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Who We Are and What We Do
The Consular Affairs 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.
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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.
The Consular Affairs Bureau has developed a Framework that will take the Consular program well into the 21st century.
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.
If you have a complaint about the service provided to you by a Canadian government official abroad, please contact the Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime for information and assistance.
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 Country Profiles provide valuable resources, including maps, facts, statistics and social and
cultural insights.
- The Current Issues section features a variety of information highlighting current and
ongoing situations around the world of particular interest to Canadians travelling abroad,
including a list of upcoming elections.
- The daily e-mail Travel Updates, which you can subscribe to electronically, provide
updates to Current 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.
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Assistance Once You Are Abroad:
What We Can & Cannot Do for You
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada has more than 260 offices worldwide, where consular officials are ready to assist Canadians travelling, working or living abroad.
Before you leave Canada, it is important to be informed about the services we do and do not provide, as well as to realize that not all government offices provide the same type and level of service.
Consular Officials Provide the Following Services:
(Services are free, unless otherwise indicated)
In emergencies
- Assist in arranging evacuation in the event of war, civil unrest or a natural disaster.
- Arrange help in a medical emergency by providing you with a list of local doctors and hospitals.
- Arrange for a medical evacuation should a required treatment not be available locally (fees apply).
- Comfort and assist victims of robbery or other violence.
- Help find missing persons and abducted children.
When legal issues arise
- Provide you with a list of local lawyers.
- Provide you with sources of information about local laws and regulations.
- Seek to ensure that you are treated fairly under the country’s laws if you are arrested or detained (see our publication A Guide for Canadians Imprisoned Abroad).
- Provide assistance if your child has been abducted and taken to another country (see our publication International Child Abductions: A Manual for Parents).
- Notarize documents (fees apply).
When other issues arise
- Replace a lost, stolen, damaged or expired passport (fees apply).
- Issue a statement in lieu of a certificate of non-impediment to marriage abroad (fees apply).
- Provide an emergency loan (fees apply, and this service is offered only as a last resort and is subject to strict rules).
- Transfer funds (fees apply).
- Contact relatives or friends and ask them to send you money or airline tickets.
- Contact next of kin, with your authorization, if you have had an accident or are detained by police.
- Accept citizenship applications.
- Provide advice about burying a Canadian abroad or repatriating the remains to Canada.
- Contact your next of kin in case of death.
- Request that local authorities investigate suspicious circumstances in the event of an alleged or apparent crime or death.
Consular Officials DO NOT Provide the Following Services
When legal issues arise
- Intervene in private legal matters.
- Provide legal advice.
- Obtain a criminal record check on your behalf.
- Post bail, pay fines or legal fees.
- Get you out of prison.
- Take possession of an abducted child.
- Enforce a Canadian custody agreement overseas or compel a country to decide a custody case.
- Investigate a crime or death.
- Ask local authorities to give preferential treatment to Canadians.
When other issues arise
- Make travel arrangements.
- Compensate or reimburse you for delayed or cancelled travel.
- Pay your hotel, medical, travel or other expenses.
- Store personal effects or search for lost items.
- Acquire local permits or licences on your behalf, including foreign visas or work permits.
- Assist with job hunting.
- Help you find accommodation.
- Accept mail on your behalf.
- Issue pension or social security benefits.
- Perform marriage ceremonies.
- Pay the burial, cremation or repatriation costs of a deceased Canadian.
A Few Words of Advice
- Find out sooner rather than later whether you need a foreign visa or other documents.
- Find out about local laws and customs before you visit other countries.
- Visit www.voyage.gc.ca and consult the Country Travel Report for your travel destination.
- Leave a detailed flight and travel itinerary with a friend or family member.
- Buy trip cancellation insurance, health insurance, and transportation insurance.
Emergency Assistance
The Emergency Operations 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 to (613) 996-8885.
- Some countries also have toll-free lines to contact the Operations Centre in Ottawa.
