Last updated: October 31, 2026 · By Wander Cambodia
By Sophea Khim · Host & Editor, Wander CambodiaDirect answer: On a Cambodia Tourist (T) visa you can stay 30 days, extendable once by 30 days for about $45 — 60 days maximum, and then you must leave; a Tourist visa can never be converted into a long-stay status. To stay longer, enter on an Ordinary (E) visa instead ($35, versus $30 for the Tourist visa) and extend it into EB (business), ER (retirement), EG (job-seeking) or ES (student) status for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months at a time — a 12-month extension costs about $285–300 through an agent — renewable while you remain eligible.
This page answers the stay-length question directly, then shows the two tracks side by side, the extension price ladder, and what happens if you run past your date. The full visa menu is in Cambodia visa types explained.
Sixty days at the very most, and only if you use the one extension the Tourist visa allows. The visa itself gives 30 days from entry. A single 30-day extension, arranged through an agent for about $45, takes you to day 60. There is no second tourist extension, no conversion, and no discretion at the immigration desk — the trap is explained in full in the wrong-visa trap. If your plans might pass 60 days, the Tourist visa was the wrong tool from the start, which is why the entry choice matters more than anything you can do afterwards.
Enter on the Ordinary (E) visa — $35 as an eVisa at evisa.gov.kh or on arrival — and then extend. The E visa's first 30 days look identical to the Tourist visa's, but from an E entry you can apply for an extension of stay in one of four classes: EB for business and work (with a work permit — see EB and the work permit), ER for retirement at 55+, EG for job-seeking (six months, renewable once — see the EG guide), and ES for students. Extensions come in 1, 3, 6 and 12-month lengths; the 6 and 12-month versions are multiple-entry, the shorter ones are single-entry. The complete system, with the paperwork for each class, is in our complete extension guide.
The agent price ladder in Phnom Penh (2026 consensus, checked in our extension price table): about $45–53 for 1 month, $75–83 for 3 months, $145–163 for 6 months, and $285–300 for 12 months — on top of the $35 E entry visa. Prices vary a little by agent and by extension class, and the 12-month extension is the best value per day by a wide margin if you know you are staying. Budget the work permit separately if you will work: an EB extension alone is not permission to work, and conflating the two is the most common long-stay mistake after the wrong entry visa.
Overstay fines run $10 per day with no cap, payable on exit — and once an overstay passes 30 days it can no longer be settled at the border: you must clear it at immigration in Phnom Penh, with detention, deportation and blacklisting in play at the serious end. The full picture, including the myths, is in overstaying in Cambodia. The short version: the fine is the cheap part of the problem, so never let a date slip while you are deciding what to do — extend, or leave and re-enter, before it passes. Our visa on arrival walkthrough shows the entry desk where all of these clocks start.
Already past your date? The direct answer on fines and the 30-day clearance rule is at what happens if I overstay my visa in Cambodia?
Yes — leaving resets the process, and many travellers do exactly that. But if you are effectively living in Cambodia on repeated tourist entries, you are building your life on 60-day cycles with no status; the E-visa extension route exists precisely to replace that.
No. The e-Arrival card is a separate, free arrival form — it records your entry, it does not grant or extend any stay. Your visa class and its dates are what count.
Use your one 30-day extension if you need time, then leave and re-enter on an Ordinary (E) visa — Vietnam via Bavet–Moc Bai is the main open overland route, since the Thailand land borders have been closed since June 2025 — and extend properly from the E entry.
Fees and rules checked October 2026 against the site's researched visa material. Agent prices are Phnom Penh consensus ranges, not official fees.
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