CONTENT|CONTENU

Who We Are and What We Do

• What Are Consular Services?
  
• Information Before You Leave
  
• Assistance Once You Are Abroad
  
• Emergency Assistance

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The Consular Services Bureau is committed to helping Canadians prepare for foreign travel and to providing you with a variety of services once you are abroad. We believe that preparation is the key to successful travel.

Millions of Canadians live in or visit countries all over the world, for business and for pleasure. Smart travellers learn about their destination before leaving Canada and are prepared to deal with problems or emergency situations that may arise. This site provides an abundance of information about foreign destinations, about how to prepare for your departure from Canada, and about the variety of services offered to Canadians abroad.

 

What Are Consular Services?

"Consular" is the word used to describe the services that a country provides for its citizens abroad. Canada's consular services operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, through a network of more than 260 offices in over 150 countries. The network includes embassies, high commissions, consulates, consulates headed by honorary consuls, and offices. These offices provide different levels of services to Canadians abroad. The different types of offices are fully explained in the Description of Canadian Government Offices Abroad section.

In some places, Australian diplomatic officers provide consular services to Canadians.

You can contact us by telephone, e-mail, fax or mail. One of the world's most sophisticated communications and computer systems enables us to communicate with you anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The Government of Canada strives to deliver timely and effective consular services, characterized by empathy, courtesy, fairness, and dependability. If you wish to make a complaint about the quality of consular service you received while abroad, please fill out our Client Feedback Form(pdf version also available).

 

Information Before You Leave

We provide a broad range of information concerning conditions in other countries, as well as advice to help Canadians prepare for international travel.

• The Country Travel Reports present information on safety and security conditions, health questions and entry requirements for approximately 200 travel destinations.
  
  
• The Global Issues page features a variety of information highlighting situations around the world of particular interest to Canadians living or travelling abroad, including a list of upcoming elections.
  
  
• The daily e-mail Travel Updates, which you can subscribe to electronically, provide updates to Global Issues and Country Travel Reports.
  
  
• The safe-travel publications help travellers prepare for a problem-free and healthy journey. All publications can be downloaded in HTML or PDF format or ordered free of charge.
  
  
• The Drugs and Travel Information Program aims to create greater awareness about the consequences of getting involved with drugs while abroad and to discourage travellers from taking such risks. It also tries to educate people about how to take appropriate precautions when travelling with medication.
  
  
• The Outreach Program unit organizes promotional campaigns, performs seminars and participates in major travel and trade shows aimed at the Travel industry and Canadian travellers throughout Canada. Following is a schedule of upcoming activities. We look forward to seeing you at our booth or presentation and answering all your travel-related questions.
  
  

Assistance Once You Are Abroad

There are numerous ways in which consular officials can help you when you are abroad, however there are also limitations as to what we can do for you. Below is a detailed list of services provided and not provided by consular officials.

General assistance

 Services provided:

• Respond to requests for general information.
• Assist in cases where the wellbeing or whereabouts of a Canadian is in question.
• Help Canadians victimized abroad find local support or return home.
• Register Canadians travelling or residing abroad.
• Provide advice and contact information of local police and medical services to victims of robbery, sexual assault or other violence.

Services not provided:

• Find employment for clients.
• Obtain residency permits, work permits, driver’s licenses or visa overstays.
• Pay fines.
• Assist with pensions for non-governmental organizations.
• Conduct searches to locate missing persons.
• Provide travel services and make hotel reservations.
• Provide letters of facilitation in lieu of travel documents.
• Intervene in private legal matters.
• Provide legal advice.

Notarial and legal

 Services provided:

• Provide an up-to-date and accurate list of lawyers and notaries or other local providers of notarial services.
• Provide clients with information on authentication services.

Where local service providers are not available, consular officers may:

• Administer oaths and affirmations.
• Authenticate signatures on some documents.
• Certify true copies of some documents.
• Witness signatures.

Services not provided:

• Authentication of documents that do not meet specific requirements.
• True copies of documents that do not meet specific requirements.
• Stamping of documents to confirm they were “Seen At” the mission.
• Certification of the genuineness, legality or credibility of documents.
• Issuance of letters to be used as identification or proof of citizenship.
• Recommendation of lawyers or guarantee of their reliability or competence.
• Assess legal documents or provide advice as to content, validity, or any other aspect.
• Draft or modify documents.
• Any service on any document if the content may be  misleading or  used for fraudulent purposes.

Children and family

Services provided:

• Advise parents/guardians to seek private legal advice and furnish a list of local lawyers.
• Provide information on the country’s legal system  with respect to family law and local customs.
• Inscribe a child on the Passport Security List with the consent of a parent/guardian.
• Liaise with local and Canadian authorities, such as law enforcement agencies, social services, non-governmental organizations, and central authorities responsible for the Hague Convention.

Services not provided:

• Apply or violate foreign laws.
• Act as a custodian or a legal guardian of a missing or abducted child.
• Take procedural steps towards enforcement of a Canadian custody agreement overseas.
• Force another country to make a specific determination in a custody matter.
• Provide legal advice or interfere in the legal processes of another country.
• Provide financial assistance to pay bills, such as legal, travel or accommodation.
• Act as law enforcement to locate a missing child.

Financial assistance

Services provided:

• Assist the client to resolve the financial situation independently using personal and/or local remedies.
• Facilitate communication between the client and family or friends in order for the client to be able to identify sources of private funds.
• Provide a list of local service providers for wire transfers (Western Union, etc).
• Facilitate the private transfer of funds where local service providers are not available.
• After all the above has been exhausted, provide a temporary loan of public funds from the Distressed Canadian Fund under limited circumstances (fees and conditions apply).

Services not provided:

• Issue a loan of public funds to pay for expenses not eligible under the Distressed Canadian Fund.
• Request funds on a client’s behalf from family or friends without a client’s permission.
• Go to a local service provider to obtain a wire transfer on a client’s behalf.
• Issue a loan from the Distressed Canadian Fund for the repatriation of detainees.
• Lend personal money.

Medical assistance

Services provided:

• Provide a list of physicians, clinics and hospitals.
• Contact the next of kin or person designated in a power of attorney to make decisions in case of incapacity.
• Contact the insurance company.
• Contact a client’s medical doctor in Canada.
• Provide assistance for medical evacuation and safe transfer including liaison with service providers.

Services not provided:

• Pay hospital and medical bills.
• Pay for air ambulance or other similar commercial services.
• Make decisions pertaining to a client’s medical care.
• Interfere in a client’s medical care.
• Provide medical or legal advice.

Death

Services provided:

• Assistance with the repatriation of remains to Canada at the earliest possible time.
• Assistance in obtaining appropriate documentation, including a death certificate, an autopsy report, and police reports where applicable. Official reports are released or obtained through formal channel at the discretion for local authorities.
• Assistance in obtaining information from local authorities on the circumstances surrounding the death.
• Assistance in obtaining information on police investigations, arrests and court proceedings.
• Assistance in obtaining necessary documentation for insurance companies to facilitate the payment or investigation of claims.
• Begin the process of notification of next of kin.

Services not provided:

• Use the Distressed Canadian Fund to repatriate remains.
• Intervene in private legal matters.
• Translate official documents for the family.
• Provide legal advice on issues such as estate law.

Arrest and detention

Services provided:

• Request immediate and regular access to the detainee.
• At the detainee’s request, notify family or friends of the situation.
• Help the detainee communicate with a representative, family or friends if direct communication is not feasible or urgent needs exist.
• Advocate for fair and equal treatment under local laws upon arrest or detention.
• Obtain information about the status of the case and encourage authorities to process the case without undue delay.
• Provide the detainee, his/her representative or family with general information on the local legal and prison system.
• Provide an up-to-date and accurate list of local lawyers and translation service providers.
• Advocate for the detainee’s general wellbeing, including basic nutrition, medical and dental care.
• Arrange for the purchase, at detainee expense, and if permitted, of necessary food supplements, essential clothing and other basic items not available through the prison system.
• Deliver letters and permitted reading material if normal postal services are unavailable.
• Contact relatives or friends on behalf of the detainee to request funds.
• Financial assistance (fees apply).

Services not provided:

• Get a detainee out of jail.
• Post bail, pay lawyers’ fees, or pay fines.
• Provide legal advice or interpret local laws.
• Recommend lawyers or guarantee their reliability or competence in the specific matter at hand.
• Become involved in matters of substance between a detainee and his/her lawyer.
• Forward or deliver parcels entering or leaving the country, or clear them through customs.
• Circumvent prison rules regarding what can and cannot be brought into or taken out of the detention facility.
• Make travel or accommodation arrangements for a detainee’s family or friends.
• Forward medical supplies prescribed or recommended by a doctor and take steps to clear them through detention facilities.

 

Emergency Assistance

The Emergency Watch and Response Centre of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. An experienced officer is always available to respond to emergency calls from anywhere in the world.

• For calls originating in Canada and the U.S., call 1 800 267-6788 or (613) 944-6788.
  
• Canadian citizens outside Canada can call collect from abroad where available to (613) 996-8885.
  
• Some countries also have toll-free lines to contact the Operations Centre in Ottawa.