Hong Kong plans to relax traditionally stringent visa requirements for Cambodian nationals hoping to study and work there, changes that could go into effect in the next few months.

Mackenzie Mak, a spokesperson at the Security Bureau of Hong Kong’s Special Administrative Government, this week confirmed the move, first announced by Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying during a 2017 policy address earlier this month.

“It is our target to implement the arrangement within the first quarter this year,” Mak said via email on Tuesday, declining to offer specific details or to say whether Cambodia will be removed from a list of seven countries on which Hong Kong currently imposes strict immigration requirements.

Cambodia is on that list along with North Korea, Cuba, Afghanistan, Laos, Vietnam and Nepal. Cambodian national Sayyon Nara yesterday said pursuing his undergraduate degree in Hong Kong had involved a great deal of struggle with immigration officials.

“They gave me only one chance to study there, and I wasn’t allowed to renew my visa, if I wished to further my” education, he said.