Embassy, consulate or high commission?
Ask most people what an embassy is and they will point at a building. Strictly speaking, they would be wrong. The embassy is the diplomatic team itself. The office where that team works has its own name: the chancery. So the embassy operates inside the chancery. That is why people say "embassy residence" for the ambassador's home and "embassy office" for the workplace.
An embassy is usually in the host country's capital and offers a full range of services. A consulate is smaller and normally sits in other major cities. Its focus is helping individual people and businesses. For example, the Philippines has its embassy to the United States in Washington, D.C., plus seven consulates-general in major US cities.
Between Commonwealth countries, embassies get a different name. They are called high commissions, and they are led by high commissioners instead of ambassadors. In status and in their daily work, the two are treated as equals.
The rank that quietly disappeared
Embassies were not always the norm. Long ago, the most common type of mission was the legation. It was led by a minister, not an ambassador, and ambassadors outranked ministers. At official events, ambassadors went first. After World War II, legations fell out of favor and were upgraded to embassies. Today the rank is no longer used in diplomacy at all.
Some missions are not sent to a country at all. A permanent mission represents a country at a major international organization. Missions from EU member states to the European Union are called permanent representations, and the European Union's own missions abroad are called EU delegations.
Then there is the most unusual post of all, the honorary consul. This is a single person, not a diplomat or civil servant, who represents another country on an honorary basis. They offer only limited services. In most cases, they are not even a citizen of the country they represent, but of the host country.
Not quite foreign soil
Here is a popular belief that turns out to be wrong. Embassies are generally not the sovereign territory of the country they represent. The sending country can give an embassy that status, but only a minority of countries do. Usually the land stays under the host country's control.
What embassies do get is special treatment. Under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, they are protected from most local laws. Diplomats keep full diplomatic immunity. And host authorities may not enter the mission without permission from the country it represents. There is one practical exception: permission can be assumed during a fire or another disaster that needs quick action.
This protection reaches beyond the office. Diplomats may live inside or outside the mission building, and their private homes get the same protection as the mission itself. Because host authorities cannot simply walk in, refugees have sometimes sought safety inside embassies. From there, diplomats can work out a way to send them on to another country.
What a mission actually does all day
The Vienna Convention lists the basic jobs of a diplomatic mission. It represents its home country. It protects the interests of that country and its citizens, within the limits of international law. It negotiates with the host government. It learns, by lawful means, what is happening in the host country and reports back home. And it builds friendly economic, cultural and scientific ties.
When two countries disagree, there is a classic move. A country recalls its head of mission to show its displeasure. This is far gentler than cutting ties. The mission keeps working more or less normally, but it is now led by a chargé d'affaires, usually the deputy. The same role also fills the gap between one ambassador leaving and the next one arriving.
Some countries look after each other's citizens too. Commonwealth embassies are expected to help citizens of other Commonwealth countries that have no embassy there. Canada and Australia go further with a shared consular services agreement. EU citizens can likewise turn to the mission of any other EU member state.
One city, many missions
Some cities host more than one mission from the same country. New York City has missions to the United Nations alongside ordinary embassies and consulates. Washington, D.C. adds missions to the Organization of American States. Jakarta hosts missions to ASEAN, and Brussels hosts missions to both the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Sometimes a single mission even splits across one city. The Bangladeshi Deputy High Commission in Kolkata has two locations. One is at Park Circus. The other, opened later on Mirza Ghalib Street, was added to reduce overcrowding.
An embassy can also cover more than one country. Besides its main job in the host country, it may act as a non-resident mission to one or more other countries. And when a country has no embassy somewhere, its consulate can be based in the capital instead. Embassies also often run a consular section, which offers consulate-style services to people in the capital region.
