I am a UK national planning a trip to New York City.

On the ESTA form, specifically the 'Have you ever been issued a passport or national identity card for travel by any other country?', should I include a one-use emergency passport I was issued in Croatia after my passport was stolen in 2014?

Not sure it counts as it was a UK document, issued by a UK embassy, just happened to be in Croatia.

  • British consular staff are crown servants and British Embassies belong to HM. – Gayot Fow Jan 3 '17 at 9:37

The question is asking about documents issued by another country, not those issued in another country. A document issued by UK authorities is issued by the UK, regardless of the location.

  • 1
    Thank you, that was my hunch but I wasn't 100%. Best wishes – George Jan 2 '17 at 13:56
  • 2
    EU consulates can now issue emergency travel documents to citizens of other EU countries, so it might be more common in the future for Europeans to have documents issued by third countries. – Guan Yang Jan 2 '17 at 14:45
  • 6
    @AlexWillison: No, consulates and other diplomatic posts have specific diplomatic protections that limit the day-to-day authority the host country's government can exercise over them, but they are still, fundamentally, part of the host country's territory – hmakholm left over Monica Jan 2 '17 at 15:52
  • 5
    @AlexWillison No. Embassies are also not the sovereign territory of the represented country. This is a common misconception. The difference between an embassy and a consulate is that the former is the main diplomatic post. There is one only, led by the ambassador. Consulates are secondary; there can be and often are more than one, headed by a consul. – phoog Jan 2 '17 at 16:39
  • 1
    @phoog I thought embassies were the representative of one government to another (e.g., call up the embassy to work on this treaty issue), and that consulates were the representative of one government to the people in another country (e.g., people go to the consulate to get visas). Embassies should be close to the government seat and consulates should be near population centers. – emory Jan 3 '17 at 0:54

Your Answer

