To Marry A Cambodian National

[geovalin]

How I married my Cambodian girl friend

As I / we live I Thailand and as the question is sometimes asked in this forum, I take the liberty of giving some explanations and details.

If I should have posted it elsewhere, please move it in the right category.

Fist of all, forgive the mistakes and misspellings as I'm not a Native English Speaker. Feel free to post a corrected version of this text.

In 2008, it was impossible to marry a Cambodian national. Since November 2008, it's allowed again.

The process is long and expensive.

Long is not only due to Cambodian administration, it's also due to French side (in my case).

Expensive is only due to Cambodian unofficial fees.

Roughly, you need:

1 the green light from your Embassy

2 the green light from 2 Cambodian ministries

3 the marriage certificate from the Cambodian district of your fiancée

4 the final usual certificate or booklet from your Embassy.

Steps 1 and 2 are new in the process, but they are the longest (10 months in my case).

The green light from your Embassy

As there are a lot of French willing to marry Cambodian nationals (a lot are Khmer living in France with French nationality), it's long to obtain an appointment with the in charge officer at the French Embassy.

Well, this officer is helpful and convenient to work with. I heard that US Embassy is not so easy (to be confirmed). The Embassies are serious to check on you. I do not detail here the documents French ask as you'll have different ones to produce if you are not my fellow; it depends on your nationality. There is a double interview at the Embassy, you with the a French staff and your fiancée with a local staff.

No need to tell that you have to be “clean” in any way.

At the same time, your fiancée needs certificates from her municipality.

To be sure you had the green light from your Embassy before to go on, you are not allowed to file yourself the request to the Cambodian ministry of foreign Affair. Your Embassy will send the documents itself to the Cambodian Ministry. Double check there but you do not need to show your face. Some unofficial fees.

Then Ministry of Interior.

Please take notice that even if you do not bring yourself the documents to the Ministries you are responsible of the following up. If you do not want to be forgotten, you or your fiancée or someone you know needs to call or go to the offices sometimes to times.

Acting like that, you'll have a contact in the Ministries that you'll be able to call as often as you wish to follow the process.

At the Ministry of Interior, you'll be checked / interviewed again. I had the feeling the interview was double: formal in the office (I speak Khmer but I guess the interview is conducted in English for non Khmer speakers) and informal outside: when you wait, there are some kind, young -likely- police officers in plain clothes who chat with you and your fiancée, asking some indiscreet questions, to double check the answers you give inside the office.

These two steps 1 and 2 are seriously done and I don't think corruption would help. I even have the feeling that if you are not clean and try to hide it or try to pass the controls, you'll fail. I heard about such cases.

The documents requested by the French part and the Cambodian ones can be different. Example: French don't mind if you are rich or not, to marry is a human right VS Cambodians who need some certificate showing you have enough incomes (be careful, this is serious, some French men had been rebuffed by the Cambodian authorities because they was supposed to be too poor).

The unofficial fees are not corruption to help to pass a control you failed. It's just money you have to pay because the local government does not pay its officer enough.

Well, of course, if you do not pay, you'll fail but I don't think that if you pay, you'll succeed for sure. You need to be sincere, at least if you are a westerner.

When you have the last green light from the Ministry of Interior, you can go to the district or municipality office and obtain the marriage certificate. You need to go there twice to give your thumb print twice.

In person, you have to be there for two interviews (your Embassy + Ministry of Interior) and two times at the municipality then you can go again to your Embassy with the final Cambodian marriage certificate. A few weeks later, you obtain the final certificate from your country.

Expect a total of 1000 USD. The big amounts to be given at the 2 ministries regard only something like 600 USD but as your fiancée needs all the times other documents like birth certificates or, eventually, copies of the marriage certificates, each of them at $ 10 or 20. As you have to translate ($ 10 / document) by a certified company, the total is always far higher than what you remember.

Not a penny in French Embassy (it may be depend on your country).

Let's hope such a long and expensive process can avoid that some young Cambodian girls be exploited in Taiwan or Korea. Let's hope.