Cambodia or Philippines
Two countries side by side across the same rows as the full comparison. A dash means the value is missing: fields are not filled with guesses. about the data
| Cambodia | Philippines | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | — |
| Citizenship | — | 10 years |
| Partner can work | — | yes |
| Parents | — | — |
| Pets | — | no trouble |
| Pet limit | no limit | 3 |
| Quarantine | — | no |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 724 · estimate | $ 373 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 31,8 | $ 22,6 |
| Life expectancy | 70.82 | 69.95 |
| Homicides/100k | 1.82 | 4.31 |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 4.5 | 8.2 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: Cambodia — 12, Philippines — 32. Types present in both: work and repatriation. Philippines adds: study, family, investment and retirement.
Fees, thresholds and deadlines
Cambodia: fees range from 15 to 100 USD. Routes with no fee: 1. Routes with a published decision deadline: 12; the shortest is 1 days. Philippines: fees range from 1,010 to 37,060 PHP. Routes with no fee: 2. Routes stating an income threshold: 1; the lowest is 800 USD a month. Routes with a published decision deadline: 1; the shortest is 2 days.
Beyond the first permit
Permanent status: Philippines after 1 year; the other country publishes no term. Citizenship: Philippines after 10 years; the other country publishes no term.
Cambodia in brief
Cambodia combines one of the region's most accessible long-stay visa regimes with the absence, for most foreigners, of an ordinary route to permanent residence: a type E visa can be renewed within the country for up to a year at a time an unlimited number of times, but it remains a temporary status that does not turn into a residence permit and does not count toward citizenship. A formal permanent resident status is provided for in the 1994 immigration law, but the grounds and procedure for obtaining it are not publicly described in a verifiable form in practice. The cost of living and rent are among the lowest in Southeast Asia, and the US dollar circulates alongside the riel. Rule-of-law and control-of-corruption scores (World Bank, Worldwide Governance Indicators) are noticeably below the global average.
Philippines in brief
What sets the Philippines apart from its neighbours is the language: English is official and used in business, so there is no separate language barrier. Getting in is easy — 30 days visa-free under a wide list of countries, extendable on the spot; permanent status through marriage arrives after one probationary year, which is rare in this guide. The 9(g) work visa, on the other hand, is firmly tied to the employer: the labour department issues the hiring permit for that specific company. The digital nomad visa created by Executive Order No. 86 in April 2025 is not open to everyone: the reciprocity condition requires the applicant's country to issue such visas to Filipinos itself and to host a Philippine Foreign Service Post. The order sets no income threshold at all — the widely quoted figure of 24,000 dollars a year comes from consultants' commentary, not from the text. The main constraint is not bureaucratic: on the INFORM scale this is one of the most hazard-exposed countries in the world — earthquakes 9.7 out of 10, tsunamis 9.4, typhoons 9.2. Naturalisation takes 10 years and requires giving up the previous citizenship.
Other comparisons
Cambodia or… Taiwan · South Korea · Japan · Thailand · Kazakhstan · Lebanon · Uzbekistan · Malaysia
Philippines or… Azerbaijan · Bangladesh · Kuwait · Iraq · Mongolia · Oman · People's Republic of China · Sri Lanka
More on each: Cambodia · Philippines. Build your own comparison — up to four countries
This material is for reference and is not legal, tax or immigration advice. Visa rules, tax thresholds and prices change. Before deciding anything, check the official sources and consult a licensed professional in the relevant country.