May 02 2011
How to get an Indian visa in Phnom Penh
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If you’ll be travelling to India via Cambodia, you’ll probably need to organise a visa in advance. Although notoriously annoying, you can arrange your visa at the Indian Embassy in Phnom Penh fairly easily. (Cambodians as well as citizens of Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore can get a visa on arrival at four Indian international airports.)
The Indian Embassy in Phnom Penh gives an authentic taste of Indian bureaucracy.
The good news is that an up-to-six-month tourist visa costs $40 and up-to-one-year costs $65. This can be substantially cheaper than at the Indian embassy in your home country. Fees must be paid in cash, in US dollars.
Documents needed:
* Completed application form (it’s safest to pick up a current one at the embassy)
* Copy of your passport photo page
* Copy of your Cambodia visa
* Two passport-sized photos (attach them to your application in the boxes specified)
Visas for Cambodians can be processed the same day, but for all others, visa processing take a minimum of 3 business days. They will allow you to keep your passport while they are processing your visa.
Things to note:
You must provide valid local contact information on your application.
The Indian Embassy in Phnom Penh will not accept second-hand applications — you must apply in person.
Although you will apply for a six-month or one-year visa, the actual length of your visa is entirely at the discretion of the consular officers. In Phnom Penh they tend to give much shorter visas for tourists. If you truly need a six-month visa, it is in your best interest to prepare a detailed itinerary showing why you need that much time in India.
The Phnom Penh Indian Embassy employees are sticklers for details and have a reputation for rejecting applications for silly-seeming reasons. Be sure to fill out your application carefully. You may need two references for both India and Cambodia, but you can use current and planned accommodation, so make sure to have their contact details on hand.
India Embassy, Phnom Penh
#5 Street 466, Phnom Penh
T: (023) 212 652
F: (023) 210 914
indembassyphnompenh.org
Applications are accepted between 09:00 and 11:00 and can be picked up between 16:00 and 17:00, Monday through Friday. As with all embassies, always be sure to call ahead and check the day you wish to go is not a holiday.
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Tags: India visa, Indian Embassy Phnom Penh, Indian visa
Just to be aware that US citizens are usually required to pay much more than the normal fee that everyone else pays. This is because of some “deal” made between the US gov’t and Indian government. No amount of complaining will do any good.
On the positive side, US citizens can apply for a ten year multi- entry visa from the US.
Got scoops on getting Russian and Chinese visas if you want (dynamics of both changed recently)
I just wanted to express some gratitude towards this article. It’s helped us tremendously when we applied for an Indian visa in Phnom Penh a week ago, and it got through just fine. We added a full itinerary of places we want to visit and how long we intend to stay there, also adding tours/courses where we could, a possible flight into the country and leaving date.
It was a little worrying to me that we had to pay the full fare upfront – what if the visas wouldn’t come through?! -, and we had to leave our passports but it all worked out fine and three working days later (weekend in there as well) we got our visas and we just got the six months like that.
Thanks again, your tips and advice helped us organize and make sure we added everything we could to the application.
I’m glad you found it useful! If there’s anything that you found was incorrect or different than what I’ve written here, please do let me know.
Thanks a lot for this article, i was afraid i would have to go back to thailand to apply for a 6 months visa…
Maret you were there 2 weeks ago, did you get a 3 or 6 months one? I hear the 6 months ones are getting trickier to obtain for some obscure reason…
Thanks !
Yes, Americans pay more than the visa price listed. For example, I applied for a 5-month visa. The price listed was $40. I ended up paying $77. Does anyone know why?
Be careful with your name on the application. If, for example, you have a middle name in your passport, make sure you list it on the online application. They won’t just change it for you. They’ll tell you to reapply and come back another time. It happened to us.
So just to let everyone know, the application has changed a little. The embassy now uses an online application. You must fill out the online application before going to the embassy and then print out a copy an bring it with you. You cannot pick up a form at the embassy.
Check http://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/ for application form.
Does anyone know if they are giving a 3 or 6 month visa to americans? What is the current price for a visa?
Yes it has changed. We applied for a visa in February 2012 and had to apply online. It can be quite a process and I’ve written some detailed advice on my travel blog: http://www.moneyticketspassport.com/slider/indian-visa-phnom-penh/