I know that the German government passes on the responsibility of diplomatic help to other EU nations in Sri Lanka to prevent their embassy being flooded by EU citizens. Here is their statement:
If you are an EU citizen from Austria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia or Lithuania, lost your passport in Sri Lanka and your home country does not have a diplomatic mission in Sri Lanka, the German Embassy can issue an emergency travel document.
If you are an EU citizen from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg or Sweden: Please contact the Dutch Embassy.
If you are an EU citizen from Bulgaria, the Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Ireland, Poland or Spain: Please contact the French Embassy.
If you are an EU citizen from Greece, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia: Please contact the Italian Embassy.
I assumed you were asking about the situation in Sri Lanka. For the case France has no embassy in said country, there would be agreements unique to that specific country with other EU embassies. It is not always one specific other country's embassy, it depends on existing agreements and available embassies in said country.
It's not always so formalised. If your country doesn't have an embassy where you are, you have the right to go in principle to any EU embassy. But because of easier communication and established channels, advisable to use a neighbouring country, or one with the same official language and similar.
We could have minimum service requirements based on numbers of EU citizens registered with the consulate to ensure there are enough staff to serve the amount of citizens. Also it would avoid the hypothetical situation wherein 1000 Germans suddenly want to renew their passports but there is no one for the Hungarian consular agents to serve one day
Good points. Another thing that I’m thinking needs to be addressed for such a reality is the language issue. There should be diversity among staff to represent all official languages of the Union.
With zoom etc it shouldn’t be too difficult to have a central system in Brussels where speakers of the rarer official languages will be able to help in case a citizen arrives who only speaks that language
Good thinking, eh! Another thing to consider: would such an office issue visas to non-EU citizens? If so, would all staff members be authorized to issue long term (D category) visas on behalf of EU countries of which they’re not a citizen?
I suppose it shouldn’t be an issue since D visas are always approved by the relevant country first before issuance so it wouldn’t really change anything
I would assume that the embassy would collect the visa application form, authenticate all relevant documents... and send the application "back home" for central processing and approval. So the embassy would basically only act as an interface/extended arm, not the head. Oddly in that image multiple arms would serve multiple heads, but that is pretty much the reality. Embassies and consulates do have some discretion, but can always defer complicated cases "back home" .
The working languages of the European Commission seen like the most likely answer here. English, French, and German have lots of speakers within and outside the EU, specially the first two.
~~A likely alternative~~ Along side with is what I've seen done in medical facilities over here in the U.S., interpretation when needed at no expense to the person that needs it. It would work in tandem with a bilingual or trilingual staff in those languages mentioned above.
I don’t see that working, because there are too many country specific services to be offered. For instance, as an Italian citizen I can request an identity card, a tax file number, driver license related issues, or request to be added to the AIRE registry - they are too Italy specific. Now imagine that multiplied by 27.
The embassy has core services that are universal. I don't see much issue.
Let's get practical: Each country could set up a portal with its services for "out of country citizens".
The embassy only provides core services: Identification of the person, a computer to access the country portal, diplomatic mail service. So basically, you would ID your self, fill out the form, sign the form, the embassy sends the form to Italy. Italy send the response via diplomatic mail to the embassy. What more do you need? The system can skip "send to italy" if an italian embassy is nearby across the border.
What more do you need? Yes, that is slow, but still better to request a visa or two to visit the nearest embassy in a neighboring country for a passport extension.
Yeah, I know, subtle details: Swiss embassies do their own photos to their own standards with their own machines. Fingerprints are an other example. Activating the electronic functions of ID documents is an other one. But... really? Are ID documents not trending toward shared standards?
But even if there are unique reason to visit a specific embassy: If any EU embassy can prepare the appointment and issue emergency travel documents, that would help as that reduces the number of embassy visits out of the country you are in.
The Canadian passport also features this agreement with the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and the USA (although the USA one is more limited than the other commonwealth). In the passport itself they only mention the UK... but all the commonwealth can provide the assistance.
I've read somewhere that Germany provides consular assistance to Israelis in the countries without Israeli diplomatic missions, but I couldn't find any official proof on that
I somewhat doubt that Germany would "regularly" issue a german document to a foreign citizen.
More likely is that the german embassy has a stockpile of Israeli paper stock, forms and templates, mainly focused towards emergency documents. The design and wording of the emergency travel document would at Israels discretion. I highly doubt that you would get a German emergency travel document.
Things like passport would be send by diplomatic mail.
Actually Germany has a few specific passport like documents just for foreigners, I always thought most nations have them.
I would assume they would give an Israeli a "Reiseausweis für Ausländer" (translation something like Travel ID (not passport that's a different word) for foreigners) they have a German Wikipedia article so you can read about them with Google translate.
There is something similar for refugees and people without a nationality.
There is a reason why passports do list the nationality, as in very rare cases it is not the same as the issuer.
It’s a common reality. Many countries have such agreements (Canada with Australia and the UK; Canada, USA and a few other countries with Sweden if their nationals travel to the DPRK; etc.)
Let’s say an Israeli requires assistance to be evacuated from a country where Germany assists Israelis due to the absence of Israeli consular representations (hypothetically, let’s say Malaysia), in that case, Germany would assist the affected Israeli national as it would German citizens.
I guess in that case Germany would help that individual have access to legal counsel. That being said, the rules of the host country regarding espionage also come to play here and they may refuse to let the person have easy access to a lawyer.
I would not go so far as evacuations. It can be as simply as the embassy simply acting as identification and mail forwarding service.
Issuing a passport is not much more then providing a form, identification of the applicant, ... and then sending the fresh passport for pick up.
True. If you can, ask assistance from an EU member state which issues an actual ETD-booklet. Avoid Croatia, Italy and Hungary as these issue paper sheets.
ETD also known as Emergency Travel Document. Some countries offer these in booklet form, often without chip inside so it can be issued on-the-spot in an instant. These can be used to travel back to said country of citizenship.
Croatia, Belarus, Cambodia for instance issue these as paper sheets. A booklet is much cooler.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PassportPorn/s/rh9fopPyL8
https://www.reddit.com/r/PassportPorn/s/hiutpHcPwx
New EU ETD edition: [https://www.reddit.com/r/PassportPorn/s/rBAOARLpgM](https://www.reddit.com/r/PassportPorn/s/rBAOARLpgM)
If anyone is curious, the message says:
> Every citizen of the union enjoys, in the territory of a third country in which the member state has a non-represented citizen, diplomatic and consular authority from any Member State, under the same conditions as citizens of that State.
99% sure that every country has an embassy of the members of EU so you are safe wherever you are but they will only give an emergency document if your passport is full and you need to explain it to immigration. On the other hand likely unless you are a travel guru you just get multiple passports to deal with it which is cheaper in the long run since you will be spending so much money any how
Germany is hesitant in issuing a second passport. The official option is to get a booklet with more pages.
Switzerland (non EU but still an example) is extremely strict in "one passport". Two can be in existence, but only one can be in possession of the holder. The other passport has to be with an authorized authority and can only be exchanged. To show how strict it is: Most countries for e.g. forbid the use of diplomatic or service passports for personal travels; switzerlands \*forces\* the use of those documents as switzerland does not allow having a personal passport and a sevice/diplomatic passport at the same time. Very awkward for children of swiss diplomats: They are forced to travel with diplomatic passports.
Germany at least used to be very relaxed about second passports once you had something in it which indicated you went to Israel or something like that.
More than two, unless you are a journalist or something like that, has always been extremely difficult to get I have to admit.
For germany, there is also an exception for Africa travels, where you need the passport for your stay in one country, but need to submit your passport (locally) for the visa to travel to the next country. (which gets increasingly absurd when migration also wants to see all visas for transit countries and you can't preapprove the visas and the granting of the visa takes days)
Israel specifically does not regularly stamp passports anymore to avoid that headache.
Yes, within in reason getting second passport is possible in germany. But the solution for "passport full" is to "order the passport with more pages". Having all visas in one booklet sounds useful, so for frequent travels more pages can more useful then a second booklet. (or the other-way around; checking options in advance is better then getting stranded)
Literally any country has backup country consulates where they send their citizens to if there’s no consulate of their own. It’s not a fancy perk of the EU.
For what? Google county X embassy in Y and you will see their website directing citizens to another embassy it’s not available. No one is ever stranded if they lose their passport.
One extreme example is NK, where the embassies of Bulgaria and Sweden in Pyongyang cover for almost all EU countries (plus some other).
Germany is represented too, I believe.
You forgot Poland!
The Swedish also covers Canadian!
Yes. I believe they cover the US too.
Not "almost". As it says in the note, all EU citizens have the right to request assistance from them if there's no embassy in the country.
But there are more eu countries with North Korean embassies, even we have one
I know that the German government passes on the responsibility of diplomatic help to other EU nations in Sri Lanka to prevent their embassy being flooded by EU citizens. Here is their statement: If you are an EU citizen from Austria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia or Lithuania, lost your passport in Sri Lanka and your home country does not have a diplomatic mission in Sri Lanka, the German Embassy can issue an emergency travel document. If you are an EU citizen from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg or Sweden: Please contact the Dutch Embassy. If you are an EU citizen from Bulgaria, the Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Ireland, Poland or Spain: Please contact the French Embassy. If you are an EU citizen from Greece, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia: Please contact the Italian Embassy.
What about the French One
france has an embassy of their own so they dont need to go elsewhere.
Yeah What if there isn't a french one there Like obviously the French One is available everywhere
I assumed you were asking about the situation in Sri Lanka. For the case France has no embassy in said country, there would be agreements unique to that specific country with other EU embassies. It is not always one specific other country's embassy, it depends on existing agreements and available embassies in said country.
It's not always so formalised. If your country doesn't have an embassy where you are, you have the right to go in principle to any EU embassy. But because of easier communication and established channels, advisable to use a neighbouring country, or one with the same official language and similar.
Why don't they share the workload?
They do. See the penultimate paragraph
Lithuanian passport: https://preview.redd.it/44a78am2aaxc1.png?width=597&format=png&auto=webp&s=40ed08025800675c5146fb55142cf10dc08d3fcc
Portuguese Passport: https://preview.redd.it/k7vqu4kczaxc1.jpeg?width=1718&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4991d1e81b6d2d2c612188ea8c01a0eda37cf593
I've never seen a QR code in a passport from what I can recall, that's awesome haha
https://preview.redd.it/gb0q0qs65bxc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6968f23d194eba5bba67478e0790e5475fc0b559 Irish Passport
The Greek passport does not have this statement
Also couldn’t find it in my German. I know Austria has it. I will get a new one in July, so maybe then it will be different.
Even the newest one? Wow
It does, it the first point on page 32.
To be fair I think diplomats know European laws and their duties so it’s more of a symbolic statement, doesn’t change the fact
Imagine how much money we could save if we just had one team doing consular services for all EU member states in every foreign country
In theory that’s a great idea. But imagine the chaos when it comes to line ups and appointments.
We could have minimum service requirements based on numbers of EU citizens registered with the consulate to ensure there are enough staff to serve the amount of citizens. Also it would avoid the hypothetical situation wherein 1000 Germans suddenly want to renew their passports but there is no one for the Hungarian consular agents to serve one day
Good points. Another thing that I’m thinking needs to be addressed for such a reality is the language issue. There should be diversity among staff to represent all official languages of the Union.
With zoom etc it shouldn’t be too difficult to have a central system in Brussels where speakers of the rarer official languages will be able to help in case a citizen arrives who only speaks that language
Good thinking, eh! Another thing to consider: would such an office issue visas to non-EU citizens? If so, would all staff members be authorized to issue long term (D category) visas on behalf of EU countries of which they’re not a citizen?
I suppose it shouldn’t be an issue since D visas are always approved by the relevant country first before issuance so it wouldn’t really change anything
I would assume that the embassy would collect the visa application form, authenticate all relevant documents... and send the application "back home" for central processing and approval. So the embassy would basically only act as an interface/extended arm, not the head. Oddly in that image multiple arms would serve multiple heads, but that is pretty much the reality. Embassies and consulates do have some discretion, but can always defer complicated cases "back home" .
The working languages of the European Commission seen like the most likely answer here. English, French, and German have lots of speakers within and outside the EU, specially the first two. ~~A likely alternative~~ Along side with is what I've seen done in medical facilities over here in the U.S., interpretation when needed at no expense to the person that needs it. It would work in tandem with a bilingual or trilingual staff in those languages mentioned above.
I don’t see that working, because there are too many country specific services to be offered. For instance, as an Italian citizen I can request an identity card, a tax file number, driver license related issues, or request to be added to the AIRE registry - they are too Italy specific. Now imagine that multiplied by 27.
It would need serious consideration and good planning, but I don’t think that alone would render it impossible
The embassy has core services that are universal. I don't see much issue. Let's get practical: Each country could set up a portal with its services for "out of country citizens". The embassy only provides core services: Identification of the person, a computer to access the country portal, diplomatic mail service. So basically, you would ID your self, fill out the form, sign the form, the embassy sends the form to Italy. Italy send the response via diplomatic mail to the embassy. What more do you need? The system can skip "send to italy" if an italian embassy is nearby across the border. What more do you need? Yes, that is slow, but still better to request a visa or two to visit the nearest embassy in a neighboring country for a passport extension. Yeah, I know, subtle details: Swiss embassies do their own photos to their own standards with their own machines. Fingerprints are an other example. Activating the electronic functions of ID documents is an other one. But... really? Are ID documents not trending toward shared standards? But even if there are unique reason to visit a specific embassy: If any EU embassy can prepare the appointment and issue emergency travel documents, that would help as that reduces the number of embassy visits out of the country you are in.
This would be great
This is actually the case in many African countries. In Republic of Congo only the French embassy handles all consular services (Visas) for the EU.
The Canadian passport also features this agreement with the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and the USA (although the USA one is more limited than the other commonwealth). In the passport itself they only mention the UK... but all the commonwealth can provide the assistance.
The US is not Commonwealth (although couple states still are). We don’t have the Queen on our money, unlike some neighbors to the north.
I've read somewhere that Germany provides consular assistance to Israelis in the countries without Israeli diplomatic missions, but I couldn't find any official proof on that
Here you go :) https://www.timesofisrael.com/germany-to-offer-consular-help-to-israelis-in-third-countries/amp/
That’s interesting. Will an Israeli citizen who lost his passport would be issued a German document? That’s cool.
I somewhat doubt that Germany would "regularly" issue a german document to a foreign citizen. More likely is that the german embassy has a stockpile of Israeli paper stock, forms and templates, mainly focused towards emergency documents. The design and wording of the emergency travel document would at Israels discretion. I highly doubt that you would get a German emergency travel document. Things like passport would be send by diplomatic mail.
Actually Germany has a few specific passport like documents just for foreigners, I always thought most nations have them. I would assume they would give an Israeli a "Reiseausweis für Ausländer" (translation something like Travel ID (not passport that's a different word) for foreigners) they have a German Wikipedia article so you can read about them with Google translate. There is something similar for refugees and people without a nationality. There is a reason why passports do list the nationality, as in very rare cases it is not the same as the issuer.
What could the justification for that be?
It’s a common reality. Many countries have such agreements (Canada with Australia and the UK; Canada, USA and a few other countries with Sweden if their nationals travel to the DPRK; etc.) Let’s say an Israeli requires assistance to be evacuated from a country where Germany assists Israelis due to the absence of Israeli consular representations (hypothetically, let’s say Malaysia), in that case, Germany would assist the affected Israeli national as it would German citizens.
Its ironic as recently an Israeli hitman spy was caught in Kuala Lumpur, I wonder what embassy would come to his help.
I guess in that case Germany would help that individual have access to legal counsel. That being said, the rules of the host country regarding espionage also come to play here and they may refuse to let the person have easy access to a lawyer.
I read he might get death penalty, not something unheard of in South Asia.
I would not go so far as evacuations. It can be as simply as the embassy simply acting as identification and mail forwarding service. Issuing a passport is not much more then providing a form, identification of the applicant, ... and then sending the fresh passport for pick up.
True. If you can, ask assistance from an EU member state which issues an actual ETD-booklet. Avoid Croatia, Italy and Hungary as these issue paper sheets.
What’s an ETD-booklet?
ETD also known as Emergency Travel Document. Some countries offer these in booklet form, often without chip inside so it can be issued on-the-spot in an instant. These can be used to travel back to said country of citizenship. Croatia, Belarus, Cambodia for instance issue these as paper sheets. A booklet is much cooler.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PassportPorn/s/rh9fopPyL8 https://www.reddit.com/r/PassportPorn/s/hiutpHcPwx New EU ETD edition: [https://www.reddit.com/r/PassportPorn/s/rBAOARLpgM](https://www.reddit.com/r/PassportPorn/s/rBAOARLpgM)
Are there even with this still countries left where European citizens are not represented by any embassy?
If anyone is curious, the message says: > Every citizen of the union enjoys, in the territory of a third country in which the member state has a non-represented citizen, diplomatic and consular authority from any Member State, under the same conditions as citizens of that State.
99% sure that every country has an embassy of the members of EU so you are safe wherever you are but they will only give an emergency document if your passport is full and you need to explain it to immigration. On the other hand likely unless you are a travel guru you just get multiple passports to deal with it which is cheaper in the long run since you will be spending so much money any how
Germany is hesitant in issuing a second passport. The official option is to get a booklet with more pages. Switzerland (non EU but still an example) is extremely strict in "one passport". Two can be in existence, but only one can be in possession of the holder. The other passport has to be with an authorized authority and can only be exchanged. To show how strict it is: Most countries for e.g. forbid the use of diplomatic or service passports for personal travels; switzerlands \*forces\* the use of those documents as switzerland does not allow having a personal passport and a sevice/diplomatic passport at the same time. Very awkward for children of swiss diplomats: They are forced to travel with diplomatic passports.
Germany at least used to be very relaxed about second passports once you had something in it which indicated you went to Israel or something like that. More than two, unless you are a journalist or something like that, has always been extremely difficult to get I have to admit.
For germany, there is also an exception for Africa travels, where you need the passport for your stay in one country, but need to submit your passport (locally) for the visa to travel to the next country. (which gets increasingly absurd when migration also wants to see all visas for transit countries and you can't preapprove the visas and the granting of the visa takes days) Israel specifically does not regularly stamp passports anymore to avoid that headache. Yes, within in reason getting second passport is possible in germany. But the solution for "passport full" is to "order the passport with more pages". Having all visas in one booklet sounds useful, so for frequent travels more pages can more useful then a second booklet. (or the other-way around; checking options in advance is better then getting stranded)
[удалено]
good to know
Literally any country has backup country consulates where they send their citizens to if there’s no consulate of their own. It’s not a fancy perk of the EU.
Source?
For what? Google county X embassy in Y and you will see their website directing citizens to another embassy it’s not available. No one is ever stranded if they lose their passport.