How to avoid Thailand-Cambodia boder scams ?

One would think that the passengers of the Thai government buses going directly fom Bangkok North Terminal Mochit to Siem Reap, available for a few months now, will not be concerned by the visa scams but unfortunately there are. The bus drivers seem to have deals with official of the border crossing or travel agents who make a good margin on the price of the visa. There are several possible scenarios, but all are designed to make you pay more than the official price.

Normal and official price for a Cambodian visa is currently 20 dollars or 800 baht. Conversion into Thai currency is very generous, so pay in dollars if you can, you will save around 200 THB. The direct buses from Bangkok to Siem Reap, gateway to Angkor temples, pass through the border checkpoint of Poipet but sometimes stop a little before at a travel agency that will offer to take care of the visa application for you “to make it faster” and will collect the passports of all passengers asking for a price of 1100 bahts (which is 300 baht more than the normal price) or more. Then passengers have to wait to get their passports with the Cambodian visa back. It takes about an hour (they actually go to the border and follow the normal procedure like you could have done by yourself and pay normal price and go back to the agency). So you could think that 300 THB for the service and the time saved is OK but it is still 40% higher and it does’nt save that much time. In this case, if you do not want to pay that excessive price, the best way to get rid of the travel agency agents without too much debate is simply to say that you’ve spent all your bahts and only have dollars on you. The agency does not accept dollars, so it will let you get a visa at the border by yourself (hoping they still do not take dollars). At the border checkpoint you first go through Thai Immigration to confirm your exit and get your exit stamp then you go to Cambodia’s side. On Thailand side, you will probably be offered again to get a Cambodian visa for 1100 baht and since you are dealing with officials, you may think, wrongly, that it is normal price but not. It’s too expensive and despite their misleading arguments (Cambodian side office is closed, it takes 5 hours there to get a a visa ect …) you can get your visa on Khmer side for cheaper. The excuse of only having dollars can also work there but not always. So if you decline the travel agency and the Thai Immigration overpriced offers, you still do not have visa and should go on Cambodian “Office of International Border Check Point of Poipet” on the right after Thai immigration to get your visa on arrival for 20$. They will try to make you pay the normal price plus 100 baht – there is a poster that looks very official mentioning these extra 100 THB – the excuse of having only dollars should work to avoid paying that bribe. You finally get your visa for official price and you have foiled all scams attempts. Youhou ! The question is: “Does it really worth it to only save 10 or 3 dollars ?” It is generally more for principles than the money involved that some travelers, including myself, refuse these scams when they are aware it is a scam of course. It is up to you to decide if you prefer to pay the excessive price and avoid any trouble or are ready to struggle and pay the right amount. But the scams will continue as long as there will be travelers accepting to pay the strongest price…
Another solution is to have a visa for Cambodia in advance. By using the a e-visa system for intance (official website here ) but with the different processing fees it will cost you $28 (830 baht) and not $20. Note that such scams exist at almost all land border checkpoints. When you travel by plane, you never have to deal with them of course. I also wanted to remember you that for a visa on arrival application, you must have a photo ID. You can sometimes do it the Immigration Bureau, but the prices are significantly high. It seems that a color photocopy of your passport cropped around the picture may also be accepted.

I hope it won’t discourage you from visiting Angkor temples. It is really a place you should at least go once in your lifetime !