Tag:office=diplomatic

Description

An embassy, diplomatic mission, consulate or liaison office of a foreign government or parastatal entity in a host country.

Rendering in OSM Carto

Group: offices

Used on these elements

Requires

diplomatic=*

Useful combination

embassy=*
consulate=*
liaison=*
diplomatic:services:non-immigrant_visas=*
diplomatic:services:immigrant_visas=*
diplomatic:services:citizen_services=*
country=*
target=*
name=*

Usage

The tag office=diplomatic is used to map an embassy, consulate, or liaison office: all types of foreign diplomatic and consular missions as well as government-to-government liaison offices lacking diplomatic status, including subnational representative offices (e.g., State of Virginia offices abroad).

Diplomatic missions are defined as missions covered by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the UN Charter, or other similar multilateral treaties on diplomatic relations; consular missions are defined as missions covered by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

Note: This tag is used for government-operated diplomatic or consular missions only. This tag specifically excludes commercial firms providing assistance to visa applicants either under contract to a diplomatic or consular mission or independently. Such private-sector, commercial firms (e.g., CAPAGO, Italy VMS and VFS.Global) may best be tagged shop=travel_agency or office=visa.

How to map

Create a node or area and add the tag office=diplomatic plus diplomatic=embassy, diplomatic=consulate or diplomatic=liaison. You may further specify the type of embassy, consulate or liaison office:

embassy=* with key values of [yes, high_commission, nunciature, interests_section, mission, delegation, branch_embassy, residence]
consulate=* with key values of [yes, consulate_general, consular_agency, consular_office, honorary_consul, residence]
liaison=* with key values of [liaison_office, representative_office, subnational];

Mappers may optionally apply

diplomatic:services:non-immigrant_visas=yes/no - Availability of non-immigrant visa services (such as tourist and short-term student or business visas) at the facility
diplomatic:services:immigrant_visas=yes/no - Availability of immigrant visa services (for permanent residence in the sending country) at the facility
diplomatic:services:citizen_services=yes/no - Availability of passport and other document services, for citizens of the sending country of the diplomatic office

Additional tags routinely used should include:

country=* where the value is the two-character ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code for the sending country or organization or the generally accepted English acronym for an international organization (e.g., UN, OSCE). If a mission represents multiple countries, * will constitute a semicolon-delimited list of tags, e.g., country=BE;LU for a mission representing both Belgium and Luxembourg;
name=* for the commonly used name of the mission (additional tags in the format name:*= where * is the two-character language code for multilingual names should be encouraged);
target=* where the value is the two-character ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code for the receiving (accrediting) country or organization or the generally accepted English acronym for an international organization (e.g., UN, OSCE, NATO, WTO). If a mission is accredited to multiple countries or organizations, the value can contain a list separated by semicolons, e.g., target=US;CA for a mission accredited to both the United States and Canada, or target=BE;EU;NATO for a mission accredited simultaneously to Belgium, the European Union, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Contact information, such as website=*, email=*, phone=*, fax=*, or their contact:*=* equivalents. Most embassies and consulates provide an emergency number for the citizens of the sending country, that could be used in case of an emergency, such as loss of travel documents, arrest, concerns for wellbeing etc. Those numbers should be tagged using emergency:phone=*.

The address information is useful as well.

The amenity=embassy tag has been deprecated, and it should be phased out over time.

Additional tags

Tag	Value	Element	Comment	Rendering	Photo
Secondary values
These are the secondary additional tags for the office=diplomatic key/tag combination.
diplomatic	embassy		Diplomatic missions headed by ambassadors or equivalently ranked chiefs of mission.
diplomatic	consulate		Consulates and consular agencies or offices, including honorary consuls.
diplomatic	liaison		Government-to-government offices lacking either diplomatic or consular status under the VCDR or VCCR, explicitly includes subnational government offices abroad.

Tag	Value	Element	Comment
Tertiary values
These are the tertiary tag values for the office=diplomatic key/tag combination.
embassy	yes		Bears a sign labeling it as an embassy and is headed by an ambassador.
embassy	branch_embassy		Branch of an embassy headed by a diplomat below ambassadorial rank; may be in or outside the city where the embassy chancery is located. It may be signed as a trade office or cultural center.
embassy	delegation		Bears a sign labeling it as a delegation and is headed by an ambassador.
embassy	high_commission		Bears a sign labeling it as a high commission and is headed by a high commissioner.
embassy	interests_section		Diplomatic mission sent under a protecting power per the Vienna Convention; will bear a sign identifying it as an interests section. Headed by a "principal officer".
embassy	mission		Diplomatic mission to or from a multilateral organization such as the United Nations.
embassy	nunciature		Diplomatic mission from the Vatican, headed by a nuncio.
embassy	residence		Official residence of an ambassador or other diplomatic chief of mission.
consulate	yes		Consulate headed by a consul,bearing a sign identifying it as a consulate.
consulate	consular_agency		Bears a sign identifying it as a consular agency, often headed by a national of the host country, and offers only citizen services (no visa services).
consulate	consular_office		An office offering limited consular services.
consulate	consulate_general		Headed by a consul general; may be as large as an embassy.
consulate	honorary_consul		Host-country national who offers limited services on behalf of a foreign country.
consulate	residence		Official residence of a consul or consul general.
liaison	liaison_office		Unaccredited office of a country lacking full diplomatic recognition of the host country.
liaison	representative_office		Unaccredited office of a shadow government.
liaison	subnational		Non-diplomatic office of a subnational (provincial or state) government.

Three additional optional tags describing available services may be applied:

diplomatic:services:non-immigrant_visas=yes/no
diplomatic:services:immigrant_visas=yes/no
diplomatic:services:citizen_services=yes/no

Examples

Embassy

Embassies (also known in the case of missions between members of the British Commonwealth as "high commissions", in the case of diplomatic missions sent by the Vatican as "nunciatures", and to multilateral or international organizations as "missions") are usually but not always found in the capital city of the receiving side. They are typically defined in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (VCDR) or another multilateral international agreement conferring diplomatic status that cites the VCDR. Some countries have multiple embassy offices (cultural and trade offices, for example) elsewhere in the capital city. In rare instances, a "branch embassy office" may operate in another city that is not a consulate. The United States government has maintained such offices in Mostar and Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as (notoriously) in Benghazi, Libya. "Interest sections" are diplomatic missions between countries that do not recognize each other formally, such as between Iran and the United States. Examples of points of interest using this tag include:

Embassy of Sweden in Washington, D.C., United States;
Iranian Interests Section of the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, D.C., United States;
United Kingdom High Commission in New Delhi, India;
Apostolic Nunciature in Ankara, Turkey;
Argentinian Mission to the United Nations in New York, United States;
German Mission to NATO, Brussels, Belgium;
American Center (a cultural outreach center) in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, which is located separately from the U.S. Embassy;
Russian Federation Trade Representative in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, which is located separately from the Russian Embassy;
Chinese Mission to the World Trade Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.

Where the ambassador's residence ("residence") is a historic or otherwise notable building, it may optionally be tagged using the embassy=residence additional (secondary) tag.

Spaso House, the U.S. ambassador's residence in Moscow, Russia

Consulate

Consulates are typically found in two places: in a capital city, in which cases they are often housed within embassy premises, and in other satellite locations in the host country. Consulates are defined by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR). Examples include:

The Consulate of Sweden in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States;
The Russian Consulate General in Seattle, Washington, United States;
The American Consulate General in Moscow, Russia, which is located inside the U.S. Embassy compound;
The American Consular Agency in Cancun, Mexico;
The Afghanistan Consulate General in Mary, Turkmenistan;
The Netherlands Honorary Consulate in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada;
The Russian Consular Office in Turkmenbashy, Turkmenistan.

Liaison Office

Liaison offices include government-to-government offices lacking either diplomatic or consular status under the VCDR or VCCR, or other multilateral agreements conferring diplomatic or consular status. In some cases, such missions may enjoy diplomatic status under a bilateral agreement independently of the applicability of the VCDR or VCCR. This category explicitly includes subnational government offices abroad. Examples include:

State of Virginia Office in New Delhi, India (subnational office);
Representative Offices of Tatarstan and Dagestan in Baku, Azerbaijan (subnational offices);
Representative Office of Southern Ossetia in Rome, Italy (state with limited recognition, not recognized in the receiving state);
American Institute in Taiwan, Taipei, Taiwan, and Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, Washington, D.C.;^[1]
the former U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing, China, which operated as a pseudo-embassy before full diplomatic relations were established;
Taliban Office in Doha, Qatar.

Tag:office=diplomatic

Contents

Usage