Scenario by scenario guidance on what an embassy or consulate can realistically help with, and the common assumptions that catch travellers out.
Embassies sit in a country's capital city and handle high-level diplomatic relations. Consulates are smaller offices in other major cities, often faster to reach if you are not near the capital. For a traveller in trouble, both offer broadly the same practical help.
This is the single most common reason travellers contact their embassy. Consular staff can issue an emergency passport or limited-validity travel document, sometimes within a day in urgent cases, allowing you to continue travelling or return home. You will usually need to report the loss to local police first and bring whatever identification you still have.
Ask local authorities to notify your embassy as soon as possible, this is a right in most countries. Consular staff can visit you, check how you are being treated, and explain the local legal process in general terms. What they cannot do is get you released, act as your lawyer, or intervene in the local justice system. You are subject to the laws of the country you are in, regardless of your nationality.
The embassy cannot investigate the crime itself, that remains the job of local police. What they can do is help you understand the local reporting process, provide a list of English-speaking lawyers and interpreters, and for victims of sexual assault, help arrange a same-sex police interview and support with a medical examination where needed.
Consular staff can help you contact a local doctor or hospital and can contact family on your behalf, but they cannot pay your medical bills under any circumstances. This is precisely the gap that travel insurance is designed to cover, which is why having valid cover in place before you travel matters so much.
The embassy will notify next of kin and help with the practical arrangements involved in registering a death abroad and liaising with local authorities. In some countries, an official consular death record is issued that can matter for insurance claims or estate matters back home, since a foreign death certificate is not always automatically accepted.
Support here is explicitly described by the FCDO as limited, particularly in places already under travel advisories. In a major crisis, the embassy may help coordinate information and, in some extreme cases with no commercial transport available, assist with evacuation, though this is not guaranteed and travellers may still need to cover their own costs.
Embassies are not emergency banks and cannot simply hand over cash or buy you a ticket home. What they can do is help you contact family who may be able to send funds, and in some cases point you toward a repatriation loan process. Having a backup payment method, such as a second card or an emergency fund a friend can access, is worth arranging before you travel rather than relying on this as a plan.
If you hold dual nationality, your consular protection can disappear in a place you might not expect: the country of your other nationality. As a general rule, if you are a British national inside the country where you also hold citizenship, the UK cannot usually provide consular assistance there, since you are treated as a citizen of that country first. The equivalent applies for most nationalities. This catches travellers visiting family in a country of heritage off guard more than almost any other consular rule.
Save the contact details for your country's nearest embassy or consulate at your destination before you leave, not after something goes wrong. Many governments also offer free travel registration services that let them know you are in the country and reach you with updates during a crisis, which is worth doing for any trip beyond a short, low-risk break.
UK travellers can reach the FCDO's 24/7 Consular Contact Centre on +44 (0)20 7008 5000. US travellers can reach the State Department's overseas emergency line on 888-407-4747 from the US and Canada, or 202-501-4444 from anywhere else. Citizens of other countries should check their own foreign ministry's website for the equivalent number before departure.