Last updated: November 4, 2026 · By Wander Cambodia
By Sophea Khim · Host & Editor, Wander CambodiaPlenty of Cambodia trips grow a Laos leg — overland from Stung Treng, or as the second half of a Mekong loop. Laos still runs a proper visa on arrival system, and it is simple if you arrive with the right cash in the right condition. This guide is the walkthrough: what it costs, why the banknotes matter more than the form, and when the eVisa is the better tool instead.
Most nationalities can get a visa on arrival in Laos for around $40 in cash — the exact fee varies by nationality, roughly $30–50, with many travellers paying the standard $40. The visa is a single-entry tourist visa, normally for 30 days. You need a passport valid for at least six months, a passport photo, and the arrival form completed. There is no pre-approval and nothing to arrange online beforehand — but there is one rule that catches people out, below.
Laos visa counters are famously strict about the physical condition of US dollar bills. Torn, marked, folded-creased or old-series notes can be refused, and a refused note at a remote border post is a genuine problem — there may be no ATM on the Laos side and no bank for an hour in any direction. Carry the fee in clean, crisp, recent USD notes, plus a small buffer in case your nationality's fee sits at the top of the range. Paying in another currency is sometimes possible at airports but usually at a poor rate; dollars in good condition are the reliable route. The same cash discipline applies on the Cambodia side of the trip — our money in Cambodia guide covers the twin habit of checking every bill you are handed.
The Cambodia–Laos land border is a single crossing: Tropaeng Kreal (Cambodia) / Nong Nok Khiene (Laos), on the Stung Treng to Pakse road. Visa on arrival is available on the Laos side, which is exactly why the cash rule matters — this is a rural post, not an airport with a currency desk. Our Tropaeng Kreal walkthrough covers the full crossing in both directions, including the bus pattern and the fees people try to add. Remember the asymmetry: Cambodia's eVisa is accepted at Tropaeng Kreal coming the other way, but Laos's eVisa is not the tool for every Laos checkpoint — that trap has its own page, our Laos eVisa checkpoint guide.
For most travellers arriving at an airport or the main land borders, visa on arrival is the simpler tool: no online application, no checkpoint list to check, pay cash and walk in. The eVisa (around $45–50 through the official laoevisa.gov.la portal) earns its keep when you want the paperwork finished before a tight connection, or when your arrival point accepts it and the queue is the thing you are buying your way past. The one thing never to do is assume the eVisa works everywhere: it is accepted at only a minority of checkpoints. If you are crossing somewhere small, visa on arrival — or a consular visa arranged in advance — is the safe answer.
At an airport, the whole sequence — forms, window, sticker, immigration desk — usually takes fifteen to thirty minutes on top of the normal arrival flow, longer when several flights land together. At Tropaeng Kreal, the land crossing most readers of this site will use, budget an hour for the pair of posts together even though the Laos side alone is often twenty minutes: buses wait for their slowest passenger, and the group crosses as a group. Build that hour into the Stung Treng to Pakse day rather than discovering it — the onward connection in Pakse does not care why you were late. Travellers crossing independently on rented motorbikes or by local transport should add a second buffer: paperwork for a vehicle is a separate conversation from your own visa, and it happens at the same small post, in the same queue.
Two small habits separate a smooth crossing from an expensive one. First, photograph the visa sticker and entry stamp the moment you are through — the dates in that photo are your proof if a later extension or exit conversation turns on them. Second, keep the departure half of the arrival card if one is stapled into your passport; losing it is a minor fine and a major queue at exit, in Laos as almost everywhere in the region.
Tourist stays can generally be extended at immigration offices in Vientiane and the larger towns for a per-day fee, arranged before your stay expires. Overstaying is fined per day and paid on exit — the fine is the cheap part; the stamp in your record is the real cost, and it complicates future entries. The honest pattern, in Laos exactly as in Cambodia, is to extend early rather than apologise late. Cambodia's version of the same maths is in our overstay guide.
Fees and rules checked against the site's verified Laos research (October 2026): visa on arrival around $40 cash, varying roughly $30–50 by nationality; eVisa around $45–50 via laoevisa.gov.la. Border-post practice varies — the counter's posted fee on the day is the one that counts.
Around $40 in cash for most nationalities, varying roughly $30–50 depending on nationality. Pay in clean, undamaged US dollar notes — torn or marked bills can be refused.
Yes. The Tropaeng Kreal / Nong Nok Khiene crossing between Stung Treng and Pakse issues visas on arrival on the Laos side. Carry the fee in pristine US dollars — it is a rural post with no reliable ATM.
It is a single-entry tourist visa normally granting a 30-day stay. Check the dates stamped at the counter before you leave the post.
Only at checkpoints that accept it — the eVisa works at a minority of entry points. At small land borders, visa on arrival is the reliable route.
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