What is a Consulate?

Question

My mom took my aunt to the Cuban Consulate in Washington DC. I gather that a Consulate is an Embassy. This is what YA has to say:

Consulate

Answer 1

The office of a Consul is termed a Consulate, and is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in that foreign country, nowadays usually an Embassy or High Commission usually in the capital city of the host nation. In the capital, the consulate may be a part of the embassy itself. A consul of higher rank is termed a "consul general", and his or her office a "consulate general." He or she typically has several Consuls and Vice-Consuls working under him/her. Consulates-general need not be in the capital city, but instead in the most appropriate cities. In the United States, for example, many countries have a consulate-general in New York City, and some have consulates-general in several major cities (e.g. Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco).

a consulate provides services for its citizen and for people who need a visa;

for example, if you needed a birth certificate from your country, you would address yourself to a consulate ,

the Embassy represent the country in another country,but at times, you may have to address the Embassy itself, when there are no consulate available,

consulate are like smaller representation ot that country ,in more than one city or state,in the host country.

Answer 2

Jim beat me to it!  His answer is right on target.

Answer 3

Ummm

I know theres more to it than this but:

Its a place where immigrants illegals and visa'd ppl go for help with issues regarding their status in the US and or their paperwork for renewing.

{I work with ten of these kinds of guys all legal now but they talk about this place all the time when they need some kind of paper work}

Hope that helps a lil bit!

Answer 4

Not quite.  A consulate is like a branch to the embassy.  The embassy is where the Ambassador's office is (in the US the ambassadors are in Washington, DC).  Consulates may exist throughout the US (for instance, Mexico has at least one consulate in Texas).

Countries that do not have diplomatic relations with the US (like Cuba) may nevertheless have a consulate in the country.  Normally, any business that needs to occur between the US and Cuba is done by a country that has diplomatic relations with both and is willing to act as an intermediary.  The Cuban consulate in the US is probably here for the benefit of US citizens that may still have relatives living in Cuba (this is just a guess), and maybe for the purpose of issuing visas.  Visas may be issued to US citizens eligible to travel to Cuba, or citizens of other countries who would like to travel to Cuba.

Answer 5

It is the sub office of the Embassy that is in New York or Washington DC

In the case of the Cuban Consulate, it could be they are not allowed an embassy in the USA, but rather a consulate and the embassy is at the UN which is not legally part of the USA.  

Confusing?  Not really, that is why when someone seeks asylum they can go into a US embassy in a foreign country and once they go into the embassy, they are on US soil.  It is up to the USA government to honor their request or not.

Peace

Jim

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