Editorial Policy
Our editorial policy was updated on June 3, 2026
AsiaLongStay publishes practical guides for foreigners living in or planning a long-term move to Southeast Asia. This page explains how we research and write our content, what standards we hold ourselves to, and how we handle corrections and updates.
What We Cover and What We Don't
Our content focuses on long-term living in six countries: Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Laos. We cover visas, residency procedures, living costs, housing, healthcare, banking, insurance, and the day-to-day issues foreigners deal with after arrival.
We do not publish short-stay travel guides, hotel or restaurant recommendations, business formation advice, or job listings. If a topic falls outside long-term living, it is outside our scope.
Who We Write For
Our main readers are people making serious long-stay decisions: retirees planning a move, spouses living on family visas, and workers settling in for more than a short trip. We write for readers who are comparing rules, costs, and real-life trade-offs, not browsing for travel ideas. When something is complicated, we say so.
Editorial Responsibility
AsiaLongStay articles are prepared and reviewed by the AsiaLongStay Editorial Team.
We use official authority pages, practitioner references, and reachable reports from long-stay foreigners. Procedure guides start with official sources. Living guides also use community reports when they help explain problems foreigners actually meet after arrival.
The main sources are listed at the end of each guide.
How We Research
Procedure and immigration guides: We start with official sources where they are available, including immigration portals, government fee pages, and published visa rules. When official pages do not answer a practical question, we may use practitioner references and applicant reports to explain what people are seeing in practice. We make that source difference clear.
Living and lifestyle guides: We use reachable community reports, expat forums, local platforms, and first-hand long-stay experience when the pattern is clear enough to be useful. If something comes from residents rather than an official source, we say so.
We do not invent figures, approval rates, decree numbers, or processing times. For costs and fees, we usually give ranges instead of single numbers because prices can depend on the city, provider, season, and personal situation.
How We Write
Official requirement: what the law, authority page, or official policy says.
Common practice: what applicants and residents report happening in real life.
Local variation: where the answer may change by province, office, bank branch, landlord, hospital, or individual case.
We do not mix these together without saying where the information comes from. In Southeast Asia, the written rule and the desk-level answer are not always the same.
Images and Photography
Images on AsiaLongStay come from two main sources.
Licensed stock photography: we use images from free-use stock platforms such as Unsplash, where the license allows editorial use. We choose images that match the country, city, or topic being covered.
Reader and contributor photography: some images are submitted by people living in or travelling through Southeast Asia. By sending us an image, contributors confirm they own it or have permission to share it with us.
We do not use images copied from social media, taken from other publications, or sourced from places where the license is unclear.
Independence and Advertising
AsiaLongStay is funded through display advertising. We do not accept payment to feature, promote, or recommend specific companies, products, or services within editorial content.
Advertising placements are handled separately from editorial decisions. Advertisers have no influence over which topics we cover, how we cover them, or what conclusions we reach.
Accuracy and Corrections
Visa rules, official fees, local costs, and online services can change without much warning. We update articles when we identify a material change, especially for immigration rules, fees, procedures, and long-stay requirements.
If you find something outdated, incorrect, or unclear, contact us through the Contact page. We review correction requests and update the article when the evidence supports a change.
A Note on Uncertainty
In Southeast Asia, the official rule is not always the full story. Procedures can vary between provinces, offices, banks, landlords, and individual officers. Policies can also change with little notice.
Rules, fees, and local practice can change. Always verify with official sources or qualified advisors before making immigration, legal, or financial decisions.