Consulate Vs. Embassy - What's the Difference?

Though embassies are always set up in capital cities, all embassies in Israel are located in Tel Aviv, and not its capital Jerusalem. This is because no country officially recognizes the city as Israel's capital.

As the world passes through the 21st century, it is more interlinked than ever before. A sharp reduction in the number of armed conflicts means that, now more countries depend on each other for trade, tourism, and other economic reasons than even half a century ago.

The human civilization has also become amazingly mobile, with a spike in the number of people traveling to other countries for education, employment, or just plain recreation.

This increased cooperation and interconnectedness between different nations has resulted in the growth in the number of diplomatic missions representing other countries, both, to promote friendly relations between governments and to assist tourists and migrants with their travel documents.

Two important examples of such diplomatic missions are consulates and embassies, which are often confused for each other. Let's understand what the difference is, through a consulate vs. embassy comparison.

A consulate  deals with the interests of its own citizens in a foreign country, or of foreigners seeking to travel to the home country. Thus, it represents the public administration of the home country.

An embassy  participates in official business with the government of the host nation, and thus, serves as the diplomatic office of the home country.

The presence of consulates  in a nation does not reflect the official relations between the governments of the two countries, and they are established solely to ensure the safety and convenience of their own citizens.

The presence of an embassy  indicates that the host nation acknowledges and respects the sovereignty of the home country. It also signifies friendly relations between the two countries.

For example, the United States doesn't have any official relations with Bhutan, so there is no US embassy in its capital Thimphu, though its consulates are present in the country.

Consulates can be thought of as the subordinate units of an embassy in other cities of a foreign country, which hosts the embassy in its capital.

An embassy has the highest decision-making power of all offices representing the government in a foreign country, and oversees the conduct of all consulates in that country.

Consulates are mostly located in the major cities of a foreign country that receive a high tourist influx, are highly populated or important employment centers, so that they are easily accessible to as many people as possible.

Since an embassy deals with government business, it is always located in the capital city of a foreign nation, where its seat of government lies.

Functions

Consulates perform the following duties:
1. Services offered to expats, or migrants from the home country:

• Renewal of passports
• Attestation of documents

• Communication with family members in the home country
• Notification of births, deaths, marriages, and divorces
• Offering legal help in case of conflicts with law of the host nation
• Issuing alerts in case of dangerous developments

2. They play a major role in fostering business relations between the two countries, by promoting investment, as well as the import and export of goods and services.
3. They deal with the visas and work permits of foreigners seeking to travel or migrate to the home country.

The functions of an embassy are:

• It conveys the political, economic, and social developments in the host country to its own government.
• It facilitates the signing of treaties and agreements.
• It participates in dialog with delegates of the foreign government.

• It conducts deals with the host nation's army through its own military attaché.
• It promotes friendly relations between the two countries, along with promoting the scientific developments of the home nation.
• It also helps spread cultural awareness of the home nation.

A consulate  is headed by a chief diplomat from the home country, called a consul.

An embassy  is headed by one of the highest-ranking diplomats of the home country, who is typically appointed by the topmost level of its administration, and is called the ambassador. Consuls are subordinates to the ambassador.

There can be a number of consulates in different cities of the host nation, except for its capital.

There is only a single embassy of a country in the host nation, that too in its capital city.

Consulates always deal with minor diplomatic functions, like issuing visas and passports, but rarely indulge in any exchange between the governments of the two countries.

An embassy has the highest diplomatic authority, and apart from engaging in official government business, it may also discharge some functions of the consulates through its consular branch, especially since there are no consulates in capital cities.

Since there are multiple consulates in a country, which do not deal with the foreign government, they are located in ordinary offices which are easily accessible to the public.

An embassy deals with the highest delegates of the host country's government, and is therefore established in a well-guarded and extensive office complex.

The consuls of most countries generally do not have diplomatic immunity (i.e., they can be tried under the host country's laws), unless it is specifically conferred on them.

All ambassadors, being the official representatives of their government, have diplomatic immunity, to ensure that they can discharge their duties without fear of interference.

From these differences, it's clear that if an embassy represents the trunk of a tree, then the consulates present throughout the country are its various branches. Despite this branching structure, the duties assigned to both are completely different.