Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing what is being dubbed as sort of "Cambodia my second home". For those who have watched other videos on this channel, there has been in the past a program, I believe is called "Malaysia My Second Home" MM2H, sometimes it's called. We did a video some time ago about changes to the rules regarding the MM2H program but this was rather interesting. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Now Cambodia competes with Thailand for 10-year Visa long stayers.

Quoting directly: Cambodia's Interior Ministry has announced the arrival of Cambodia My Second Home program for the 10-year unlimited entry and exit Visa. The associated benefits will include state medical insurance, membership for spouses and close relatives and the chance to apply for a Cambodian passport after five years and enjoyment of ASEAN privileges. Entry qualifications are investment of at least US$100,000 and ownership of a real estate "project" which means some form of property deal. The Interior Ministry's partner in the newly announced scheme is the Khmer Home Charity association, an umbrella organization to facilitate long-term foreigners settling in. Applications are made through the website cm2h.com/how-to-apply with a short waiting period of two weeks. So interesting. It will be curious to see how many folks ultimately look into that.

What was very interesting is, with the chance to apply for a Cambodian passport after 5 years, I have to imagine the, how do we say it, the practicalities associated with naturalization to Cambodian citizenship would likely prove to be rather daunting. I can say from experience that dealing with naturalization processing in Southeast Asia, again you can't always compare things but it's pretty difficult to deal with and sometimes it's not the most straightforward thing, but interesting to see. 

Now will this have a tremendous impact on Thailand? I would kind of doubt it. To my mind it probably was being done in response to Thailand's recent announcement with respect to the so-called Long-Term Residents Visas which again as we have noted in other videos on this channel, are not really a Residency Visa but it does provide 10 years of status. And as noted the LTR status here in Thailand does not have anything associated with the possibility of getting a Thai passport, nor do I think that is ever going to be a possibility associated with that program, but interesting. It is interesting to see the kind of point, counterpoint with respect to Immigration policy happening down here in Southeast Asia. We will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.