Foreigners must have a valid visa, work permit, and residency permit to live and work in Cambodia. Work permits (valid for 1 year) may be obtained at the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training. A business visa (valid for 1 year) may be easily obtained for most nationalities upon arrival.
A foreign individual present and working in Cambodia for any period of time is required to obtain a work permit under law. There are no exceptions and it is a separate analysis for local Cambodian tax liability. However, only an entity in Cambodia can apply on behalf of the applicant – for example, an HR company in Cambodia can be engaged to undertake this role for the purpose of obtaining a work permit if the real employer is outside Cambodia and the worker only visits temporarily.
A work permit application cannot be processed without the existence of a locally incorporated entity to act as the employer. Also, a work permit application cannot be submitted alone without initial labor registrations having been completed, such as declaration of opening of enterprise, declaration of personnel (and updates regarding outgoing and incoming staff), quota request and approval, medical examination certificate, etc. Most importantly, the deadline to apply for a quota to employ foreigners is……
With regard to our service, unofficial facilitation fees remains a concern. Labor officials historically have not processed applications without unofficial fees, which this firm does not pay. We cannot predict a time period when an application will be filed or completed, and we cannot guarantee that the application will be successfully filed. Consequently, we would have to charge per our standard rates according to actual time spent. The effort may require multiple submissions of documents and multiple visits to the government offices and may also require the good offices of the Senior Partner of the firm to seek intervention from the highest levels of the Ministry.