Diplomatic missions

A diplomatic mission is a representative office of a national government located in another nation's territory. There are two main types:

• An embassy is usually in the capital city at the destination country; its main function is to deal with government-to-government issues. If there are trade negotiations to be done, or if one government wants to complain about some action by the other, the embassy handles that. If an official delegation from one country plans to visit the other, the embassies will make the arrangements.

• A consulate can be located in any (usually major) city and provides consular services for individuals or businesses. They can usually provide visas for foreigners planning to visit their country. For their own citizens, they provide passport services as well as birth registrations, marriage registrations, and various other sorts of advice or assistance. If you are doing business and need advice about local regulations in a foreign country, its consulate is a good source.

Many embassies also provide consular services; that is, they can also do everything a consulate can. There are some exceptions in countries where the capital city is not a major city; for example, the U.S. embassy in Canberra, Australia, does not provide consular services, but there are consulates in the larger cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. In other places, some embassies maintain a separate "consular section" location to provide consular services in the capital city of the host country.

Sometimes the services are split up somewhat differently; for example, the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi provides most consular services but there is a separate office for Indians wanting a visa. In some cases, one country's mission may process visa applications on behalf of another. For instance, in Singapore, the Danish embassy processes visa applications for Norway, Finland and Iceland even though the former two operate their own embassies in Singapore.