Vietnam Visa for Ferry and River Arrivals from Cambodia 2026

You can enter Vietnam from Cambodia on an ordinary 90-day e-visa at the river and ferry crossings. What you cannot do is pick the wrong gate. The e-visa names one entry point, immigration checks that name against your passport, and if they do not match you turn around. On the Mekong route the gap between the name cruise lines print and the name the government portal sells is the single most common reason people get bounced back to Cambodia.

Three crossings matter. The Chau Doc speedboat between Phnom Penh and the Mekong Delta uses the Vinh Xuong border gate in An Giang. The Ha Tien crossing in Kien Giang serves the coast: Phu Quoc one way, Kampot and Sihanoukville the other. And the newer Thuong Phuoc gate in Dong Thap, opened in 2025, is the quiet upstream option on the Tien River.

Visa on arrival does not exist at any of them. Land and river gates have no approval-letter counter and no stamping desk for walk-ups, so the e-visa you arrange online before you travel is the only self-service route in. Everyone else, meaning people who did not plan, ends up paying a boat crew or an agent to sort it out on the water, sometimes successfully and sometimes not.

This guide covers the routes, the exact gate names to type into the e-visa form, the 2026 fares, and the one itinerary pattern that forces you to buy a multiple-entry visa instead of a cheaper single.

Which gate for which route

Before anything else, match your route to the gate. The e-visa portal lists these four Cambodia-facing gates in the south:

• Vinh Xuong international land and river border gate, An Giang province, for the Chau Doc to Phnom Penh speedboat. Almost all river travelers need this one.
• Ha Tien international border gate, Kien Giang province, for the coastal road and ferry route to Kampot, Kep and Sihanoukville, and the link from Phu Quoc.
• Thuong Phuoc international border gate, Dong Thap province, a road and waterway gate on the Tien River, open since January 2025.
• Tinh Bien international border gate, An Giang province, a road crossing toward Takeo and Phnom Penh, quieter than Moc Bai.

Moc Bai, the bus crossing on the Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh highway, is not on this list because it is not a river or ferry gate. It has its own guide and its own set of rules.

The Chau Doc boats: Phnom Penh to Chau Doc on the Mekong

The Phnom Penh to Chau Doc speedboat is the water route most people picture when they talk about crossing the Mekong. Hang Chau Tourist, Blue Cruiser and a handful of smaller operators run it daily in both directions. The trip is roughly 170 km of river and takes five and a half to six and a half hours including the border stop, versus six or seven hours on the Moc Bai bus. It costs more and it is worth it if the journey is part of the trip rather than a chore.

Hang Chau's 2026 schedule, for a sense of timing:

• Chau Doc to Phnom Penh, departing 07:00 from the Victoria Chau Doc Hotel, arriving around 13:30. Ticket 1,640,000 VND.
• Phnom Penh to Chau Doc, departing 12:30 from the Titanic Restaurant, 103 Sisowath Quay, arriving around 18:30. Ticket 1,580,000 VND.

Those fares look steep next to the $18 to $25 bus. They jumped 35 percent on 1 June 2026 because of fuel costs, and the operator has kept the increase in place through May 2027. Budget roughly $60 to $62 per person one way on the express boat, and treat the older $30 to $45 figures you find on travel blogs as out of date.

The day runs in two halves. Four to five hours of river, with floating fish farms, cargo barges and riverside stilt houses sliding past, then a stop at the Cambodian checkpoint at Kaam Samnor to be stamped out, a short hop across the water, and a second stop at Vinh Xuong on the Vietnamese side to be stamped in. The boats keep your suitcase on board while you queue. Some operators collect passports and walk them through for you; others send you off the boat to line up yourself. Allow an hour for the formalities and more if a tour group is ahead of you.

The border gate name that trips everyone up

Here is the part that gets people refused. The Vietnamese checkpoint on the Chau Doc to Phnom Penh boat was called Song Tien landport for years, and a lot of cruise paperwork and travel agents still call it that. Song Tien no longer appears in the e-visa dropdown. The official listing is now Vinh Xuong international land and river border gate, An Giang province, and that is the string you have to select.

Two kinds of people get caught. The first picks an airport like Tan Son Nhat because the river gate is not obvious in the list, then discovers the mismatch at the checkpoint. The second follows an operator's instruction to enter "Song Tien" and finds no such option, so they guess. Neither works. Your approved e-visa must state Vinh Xuong, and it must be the Vinh Xuong gate, not Ha Tien or Moc Bai.

The same discipline applies to the other gates. If you are crossing at Ha Tien, the form wants "Ha Tien international border gate, Kien Giang province". Upstream on the Tien River, it is "Thuong Phuoc international border gate, Dong Thap province". The port name is checked against the gate, not against the nearest big city, so typing "Chau Doc" or "Kampot" gets you nowhere.

A practical note on dates. If the boat crosses the border in the morning and you have set your e-visa entry date to the same day, fine. Some operators suggest setting it one day earlier to be safe, since river schedules drift with water levels and high-season queues. The visa is valid from its start date, not before, so an earlier start date only helps.

Ha Tien and the coastal route

Ha Tien, on the Gulf of Thailand coast in Kien Giang, is the second river-and-road gateway and the one that links Phu Quoc to Cambodia. The Vietnamese gate is Ha Tien international border gate, also signposted Xa Xia. On the Cambodian side it faces Prek Chak, a small crossing about 8 km from Ha Tien town.

Two flows use it. Travelers coming off Phu Quoc take a ferry to Ha Tien, which is 90 minutes and $10 to $14 on Superdong, Phu Quoc Express, or Thanh Thoi, then a short taxi or motorbike ride to the gate. Travelers heading the other way come from Kampot or Kep, cross at Prek Chak, and continue to the ferry. From the Cambodian side, Kampot is about two hours away and Sihanoukville about four, with buses at 150,000 to 250,000 VND.

This is also the crossing people use for a Phu Quoc visa run: ferry to Ha Tien, cross to Prek Chak for a Cambodia stamp, cross back on a fresh Vietnam e-visa, and take the afternoon ferry home. A useful detail often missed: the Phu Quoc 30-day island exemption applies to arrivals on the island from abroad, and it is voided the moment you come over from the mainland by ferry, so a Phu Quoc stay that starts with a Ha Tien hop is not covered by it. The cruise and seaport guide explains that exemption in full.

One unresolved point on the Cambodia side of this route. Some sources say Cambodia's e-visa works at Prek Chak, others say only visa on arrival does. If you are crossing here, plan on Cambodia visa on arrival at $30 to $40, bring two passport photos and clean US dollars, and treat the e-visa as a gamble rather than a plan.

Single or multiple entry: the river-cruise question

The e-visa comes in two versions. Single entry costs $25, multiple entry costs $50, and both are valid for up to 90 days. For a straightforward one-way crossing, a single-entry visa is all you need, whichever direction you are going. If you start in Cambodia and sail into Vietnam at Vinh Xuong, that is one entry. Done.

The multiple-entry case appears when your itinerary leaves Vietnam and comes back on the same visa. That is not about how many Vietnamese towns you visit. It is about whether the ship or the plane crosses the border out of Vietnam and then crosses it again inward. A cruise or tour that sails down to Cambodia for a few days and returns to the Mekong, or a trip where you fly into Ho Chi Minh City, take the boat out to Phnom Penh, and then fly back into Vietnam to continue, both need the $50 version. A single-entry visa is cancelled the moment you exit, and re-entering on it is not an option.

For a plain upstream itinerary, say Phnom Penh to Chau Doc to Can Tho to Saigon, you enter Vietnam once at Vinh Xuong and stay in the country until you leave. Single entry covers it, and paying double for multiple entry is money spent on a fear rather than a need. Read the itinerary in terms of border crossings, not stops, and the answer is usually obvious.

One more thing about the border gate on a return leg. If your itinerary brings you back into Vietnam at a different gate, say you leave at Ha Tien and return at Vinh Xuong, the multiple-entry visa still has to name the gate you actually re-enter through. Exit and entry ports are separate fields, and both are checked.

No visa on arrival at any river or land gate

Visa on arrival in Vietnam is an airport product. You get an approval letter in advance, fly in, and collect the stamp at a counter inside the terminal. There is no such counter at Vinh Xuong, Ha Tien, Thuong Phuoc or Tinh Bien, and no letter will produce a stamp there. This trips up travelers who have used visa on arrival for flights and assume it works the same way on the water.

At river and land gates your options are narrow and clear:

• The e-visa, if your nationality qualifies, which since August 2023 means every nationality. Apply online, wait three to five working days, print it.
• A visa exemption, if your passport is on the list. Twenty-four nationalities get 45 days under two 2025 resolutions, and the ASEAN and bilateral agreements run from 14 to 90 days. The 2026 exemption list has the day counts and the expiry dates.
• A visa from an embassy or consulate before you travel, if you prefer paper or the e-visa has already been refused.

Nothing else works. An agent at the pier who offers to "arrange" a visa at the border is either selling you a pre-arranged e-visa you could have bought yourself, or guessing. The e-visa guide walks through the form, and if the trip is close, we can check the port field for you.

The Cambodia side: visa on arrival on the boat, and the e-visa warning

Going the other way, from Vietnam into Cambodia, the river crossing has a rule that catches a lot of people. Cambodia's e-visa, the one you apply for online, is not accepted at the river and waterway border. It works at the airports and at some land crossings, but not at the Vinh Xuong to Kaam Samnor boat stop. Cruise operators say this plainly in their pre-trip documents, and the boat companies handle the alternative: an ordinary Cambodia tourist visa, single entry, one month, arranged on board.

What it costs and how it runs. Hang Chau charges around $37 including a service fee, takes your passport on the boat, fills the application form for you, and needs no photo in some cases. Other operators and the Cambodian authorities charge $35, and Pandaw asks passengers to bring a passport photo and $35 in cash. Budget $35 to $40, keep clean US dollars, and carry a spare photo just in case. If you would rather have it sorted before you travel, the same visa can be had from a Cambodian embassy or consulate in advance.

None of this applies to your Vietnam e-visa. Vietnam accepts its e-visa at the river border, so the inbound direction is straightforward once the port name is right. It is the outbound direction, into Cambodia, where the two countries' rules diverge, and where a printout of the wrong e-visa leads to an on-the-spot purchase at the border.

Practical checklist before you book

The gate list for river and land entry grew at the end of 2025. Resolution 389/NQ-CP added 41 border gates to the e-visa list on 2 December 2025, taking the total from 42 to 83: 17 airports, 27 land crossings and 39 seaports. Vinh Xuong, Ha Tien, Thuong Phuoc and Tinh Bien are all on it, so the water route is fully covered by the e-visa as long as you name the right gate.

• Confirm the exact Vietnamese border gate with your boat operator or cruise line, in writing, and use that string on the form. For the Chau Doc boat it is Vinh Xuong, not Song Tien.
• Decide single or multiple entry by counting border crossings, not stops. Anything that exits Vietnam and re-enters needs the $50 version.
• Check the exemption list first. If your passport qualifies, you may not need a visa at all.
• Apply at least two weeks out. Standard processing is three to five working days, and the December to March high season stretches it.
• Print the approved e-visa and keep the PDF on your phone. River checkpoints run on paper.
• Plan the Cambodia side separately. On the boat route, expect visa on arrival at $35 to $40 with a photo and US dollars, because the Cambodia e-visa is not accepted there.
• Check passport validity covers six months from entry, plus the whole trip.
• You do not file the digital arrival card when you arrive by river or ferry. It is an air-arrival form at five airports only. The same goes for the health declaration under Decree 165, which is a framework that has not been activated; the health declaration guide explains where that stands.

If the e-visa route is the one you want and the trip is close, send us the details and we will check the gate name and dates before you pay. For the land corridors rather than the water, the visa run network maps the crossings, and the Moc Bai guide covers the bus route from Ho Chi Minh City.

Frequently asked questions

Can I enter Vietnam by boat from Cambodia with an e-visa? Yes. The e-visa is accepted at the river and ferry gates, including Vinh Xuong for the Chau Doc boat and Ha Tien for the coastal route. The catch is that you must select that exact gate on the application. An e-visa naming an airport or Moc Bai will not work at a river checkpoint.

Which port do I choose for the Chau Doc to Phnom Penh boat? Vinh Xuong international land and river border gate, An Giang province. Older guides and some cruise documents call it Song Tien landport, but that name is no longer in the e-visa dropdown. Pick Vinh Xuong.

Is there visa on arrival at the Mekong river border? No. Visa on arrival is an airport-only arrangement. At river and land gates you need an e-visa arranged online, a visa exemption if your nationality qualifies, or a visa from an embassy before you travel.

How much is the Phnom Penh to Chau Doc speedboat in 2026? Hang Chau charges 1,580,000 VND from Phnom Penh and 1,640,000 VND from Chau Doc, roughly $60 per person one way, after a 35 percent fuel surcharge applied on 1 June 2026. The trip takes five and a half to six and a half hours including the border stop.

Do I need a multiple-entry visa for a Mekong river cruise? Only if the itinerary leaves Vietnam and re-enters on the same visa. A one-way crossing from Cambodia into Vietnam needs single entry, which costs $25. If your trip exits to Cambodia and comes back, buy multiple entry at $50.

Does the Cambodia e-visa work at the river border? No. Cambodia's e-visa is not accepted at the river and waterway crossing between Vinh Xuong and Kaam Samnor. The boat crew arranges a Cambodia tourist visa on arrival for around $35 to $40, or you get one from a Cambodian embassy in advance.