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Say I wanted to apply for a Russian visa in Cambodia while traveling there, then I found that beyond the other documents required I also need to prove legality of my stay in Cambodia:

Non-Cambodian citizens should also provide proof of legality of their stay in Cambodia when applying for a visa.

How do I prove this?

Assume my nationality is EU (but ideally this should work for any /most nationalities) and I am on a regular tourist visa in Cambodia.

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1 Answers1

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I discovered this method last year when I was in Asia, possibly when I was already in Cambodia. At that time I found multiple threads of various forums discussing it but I'll answer now off the top of my head and try to come back and add some links afterward.

  1. You can't do this on a tourist visa, but
  2. It's just as easy to get a business visa for Cambodia as a tourist visa. If you are eligible to get a tourist visa on arrival at the airport or border, you can also get a business visa there. The cost is only marginally higher. As I recall just $5 USD more.
  3. After entering Cambodia go to an immigration office. I can't recall if you must do this on the first day possible or if you can do it any time before your business visa expires.
  4. Get an extension on your business visa. As I recall you can get 6 months or 12 months and the fee is on the order of $100 USD or so. Some reports I have read that are now a few years old suggest that a 3-month extension is sufficient!
  5. Being in Cambodia on a business visa of at least a certain minimum length of time gives you some kind of legal status as a resident of Cambodia.
  6. The Russian embassy/consulate will accept this resident status as fulfilling their requirement for issuing visas only to residents of Cambodia.

References. Hopefully I can find some more/better/more recent ones to add...

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