nonimmigrant or immigrant?

[zyggy 9]

I do not believe a Consulate General of the US performs only services for individuals. A consulate performs all fuctions of an embassy, but on a more limited basis. For example, consulate general Sydney has political and economic sections that maintain contact with NSW and Queensland governments. These are not services for individuals, rather they are for governments.

http://canberra.usembassy.gov/sydney/consulate.html

It is commonly noted on VJ that "embassies do not issue visas, consulates issue visas". I believe that this statement is incorrect. It is more correct to say, consular sections within embassies and consulates issue visa.

scy,

Simply stated (perhaps too simply)

- An embassy performs services government to government.

- A consulate performs services for individuals. I have not looked at all US embassy web sites, but every one that I have looked at has a clearly defined section headed Consular Services or similar, and the Consular Services section is subdivided into 2 areas, American Citizen Services and Visa Services.

Here's my understanding:

- A country will only have one embassy in another country, it may have one or more consulates.

- A consulate that is co-located with an embassy it will usually be referred to as the consular section, consular department, or consular office of the embassy, but it still performs the same well-defined services and is still headed by a Consul or Consul General as is a stand-alone consulate.

- Not all consulates provide a full range of consular services, and it's not always the consulate that is co-located with the embassy that provides the fullest range of consular services.

- I don't know if a Consul or Consul General reports directly to the Ambassador in the country where they are posted or if they report directly to the Consular Affair Bureau domestically and indirectly to the Ambassador.

I don't think I've ever seen visa services listed as something other than a consular function.

Yodrak

zyggy,

I think it's more appropriate to say that the consular section of an embassy provides the consular services. It's not like the consular services are provided by adding to the responsibilities of embassy sections that also perform other embassy functions. The consular services sections are pretty much stand-alone, even though they may be co-located with an embassy. (Except, perhaps, at the smallest of embassies?)

Yodrak

Yodrak,

I'm confused. Is a consular section the same as a consulate? I ask because in some of your posts, you mentioned that "Be aware also that despite what the source you quoted says, visas are issued by consulates, not embassies,"

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...wtopic=5224&hl=

So if I read this right, a consular section within an embassy is called a "consulate"?

So what is your opinion of where visas are issued? Consulates, embassies, or consular sections within consulates and embassies?

A consulate general does have some economic, cultural and political sections in addition to issuing visas and providing services to US Citizens... However, a consulate only issues visas and provides services to US Citizens. However, it's relatively difficult to just find a plain old US Consulate anymore.

So a consulate is not the same as a consulate general? Is there even a US consulate that isn't called a consulate general?

Winnipeg, Manitoba is still just a Consulate. Calgary used to be just a Consulate, but just got upgraded to a Consulate General.

Hermosillo, Mexico is still just a Consulate. So yes.. there are still some posts that are just a Consulate. But nothing that any of us would deal with...

Edited March 13, 2006 by zyggy

[scy 0]

A consulate general does have some economic, cultural and political sections in addition to issuing visas and providing services to US Citizens... However, a consulate only issues visas and provides services to US Citizens. However, it's relatively difficult to just find a plain old US Consulate anymore.

So a consulate is not the same as a consulate general? Is there even a US consulate that isn't called a consulate general?

Winnipeg, Manitoba is still just a Consulate. Calgary used to be just a Consulate, but just got upgraded to a Consulate General.

Hermosillo, Mexico is still just a Consulate. So yes.. there are still some posts that are just a Consulate. But nothing that any of us would deal with...

Since the consulate in Winnipeg isn't a consulate-general, then it only issues visas right? Yet US Consulate, Winnipeg doesn't have a consular section that issues visas. It only deals with the government of Winnipeg on economic and political issues.

http://www.usconsulatewinnipeg.ca/content/...&document=index

So by your logic that a consulate-general do other things beside issue visas, the consulate in Winnipeg should be called a consulate-general.

Edited March 13, 2006 by scy

[zyggy 9]

A consulate general does have some economic, cultural and political sections in addition to issuing visas and providing services to US Citizens... However, a consulate only issues visas and provides services to US Citizens. However, it's relatively difficult to just find a plain old US Consulate anymore.

So a consulate is not the same as a consulate general? Is there even a US consulate that isn't called a consulate general?

Winnipeg, Manitoba is still just a Consulate. Calgary used to be just a Consulate, but just got upgraded to a Consulate General.

Hermosillo, Mexico is still just a Consulate. So yes.. there are still some posts that are just a Consulate. But nothing that any of us would deal with...

Since the consulate in Winnipeg isn't a consulate-general, then it only issues visas right? Yet US Consulate, Winnipeg doesn't have a consular section that issues visas. It only deals with the government of Winnipeg on economic and political issues.

http://www.usconsulatewinnipeg.ca/content/...&document=index

So by your logic that a consulate-general do other things beside issue visas, the consulate in Winnipeg should be called a consulate-general.

And yet in Hermosillo, all they do is process visas. I suppose a plain old Consulate is a post that does not offer the full range of consular services that a Consulate General does...

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Even in that case, Calgary did issue (visitor and some student) visas.

Obviously, consulates-general do not have to necessarily issue immigrant visas (in Canada, issued only at Montreal).

[zyggy 9]

From wikipedia...

In modern usage, a consul is a representative of a sovereign state, posted to a foreign territory, in charge of matters related to individual people and businesses, in other words issues outside inter-governmental diplomacy. The office of a consul is known as a consulate.

Consulates are more numerous than diplomatic missions (e.g. embassies), since the latter are posted only in a foreign nation's capital (exceptionally even outside the country, in case of a multiple mandate, e.g. a minor power may well accredit a single Ambassador with several neighbouring states of modest relative importance that are not considered important allies), while consular ones are also posted in various cities throughout the country, especially centres of economic activity, or wherever there is a significant population of its citizens (expatriates) in residence.

In large foreign cities a sovereign state may be represented by a senior consul known as a consul-general, who typically has several consuls and vice consuls working under him/her. The office of a consul-general is known as a consulate-general. Consulates-general need not be in the capital city, but instead in the most appropriate cities. In the United States, for example, many countries base their consul general in New York City.

Consulates are subordinate posts of their home country's diplomatic mission (usually an embassy), which is located in the capital city of the host country. Diplomatic missions are established in international law under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, while consulates-general and consulates are established in international law under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (see external link below). Formally the consular career (ranking in descending order: Consul-General, Consul, Vice-Consul, Honorary Consul) forms a different hierarchy from the diplomats. However it is not uncommon for individuals to be transferred from one hierarchy to the other, and for consular officials to serve in a capital carrying out strictly consular duties within the 'consular section' of a diplomatic post, e.g. within an embassy.

Activities of a consulate include protecting the interests of their citizens temporarily or permanently resident in the host country; issuing passports; issuing visas to foreigners; and public diplomacy. However, the principal role of a consulate lies historically in promoting trade - assisting companies to invest and to import and export goods and services both inwardly to their home country and outward to their host country. And although it is never admitted publicly, consulates, like embassies, also gather intelligence information from the assigned country. This is especially important if the consulate is located in a port city.

[pax 0]

This is the most delightfully arcane, cerebral thread I've seen on VJ in quite a while.