How to get a certificate of residency.

Participant

Hi,

The certificate of residence in Cambodia actually consists of 2 papers:

The immigration registration paper, which you can get at the immigration police. They have a small office at the Siem Reap Provincial Police Headquarters near the airport.
The residency registration paper, which is a bit more complicated to get. For this one, you need to go to the commune office in the area where you live. For many expats, this is the Svay Dangkum commune office. But this really depends on where you live as there are 13 communes in Siem Reap.

By law, you are required to have both registration papers and renew them every year if you are an official resident in Cambodia. (Many expats don’t realize this, but by law you are considered a Cambodian resident when you live in the country for more than 6 months a year. Literally 6 months + 1 day.)

The good news is that to apply for a work permit the immigration registration paper should be enough.

This is what you need to apply for the immigration registration paper:

3 passport pictures (size 4cm x 6cm);
your original rental contract (or land title in case you own the property);
your passport with a valid business visa;
your previous work permit if any; expect to pay a penalty if you have an old business visa in your passport without a work permit to account for;
an employment contract or proof that you own a business, like a business license or patent; If you don’t have any, you probably can say that you are self-employed or still looking for a job. Especially if this is the first time that you apply for a work permit.

In my case, they needed the original documents and they copied everything themselves. The immigration officer was friendly and spoke good English. It took a couple of days to receive the immigration paper. Officially there is no fee, but most people i know (including myself) paid 5 usd on receiving the paper.

This is what you need to apply for the residency registration paper at the commune office:

3 passport pictures (size 4cm x 6cm);
your immigration paper as explained above, so go to the immigration police first;
Probably they’ll need your passport / rental contract as well;

They’ll let you complete a form, with your contact details, previous address in your home country, information about your parents, etc.

The form needs to be signed by the village chief first and stamped + signed at the commune office afterwards. The clerk at the commune office asked me a ridiculous price to complete this process. So instead, i went to the village chief myself and commune afterwards, spending 5 usd in total.

That’s it! Good luck with getting the immigration / residency papers. And let me know if you have other questions!

Siemreap.net

Keymaster

Update, January 2018 – Siem Reap’s immigration police is now asking US $10 to do the immigration registration paper. And US $20 if you also want them to process the residency registration paper (which is normally done by the commune). These are NOT the official prices, as these papers are normally free. Ask for a receipt and you will get a confusing story about why this is an extra (even personal) service by the officer you are talking to…. yada yada yada… In the end there is no other solution, then to accept this corruption or go back home empty-handed. So pay and keep on smiling or it will ruin your day.

However, do let us know if you had a different experience with the immigration police! We would love to hear that we were unlucky and there are actually some honest immigration officers out there! Unlikely, but who knows haha…