pathoff← All countries for early study

Early study

Cambodia

The easiest country in Asia for a parent to stay in, and the schools price in dollars.

5/5
ingredients confirmed
Every ingredient this page asks for has a figure and a source.
Tuition
~$28–30.5k/yr
This prices the top of the Phnom Penh market. There is a mid-market tier reported at roughly a third of it, but none of those schools publishes a schedule we could read, so this figure is the ceiling rather than the middle.
Living
~$1,650/mo
Family of three, all in, excluding fees. Compared at country level, so capital cities and large metros run higher. The price level behind it prices the basket residents buy, and a foreign renter cannot reach the cheap end of local housing — poorer countries may still sit too low here.
Education
Mid
Guardian visa
A parent can stay indefinitely, on a visa nobody vets
Safety
Mid
Ninety-sixth of 163, and one of the largest deteriorations in this edition after the 2025 border fighting with Thailand

More is being checked.

Where these figures came from

One row per ingredient. Open any of them for the source, how far we trust it, and when we last checked.

Tuition~$28–30.5k/yr

Northbridge International School Cambodia publishes 2026-27 annual tuition of $27,975 for Grades 6–8, $28,295 for Grades 9–10 and $30,475 for the IB Diploma years, plus a $2,840 annual capital fee and a $2,990 registration fee.

This prices the top of the Phnom Penh market. There is a mid-market tier reported at roughly a third of it, but none of those schools publishes a schedule we could read, so this figure is the ceiling rather than the middle.

Confidence
printed in the source
Living~$1,650/mo

Pathoff judgement directed by evidence, not computed from it: the country’s position comes from the World Bank household consumption price level for 2024 (0.363 of the United States, CC BY 4.0 — the ICP benchmark carried forward annually by the World Bank’s own method); the US reference budget is ours. See the Pathoff method, section 12.

Family of three, all in, excluding fees. Compared at country level, so capital cities and large metros run higher. The price level behind it prices the basket residents buy, and a foreign renter cannot reach the cheap end of local housing — poorer countries may still sit too low here.

Confidence
made by us from the source
EducationMid

Pathoff judgement, no rubric yet: placed against the other countries here from general knowledge of the international-school sector. Under review — see the Pathoff method, section 9-3.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Guardian visaA parent can stay indefinitely, on a visa nobody vets

Pathoff outcome rubric (the Pathoff method, section 10-1), early outcome band "Partial or conditional access": There is no guardian status, but the ordinary business visa extension is renewable indefinitely with no income requirement, no employer and no age limit, so a parent can cover an entire school career on a general route. At the very top of the band — what keeps it out of the one above is that this is an extension of stay granted year by year, not a status a parent holds by right.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Rule
No change known to us
Last checked
2026-09
SafetyMid

Global Peace Index 2026: rank 96 of 163, score 2.075. Converted by the Pathoff GPI formula (GPI in lib/scoring.ts)

Ninety-sixth of 163, and one of the largest deteriorations in this edition after the 2025 border fighting with Thailand

Confidence
made by us from the source

What it is like here

Cambodia asks less of a foreign parent than anywhere else on this site: a business visa extension is renewable indefinitely with no income test, no employer and no age limit. What it asks a lot of is the school budget — Phnom Penh’s flagship international school charges close to thirty thousand dollars, which is Western European money in a country at a third of American prices.

How the process works

1

Enter on an ordinary (E) visa, not a tourist one

It is the tourist visa that cannot be extended; the ordinary visa can, forever.

⏱ 1 week
2

Extend for twelve months

Done through an agent in a few days, at a few hundred dollars.

⏱ 1–2 weeks
3

Decide which tier of school you are buying

The gap between the flagship and the mid-market is roughly threefold.

⏱ 2–4 months

Where families cluster

Phnom Penh (BKK1, Toul Kork)
Every international school and most of the foreign community
Siem Reap
Smaller, cheaper, and a much thinner school choice

Open any ingredient above to see where its figure came from, how far we trust it and when we last checked. Nothing here is a substitute for the official source. Last reviewed 2026-09-04.

Photograph of Cambodia by Jakub Hałun, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.