Generally, the primary purpose of an embassy is to formally represent the sending country to the "host" country. This can encompass a wide range of things.

While it's commonly believed that embassy grounds possess full extraterritorial status, this isn't the case unless specifically granted by treaty - i.e., the embassy isn't fully sovereign territory of sending country. The property is still under the local jurisdiction but treated with special provisions such as that the host country can't enter without permission.

The State Dept has a page on the sorts of emergency services they're supposed to be able to assist with. I've never had to avail myself of them and I imagine the quality of such can vary as it does with the government bureaucracy in general. Note that the embassy emergency services aren't meant to substitute for adequate personal funds or travel insurance.

http://travel.state.gov/content/pass...ergencies.html

Enrolling with the nearest embassy or consulate is now done online. This provides you with a subscription to relevant updates on the destination country and assists in locating you in the event of a disaster, emergency, etc.

https://step.state.gov/step/

Visiting an Embassy / What are Embassies For?
 

Based on my experience many years living overseas, consulates and embassies of the USA are very unhelpful and generally not friendly. This goes for everything from supporting businesses/trade to adding pages to a passport. My friends from other countries have better stories about their embassies and some countries even hold parties for their citizens in country on certain big holidays.

My Indonesian customer lamented that he was always contacted by various EU embassies to attend trade promotion trips and they always helped to encourage him when he was doing business in those countries. From the USA he gets to attend a surly visa interview every couple of years and receives nothing else despite doing 100s of millions in trade with the country. His theory is we spend too much on weapons and have nothing left to promote trade.

I can't speak for Brother Jonathan, but the view of the FCO is that that the British Embassies are there to represent HMG and not British nationals. Accordingly when I travel I would not expect to find much welcome at a British Embassy.

We occasionally have to deal with the American consulate in Frankfurt to renew the kids' passports (wife is American and kids are dual citizens) and it surely is a pain:

- it can only be done in person and both parents have to be present
- one has to make an appointment weeks in advance
- despite the appointment, one has to wait an hour in line just to go through security
- while waiting in line, one has to listen to condescending comments from the staff
- It's not allowed wo bring any electronic devices into the building, if on forgets a phone in a bag or a pocket, it's back to the car and then back to the end of the line
- they will only mail the passport if provided with a special DHL envelope, without that, it's back outside to the nearest DHL office and then back to the end of the line
- one has to fill out complicated forms, sign them and then swear that everything is filled out correctly
- on then gets a receipt with which one has to get into another line to pay the fee and to get the receipt stamped
- with the stamped receipt, on has to get into a final line to hand it back in.

Luckily, we only have to deal with it only every two or three years.

As I am someone who works in an American Embassy I can provide some insight.

First as previously mentioned, just walking into an Embassy doesn't work, you will need to make an appointment. One reason is simply because of workload. Depending on the country the consular officers could be doing well over 100 visa interviews a day. The entire funding for Consular Affairs is based on fees for services provided (if you want to write to your congressperson to ask for money to be allocated from the federal budget so we can hire more people, we would certainly appreciate that). Call for an appointment, and normally time can be found rather quickly for an urgent situation for an American.

What can we do for the average American?

If you are destitute, the Embassy can provide you a loan so that you can go back to the United States. If you lose your passport, we can issue you an emergency one that will allow you to travel back to the United States. If you are arrested we can make sure you are well and advocate for the local justice system to treat you fairly (note we can not get you out of jail, you are in a sovereign country and you have to follow their laws).

All Embassy's have an emergency number that you can call and your call will be answered. Note just because you get a hold of someone at 2 AM doesn't mean they are going to do something at 2 AM, for many things nothing can be done until the next day. If there is a death, serious injury, or arrest of an American citizen, please do call us.

As to why you should register, I admit I don't register in western countries, but there are some places where it is very important to. In Nepal after the earthquake, the first thing I would imagine they did was go through their list of registered Americans and contact them to check if they were okay (and therefore able to provide that information to your family if they called the State Department to ask). If a country is going through unexpected upheaval and you can't leave by commercial means (note when we "evacuate" Embassies the vast majority of the time it is done through commercial transportation), that list would be use to see who needs help to depart the country.

Personally when random Americans get my contact details and want to chat, I generally do.

I will leave a link to this story of a Consular Officer that prevented two children from being sexually abused by their American citizen father and subsequently testified at his trial.

See below for my explanations

Years ago I needed extra pages to my passport so transit between countries with less than ideal Arab-Israeli relationships. I walked into the US Embassy in Cairo. I have to say it was impressive to have a Marine greet me.

That said given the world has changed I am not surprised access is difficult especially as now Visas are needed by many people one can not just show up like I did.

Thank you for providing all the context, thegoodbubba. I of course understand that there are legitimate security concerns following the attacks on American embassies in different parts of the world.

It looks like the appointment situation has much improved since we were there a couple years ago. I believe we were there two or three months before the summer break, so maybe that time was particularly busy.

I did not mean to come across as too negative, but I think from a process perspective, there is room for improvement.

Just for comparison / benchmarking purposes, this is how we renew their German passports:

- we go to the local citizens office which is run by our city administration
- only one parent has to go as long as the other parent gives their consent, preferably written, although, last time we forgot and I was able to give my consent over the phone.
- the officer at the citizens office just pulled up the previous application from a few years ago, verifies / corrects the data and lets a parent sign electronically. No paperwork required.
- they have a bank card reader at the same desk so that one can stay seated and pay in one step
- they print out the passport on the spot (Germany does not require biometric passports for children)
- it's all done in less the ten minutes and costs 13 EUR to get a new one / 6 EUR to renew an existing one vs. 135 USD for a new US passport / 105 EUR to renew an existing one.

Tell that to Americans trapped in Yemen this past month.

Personally, I'd go to a British embassy in this situation before I went to an American one and I am not a British citizen.

I have been to 3 US embassies since 2004 - Moscow, Bulgaria, and Cyprus (this one I have visited numerous times). Out of all my visits, I have only once actually dealt with an American - this was when they screwed up my passport renewal and I had to elevate the matter to a supervisor. The people I dealt with in Moscow and Bulgaria were very rude. The Cypriots were nice.

The security at the embassies is intense. It is a royal pain in the backside. No mobile phones, no handbags, no car keys, basically nothing that is absolutely not needed for your visit. A paper map of Nicosia was even taken from me prior to my entry - ridiculous! How dangerous is a paper map?

Exactly. The US abandoned hundreds of their citizens in Yemen. Who were later evacuated by ... guess who? The Russians.

If a US citizen (and in some cases non-US) and you are dissatisfied with treatment you should complain, preferably starting at the top (i.e. the Ambassador). I've done this several times to great effect to get issues resolved.

My only visit to an US Embassy was in Stockholm in 1999 to file for Mrs. Swede's Green Card application. We arrived about 10 minutes before the Embassy opened, and there was already a crowd waiting at the guard house at the gate. Exactly at the top of the hour, a Marine comes out and says, "US citizens, please." We make our way through the crowd, show my US passport, check-in with a very courteous Marine, go through security, then go into the Embassy.

To make things even better, Mrs. Swede's Green Card took just six weeks (including the Christmas holiday, to boot) from submission to a stamp in her Swedish passport.

During the Vietnam War years, I was in Stockholm, I went to the US Embassy to get info on something (which 50 years later I have now forgotten:p), but one thing I did notice, there was NO American Flag on display outside the building--Vietnam War related.:confused:

I feel like U.S. embassies go out of their way to hire locals for the more basic admin jobs. Might consider it part of their good will mission or something to build up ties to the local community. Of course, in the movies it's always the local secretary who ends up being the spy ;).