I am stranded in Cambodia.

I am an American who once taught physics in Jinan, China. I got laid off because the program was cancelled. I moved here to Cambodia to take a temporary job. After it ended, I found another job in China, teaching at the University of Shangluo, a dream job. Great? Right?

But...

When I tried to renew my Cambodian visa, I got scammed. I paid some charlatans to put a fake stamp in my passport. It was the Chinese embassy that discovered this, and now I am unable to obtain a Chinese visa to enter their country. (You need an up-to-date visa to prove you are in the country from whence you come legitimately before you can get a visa somewhere else. This is not only true for China, but for anywhere, but more on this below. I don't make the rules, but that's what they are.)

I am now an illegal alien in Cambodia. The authorities here are aware of this because I explained my situation to them, and they told me I would need to pay $10 per day for each day I overstay my (legitimate) visa. It expired on September 10th of this year. I will be charged $10 per day for every day I am here past that date. You do the math. This is not like the USA, where they deport you; here in Cambodia, they want to take advantage of a source of money they can extract, and not spend money sending me back to my homeland. I am a de facto prisoner in this country. That is why I need $1,000 to renew my Cambodian Visa and get my new Chinese work visa.

Yes, I have contacted the American embassy. They are worse than useless. Please contribute if you are willing and able.

Now things have become worse. The cost to get my visa renewed increases by the day, and while I am getting there, I still must pay for my lodging. If I wind up homeless, I will be unable to take any action at all, so sadly, I must pay for another week's lodging at the Eighty8 bar where I now live.

My offer from the University of Shangluo has since been rescinded, although the possibility I can come next year still exists. My employment prsopects are nil. I continue to apply for online tutoring positions, but that has come to naught. It seems like either the market for tutors is saturated, or the industry has been taken over by AI, or I am just not wanted.

The American embassy raised the possibility I could get a loan to return to my homeland, but so far nothing has come of that. I did, in anticipation of this, apply for some jobs in the United States, and some of the employers seem to be interested in me, but, unfortunately, I am unable to to commute from Cambodia.

So that is my story. I still need some more cash to cover the balance so I can at least stay here until the end of the year.