An Embassy Is Not Foreign Soil, Whatever the Films Say

An embassy is the permanent diplomatic mission a country keeps in another country's capital, headed by an ambassador. The common belief that an embassy is foreign soil is a myth. The building stays part of the host country; what the Vienna Convention gives it is inviolability — local officials may not enter without permission. The practical effect looks similar, which is how the myth survives.

• A diplomatic mission and its staff. *The British embassy in Tokyo.*
• The building itself. *Queues outside the embassy.*
• A formal deputation sent abroad (historical). *An embassy to the Sultan.*

Word forms

How it is used in a sentence

• Apply for the visa at the embassy in the capital.Embassies are in capitals; consulates handle other cities.
• The embassy issued a travel warning.The embassy stands for the staff as a body.
• He sought refuge in the embassy for six years.Possible because police may not enter without consent.

Embassy, consulate and mission

• Embassy — the main mission, in the capital, led by an ambassador
• Consulate — a smaller office elsewhere, mostly for visas and citizens' help
• High commission — what Commonwealth countries call each other's embassies
• Legation — an older, lower-ranked mission, now rare
• Chargé d'affaires — the deputy who runs things when there is no ambassador

From French *ambassade*, through Italian, from a Latin word for a mission or errand that itself came from Gaulish. The related *ambassador* took the same road, and the older English form *embassade* survived into the seventeenth century.