here and Tales of Asia)
  

* USD:

• There is a Siam Commercial Bank that exchanges THB to USD. Cannot charge against a foreign credit card. Opens late (9:00?? not sure)
  
• There is a Cambodian ATM that deals dollars just 40 meters after the stone arc/Visa Office on the left side of the road. You can walk there without Visa and come back to apply. If you actually travel on to Cambodia you will need dollars anyway.
  

** Visa Office

• The Visa On Arrival Office is located AFTER Thai Immigration at the foot of the Angkor-Wat-styled stone arc.
  
• It is easily recognizable since it has a waiting area in front with bus-terminal like seats.
  
• Any place that people bring you to BEFORE you get your Thai exit stamp is not the real thing
  
• There is actually always one Cambodian semi-official just outside the booth that will hand out the application forms - it is OK to take the form from him (nowadays it is even a real officer in uniform). All other 'government workers' (wearing no uniform but a nice shirt with Cambodian emblem) are better ignored, even though they sometimes provide accurate information (just to lie into your face a second later).
  

Btw this is the (fake or real?) Cambodian Consulate 1km from the border where Tuktuk drivers like to bring tourists that arrive on the Aranya Prathet bus terminal and want to go to the border (50-80 Baht). Visa is more than 20 USD there for sure, but more disturbing are are reported thefts while the luggage is unattended!)

Good luck!

welo

Edited August 30, 2009 by welo

[Maestro]

Thank you, craigtraveller, for the detailed information. With the geodata and photo you provided I have now created a placemark on Google Maps:

View Foreign embassies in Thailand in a larger map

--

Maestro