Your experience with Consular staff?
 

This thread is open to all nationalities.

I was wondering what stories FTers had with regards to contacting an Embassy/Consulate for assistance, beyond the usual lost passport replacement or issuance of an emergency travel document.

Stories about events like a natural disaster or war resulting in evacuation, or perhaps reporting a serious crime or when you had to seek refuge in an embassy for a bit. How well did the embassy provide service?

Let's hear em ^

There was a Christmas party I was invited to at the Australian Consulate once.

Your experience with Consular staff?
 

Had to register there before wife and I could get marriage license in the foreign country.

Experiences have been mixed.

Indian Consulate in San Francisco - refused to let me in the door as my residence was in Atlanta at the time and they said I should direct any issues to Houston Consulate instead.

Indian Consulate in Toronto - had multiple friendly and informative email exchanges with the Consul-General personally about absentee voting and voter registration issues. Always prompt service at the Consulate itself when I needed document attestation or other services. Sadly seems to have gone downhill under new management judging by recent reports.

Indian High Commission in Accra - exceptional service. Had to take refuge there for a few hours due to some political issues and dodgy threats of arrest. They installed me on a comfortable chair in their library with some tea and biscuits while everything was sorted out by the First Secretary. Also had a new passport issued on the spot while I chatted with the High Commissioner in his office on a different occasion. Small mission where they knew the local expat community and were able to really provide us good service as a result.

A consulate is allowed to refuse entry to their own citizen based on geographic residency of the same country?? :confused: Seems complaint worthy.

I don't believe they are. Sounds like someone was being lazy that day.

The Indian Consulate in San Francisco refused my wife (US Citizen) a visa because her name was not on my utility bill and they said that they had no way to tell that she lived with me in Nevada… if she lived outside their area, they would not issue a visa. Fortunately a supervisor there (who was, strangely, not of Indian origin) managed to sort it out and get them to relent.

At the other end of the spectrum, I once had tea with the Azerbaijani Ambassador to Iran at their Embassy in Tehran.

At the Russian embassy in Ottawa, they run their consular services from a little house near the embassy. You go in, and a very Russian lady barks at you to sit down. You wait, and wait, and wait, and eventually, a very kind bald man smiles, asks you a little bit about your trip, and gives you your passport back.

All in all, a decent experience. I think receptionists, Russian or not, are inherently unhappy people! :P

In 1966, the Polish consulate in Washington told my mother, who was preparing for a family trip in a VW camper from Paris to Moscow and back, that she and my father should get their Polish visas when they reached Prague. Arriving there, my parents and us three kids went to the Polish consulate. The vice-consul looked at my mother's passport and noted her birthplace: Poland.

"When did you leave Poland?"
"1946."
"Oh, then you're a defector. (The Communist government had already been established then.) You can't come back to Poland."

This was a major predicament as the whole purpose of the trip was for my father to present a paper at the International Congress of Psychology. My mother called friends in Warsaw (which was itself a major undertaking; we went to the main post office, filled out a form, and waited for her name to be announced together with the booth number where she could pick up the call), who contacted various officials to no avail.

After a few days with no visa, my father went along to the consulate. The consul himself was on vacation. My father introduced himself to the assistant with his full academic title in Czech: Professor Doctor X. He pointed out that the vice-consul's refusal of a Polish visa for my mother was preventing him, a distinguished American scientist, from delivering a paper at the most important international scientific conference in his field. This would surely provoke a diplomatic incident; did the vice-consul want to be responsible?

Magically, the visa appeared.

I've only had to deal with 3: Nigeria, Indonesia, Thailand.

Nigeria only for the 4th of July party for ex-pats. Barbecued burgers, dogs, beer. Who could complain?

Indonesia to add pages. Polite and efficient.

Thailand I've had multiple experiences. The Citizens Services has always treated me well, although long waits are normal. But they treat my (Thai) wife like dirt. I get the impression that some think she is betraying their country by marrying an American. She won't go there any more without me. They treat her OK when I'm standing there.

As an expat living overseas, you get a little different view of the DipCorp people that does a traveler who shows up and asks for a service, like a lost US passport. I was an expat in several different countries and in different continents in the 80s and 90s, and my overall view of the Americans employed by the State Department wasn't very positive.

Generally this was because the State people never seemed to have any interest in learning about the people in their host country or developing any sort of relationships with the people who lived in the city. Again, this is a generalization, but it was as if all their social and professional interests were centered on Washington DC, and anyone who was not a part of the Beltway Crowd was not worth their time. For example, I had an American employee who worked for me in the capital of an Asian country, and an American Embassy guy came to the country and moved into the house next door. The Embassy guy and his family went out of his way to ignore my guy and his family the entire time he lived there, as well as every other neighbor on the street.

The other weird touch point for State people and their dependents is on flights to and from the states, where some of the most entitled behavior I have ever seen from Americans has been exhibited by our supposed public servants. DYKWIA, demands for upgrades because of who they are, etc.

Again, this is a generalization, and I am sure that their are good folks out there, but it has been depressingly consistent that the State people, rather than setting an example for being a neighborly American living in a foreign land end up being a character out of "The Ugly American". And since it was my tax dollars supporting their near-lavish lifestyles, it was particularly noticeable and disagreeable.

My Mom spent part of her childhood in Tangier, Morocco, in the 1940s and 1950s. She fondly remembers going to 4th of July ice cream parties at the American Legation in Tangier, and I think she said that it was also home to an English-language lending library. My grandparents often got invited to Legation parties. A few years, my Mom and I spent the better part of a week hanging out in the Legation building (now home to the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies) reading through old copies of the Tangier Gazette.

I spent part of my childhood in Saudi Arabia, and while I don't think I ever visited the US Consulate in Dhahran, I'm almost certain my parents went to a few parties there...invitations were much coveted since the Consulate had name-brand booze, rather than the wine brewed in Rubbermaid trashcans and moonshine made in home stills that expats regularly drank.

My senior year in high school in Maryland I was friends with a British exchange student and her host family secured tickets to the British Embassy Christmas party/pantomime and invited me to join them. (My British boarding school is hosting an alumni reception at the British Embassy in DC in a couple weeks, but sadly I won't be able to attend!)

Male British consul in China still remains the only person to say goodbye to my boobs
"lovely to see you" - to face, shaking hand
"hope to see you again soon" - to boobs.

I've had to work with a fair few British embassies and consulates on business, and the quality is really variable. Bigger missions tend to have better staff, and some of the local officers (nationals of the country you are in, but employed by HMG) are superb.

I frequently use ACS at US Embassies/Consulates in Asia, Europe and Latin America. I've been satisfied with the experiences, after I get into the building. Some experiences have been more formal, some experiences more friendly, but no bad experiences.

My worst experiences with consular staff are with consular staff for countries beside my own, but those bad experiences have been rather rare.

I was invited to a party co-hosted by the Australian Consulate in Chicago (with the Australian National University of which I am a graduate). Met the Consular General and had a great conversation on their role in trade etc.. If I was still paying Australian taxes I would be happy with my taxes paying for the post!