Relocating to Cambodia: A Foreign Buyer's First 90 Days

A foreigner who lands in Phnom Penh has roughly 90 days to file for a work permit, and that clock runs from the date of entry, not the date anyone feels ready. Most new arrivals treat the paperwork as admin. The buyers who deploy capital well treat it as a sequence, because each step unlocks the next, and a step taken out of order can stall the two behind it.

The clock starts at the airport

Entry is now structured. The Cambodia e-Arrival system has been mandatory for air travellers since July 2024, and the address you declare feeds the registration immigration later checks. The country runs a two-document model that catches people out. The Ordinary visa, the E-class, grants the right to stay. A separate work permit from the Ministry of Labour grants the right to work. Holding the first does not produce the second, and since the immigration and labour databases were linked in 2024, extensions filed without a valid permit are routinely declined.

Status before capital

The first weeks are about standing, not spending. A foreigner enters on a short E-class visa and then extends inside the country into the category that matches intent, business and work under the EB route, or retirement for those over 55 under the ER route. The order matters, because capital deployed before status is settled tends to sit in structures that have to be unwound later, at cost. Status settled first means the money lands once.

Structure, then the purchase

• Foreigners may hold full ownership of a company in most sectors, registered through the Ministry of Commerce, with a resident company secretary
• Cambodia is dollarised with no foreign exchange controls on standard commercial flows, so funds move in and out in US dollars
• Foreigners may own strata-titled units above the ground floor, capped at 70 percent of a building under the 2010 Foreign Ownership Law
• Land stays in Cambodian hands under the Constitution, so landed assets run through long leases or majority-Cambodian companies
• A standard condominium transfer carries a 4 percent tax on assessed value

The system has formalised over recent years. Databases now talk to each other, documentation carries more weight, and the improvised arrival has fewer shortcuts. Read one way that is friction, read another it is a filter that rewards preparation. A planned capital gains tax on property has been postponed to January 2027, which gives buyers a clear window. We run this sequence with clients, across resale, off-plan and auction, before the first flight is booked.