Consulates: what they can do for you, and what they cannot

Consulates are the least understood resource available to anyone abroad — overestimated in a crisis and underused in ordinary circumstances.

They cannot override local law and they cannot get you out of trouble, but what they do provide is genuinely valuable, and much of it is worth using before anything goes wrong.

What a consulate does

• Issue and renew passports, and emergency travel documents
• Register births, deaths and sometimes marriages of citizens abroad
• Perform notarial acts and certify documents
• Provide lists of local lawyers, translators and doctors
• Visit citizens in detention and monitor their treatment
• Contact your family in an emergency
• Assist in a crisis — disaster, unrest, evacuation coordination
• Provide information on local requirements

The second item connects to the material on children: registering a birth abroad is often the route by which a child acquires your citizenship, and it is time-limited.

What a consulate cannot do

The list people most need to know before an emergency:

• Secure your release from detention, or intervene in a prosecution
• Get you better treatment than local citizens receive
• Pay your legal fees, fines, medical bills or hotel
• Investigate a crime or act as a lawyer
• Interfere in local court proceedings or a commercial dispute
• Obtain a visa for you from another country
• Do the work of your insurer

The underlying reason is a single principle: you are subject to the law of the country you are in, and your own state has no authority there. Consular protection means ensuring you are treated according to that country's law and not worse than its own citizens — not exempting you from it.

What a consulate can do in detention is nonetheless meaningful: confirm you are located, notify your family, provide a list of lawyers, visit, and monitor for mistreatment.

Registering with your consulate

Free, quick, and skipped by most people who live abroad.

Why it is worth doing:

• You receive safety information for the country you live in
• You can be contacted in a crisis — natural disaster, unrest, evacuation
• Your family can be reached through the consulate if needed
• It speeds up emergency document issue

The value shows in the situations nobody plans for. In an evacuation, the people the consulate knows about are the people it can account for, and being unregistered means being invisible at exactly the wrong time.

Using them well

1. Register when you arrive
2. Save the emergency number, which differs from the office line
3. Check the office hours and appointment system before turning up
4. Bring complete documents — most delays are missing paperwork
5. Understand the limits before an emergency, not during one
6. Ask for the referral lists rather than searching alone in an unfamiliar system

Point six is undervalued. A consular list of local lawyers and translators is a filtered starting point in a system you cannot assess yourself, and it costs nothing to ask for.

If someone dies abroad

Rarely discussed, and the moment when knowing this in advance matters most.

A consulate will normally:

• Confirm the death to the family and to authorities at home
• Explain the local procedure, which differs considerably between countries
• Provide a list of funeral directors able to handle international arrangements
• Assist with documentation needed at home

It will not pay for repatriation of remains or for a local funeral. Those costs fall to the family unless insurance covers them — which is why repatriation of remains is a benefit worth checking in any policy, as noted in the material on insurance.

It is an unwelcome thing to arrange in advance and a far worse thing to face without it.

Frequently asked questions