Cambodia Retirement ER Visa | A Complete Guide
What is retirement visa?
Retirement visas are a type of passive income visa that has been popular worldwide since the 1980s. Typically, they are issued to retirees who have sufficient retirement funds or stable income.
In general, global retirement visas have the following characteristics:
1. Applicant Qualifications: Typically, retirement visas require applicants to be retirees, reach a certain age, or have retirement funds.
2. Restrictions on Employment: Visa holders are usually not allowed to work locally.
3. Path to Permanent Residency: After residing in the destination country for a certain period, retirement visa holders can often apply for permanent residency or even citizenship.
If you’re interested in retirement visas or passive income visas, you might want to read our informative article: ‘Global Passive Income Visa | An Incomplete Guide‘.
Cambodia Retirement ER Visa:
Currently, the Cambodia Retirement Visa (Cambodia Retirement ER Visa) is the most well-known immigration visa program locally, issued to overseas retirees with stable income.
Currently, the Cambodian government’s standards for issuing retirement visas are very vague, mainly reflected in the following three aspects:
1. Age Requirement: Cambodian law stipulates that applicants for the retirement visa must be at least 55 years old, but applicants under 55 years old are often approved.
2. Income Requirement: The Cambodian government has not provided a unified income requirement for retirement visa applicants. Generally, white applicants from developed countries (USA, UK, Australia, Europe) can easily obtain the retirement visa, while others need to provide proof of monthly income ranging from at least 500 to over 1000 USD and may face more scrutiny.
3. Visa Validity: The initial validity period of the retirement visa may be one month, three months, six months, or one year, varying by individual with no unified standard, decided by the Cambodian Immigration Department staff. However, generally, this visa can be continuously renewed under the original conditions.
How to apply for Cambodia Retirement Visa:
The application procedure for the Cambodia retirement visa can be divided into two steps:
1. Apply for an entry visa: First, you need to prepare the relevant documents and go offline to a Cambodian overseas embassy or consulate to apply for an E-class visa valid for 30 days, with a visa fee of about 30 USD, which allows entry into Cambodia.
2. Apply for retirement visa: Next, after entering Cambodia, if you believe you meet the retirement visa application requirements, you can go to the nearest Cambodian police station’s immigration department to handle the retirement visa application.
Required documents for this program are relatively simple and mainly include the following two:
Applicant’s identity documents: including valid passports for all primary and additional applicants, passport-sized photos, birth certificates, marriage certificates, and other documents proving the relationship between primary and additional applicants;
Proof of income/financial status: including bank statements, investment reports, pension certificates, etc. This is the key to applying for the retirement visa; the higher the income or financial proof you can provide, the better.
When applying for the Cambodia retirement visa, you need to pay a visa processing fee of 290 USD; for visa renewals, each renewal costs about 275 USD.
Dependents:
For the Cambodia retirement visa, the main applicant’s spouse and minor children can enter the country together as additional applicants.
Visa Validity:
The initial validity period of the Cambodia retirement visa ranges from one month, three months, six months to twelve months, but it can be continuously renewed under the original conditions upon expiration.
Foreigners who have legally resided in Cambodia for seven years and meet other requirements are eligible to apply for Cambodian citizenship.