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I think the furthest I've been from diplomatic assistance would be Chiloe Island, in southern Chile, 1300 Km from the nearest American Consul in Santiago. Next would be Alta, Norway, 1200 Km from Helsinki. By road, the furthest would be St. Pierre et Miquelon, 1600 Km from the US Consul in Halifax, via two ferries, but less than 1000 Km by straight line.
Do not count being on board an airplane over an ocean or other sparsely populated region. If you're a citizen of a country that has limited diplomatic representation abroad, count disance from a consul of a country that has arrangements, like Canadians in a country without an embassy would still be near a British consul who would represent their interests.
Honestly, probably more more than a few dozen miles, and much closer most of the time. Still, with one exception (Beijing US Embassy), I have never checked in with the embassy/consulate when abroad as is recommended. If I was ever traveling in a hot spot, though, I'd make sure to do so; I did so in Beijing simply because I went for the Olympics and worried somewhat about some kind of unrest.
Khiva, Uzbekistan, which -- at the time I visited -- was 1400 km, as the crow flies, from the nearest US consular office - the embassy in Islamabad. Now of course there are closer US diplomatic offices in Tashkent and elsewhere in the Stans, but this was 1985.
There is also now a US consulate in Peshawar, but I don't know if it existed in 1985. If so, then the distance would be 1280 km.
More recently, the furthest I've strayed from Uncle Sam is Bluff, New Zealand, which is 1022 km by road and ferry, or 784 km in a straight line, from the US Embassy in Wellington.
like Canadians in a country without an embassy would still be near a British consul who would represent their interests.
I can't answer your question for myself because I have no idea, but I heard a story about an Australian in Lviv in Ukraine who'd had his passport and wallet stolen. Apparently Australia doesn't have a consulate there but Britain does, so he'd had to go to the British one on his hands and knees instead and say something like "I'm a proud subject of Her Majesty the same as you guys, how about some Commonwealth solidarity here, pleeeease?!" and they sorted him out.
Makes me glad to be from one of the higher-profile countries where I'd probably never have to ask for help from a foreign embassy.
I can't answer your question for myself because I have no idea, but I heard a story about an Australian in Lviv in Ukraine who'd had his passport and wallet stolen. Apparently Australia doesn't have a consulate there but Britain does, so he'd had to go to the British one on his hands and knees instead and say something like "I'm a proud subject of Her Majesty the same as you guys, how about some Commonwealth solidarity here, pleeeease?!" and they sorted him out.
Makes me glad to be from one of the higher-profile countries where I'd probably never have to ask for help from a foreign embassy.
Your friend may have been miffed by the service at the British consulate, but it is a part of their job.
When my Canadian wife and I were in Jordan, her passport pages got filled up and she needed a new one. There was no Canadian consul in Jodan, it was covered by the one in Beirut, but Beirut was then considered unsafe to travel to. So the British consul transported her Canadian passport to the British Consul in Beirut in a diplomatic pouch. The British then took it to the Canadian consul in Beirut to have additional pages affixed, and it was returned to us.
Consular officials can be as rude or pleasant as they personally wish to be, but they are still bound to perform whatever services fall under their jurisdiction.
In the countries where the USA does not have diplomatic representation, there will be an American Interests Section in some other designated consulate, which is bound to assist any Americans with consular service while in he country.
Makes me glad to be from one of the higher-profile countries where I'd probably never have to ask for help from a foreign embassy.
Cross country agreements for consular services are pretty common. This summarizes the Australia-Canada arrangement. I was pretty surprised to see Honolulu on the list. http://travel.gc.ca/assistance/emerg...nada-australia
Interesting, I had no idea. I had wondered what you would do if you were, say, Estonian and you got into difficulties somewhere like Burkina Faso where your country probably has no embassy.
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