So, long story short, I have a dual citizen daughter age 6. Mother's a POS, left the kid for about 5 of the 6 years, the kid has been kicking around, she lives in the typical shit Khmer living conditions in the province with the usual overcrowded family situation. The mother is content to leave her in these conditions until she is 14 and can legal decide to come with me on her own. The relatives once wanted to sell her back to me for $15,000, what a deal right?

The mother is keeping the kid like this as a form of punishment as me and the kid get along great and neither of us are a fan of the mother. Funny what brings people together. She is now at an age where she wants to get out and come to live with me outside of Cambodia. Calls daily asking how many more days, how much longer, etc.

She is a legal US citizen, passport the works, holds everything she needs to enter the US. Trying to get her permission to leave Cambodia is proving to be one of the more difficult tasks that I have encountered in my 12 years in the Kingdom of WTF.

Hired a lawyer, who of course claimed he knew what he was doing, came recommended by Jim over at CPU, here we are months later and for the money spent $3000. He was only able to get a new Khmer birth certificate and a letter from court stating that I am the father. Something we already knew, but had to spell out to Khmer legal system. He was hired for the fee to work until the exit visa was in the passport, however its starting to show that he has no idea what he is doing as he thinks I need to take my US citizen daughters US passport to the US embassy to get a US visa.

The boys down in Pochentong refuse to speak to the lawyer and say I need to come down there, even with a power of attorney, and even tried an Agency who supposedly knew someone and guaranteed that the issue was not an issue, gave them a little extra to get shit done, after lots of reassurances from everyone the process keeps stalling out around getting permission from the mother to leave the country.

Well, the mother is not in Cambodia, and refuses to give any kind of permission unless *shocker* I agree to take her to America where she can reunite with her long lost relatives so she can pursue the Cambodian dream of sending all of her earnings to her deadbeat relatives. The mother is even such a generous soul that she has stated that she will happily move to the US with me for 3 years and not even bother to bring the daughter along.

Somewhere on here I read a post by a guy who moved from Cambodia to Thailand and had to deal with something similar to the tune of $1200. If anyone has similar experience or any pointers they would be greatly appreciated, after two trips already this year to Cambodia and leaving empty handed I am getting quite frustrated that nobody can point me in the right direction and I want to get my kid into school and onto a normal life as soon as possible.

Embassy is turning out to be useless, their parting advice was take $50 down to Pochentong and get an exit visa. Its easy.

Took the following in:
1 x Application form
1 x Child's foreign passport
2 x Child's passport photos
1 x Child's Cambodian Birth Certificate (in Khmer and English)
1 x Wedding Certificate from Oregon state translated
1 x Child's foreign Certificate of Citizenship
And $50 for each child
Letter from court stating paternity confirmed.

Thanks in advance. And yes, I read the other thread.

If I do get her a Cambodian passport, are they still going to ask for some letter when we fly out? I was told I would still need a letter at the airport?

Going to contact the Cambodian consulate here in the US, see if they cant move things along, or recommend something. The shittier part is, I have a home in Cambodia, which is lightyears ahead of where she lives now. And she gets along great with the girlfriend that tends to the home and properties.

But the original family would never let her live there. The new family gets along with her, and all take very good care of her when she is at my place in Cambodia. Working on a few different angles, might try for the Khmer passport approach, but really no idea. Was thinking that crossing the Thai border might be a little less formal with one of the transport companies, and hoping that in the sea of passports she might be able to slip thru with her 2 passports.

Also sending the lawyer back to court to get a full custody document stating that I have 100% authority over the movement of my kid and all of her needs and that I dont require the mother to be involved per abandonment, etc.

But she lives in complete shit right now, sleeps under a house in a mosquito net, not in a house. The home floods, there is black sewer water around the perimeter, bags of garbage, called one day to find them finger painting with chicken shit under their house. Behind the home is a flooded area that is probably mass producing mosquitos and she spends about 8 to 10 hrs a day on a device either tablet or phone as her babysitter. Also fairly concerned about having this very barang little girl living with a number of uncles and other relatives knowing the kind of shit that happens to kids.

Thanks for the info, I will definitely be looking into this. Ideally taking the kid to get the passport before I arrive would be nice. But we may have to do a rush job and just bend over for the express service.