A representative office of a government, located in a country other than its own, that houses a consul or consul general. A consul is a lower level government official who represents her country's people and commercial interests in a foreign country. A government may have one or more consulates, in addition to an embassy, in a foreign country. For example, the US has an embassy and four consulates in India (see Embassy of the United States New Delhi, India: Mission).

Embassies and consulates contain staff that perform a wide variety of functions, including:

For more information on temporary and permanent visa categories, see:

For more information on the visa sponsorship process, see Practice Note, Business Immigration Sponsorship: Overview.