The diplomat-maid thing: a quick terminology glossary

[Recursion]

A-1, A-2, A-3 visa: visa for ambassadors, their families, and their "attendants and servants". This is the visa the Indian diplomat entered on (A-1, probably)

G-2 visa: visa for diplomats attached to the UN or other international organizations. India claims this is her status currently, but AFAIK the US requires departure and re-entry to modify an A-class to a G-class (I may well be wrong about that, though).

J-1, J-2 visa: visa for some temporary work (au pair, those Ukrainian teenagers who work the boardwalk in Atlantic city, etc.). This is as far as I can tell the visa the maid entered on (but reportage has been sketchy -- this visa requires the kind of document that it's alleged Khobragade lied on; though conceivably A-3 visas could too in the NY district, I don't know).

T-1 visa: a visa for victims of trafficking in persons to allow them to aid US law enforcement in its investigation. This is the visa the maid and her family currently have, after an Indian court ruled that her demand for claimed back wages from Khobragade constituted "blackmail".

"Green card": common name for INS form I-151, an ID card given to lawful noncitizen permanent residents of the US. The maid's current visa does not allow issuance of an I-151. I think ICE does issue a card for identity purposes to persons on a T-1 visa, and for that matter the physical card may be green, but it's not a "green card" in the sense of permanent residence and permission to work.

Ambassador: someone accredited by the host country as a personal representative of the guest country and empowered to speak on that country's behalf to the host country (or anyone else). (Commonwealth countries call them "High Commissioners", and the Vatican calls them "Nuncios".)

Embassy: residence of an accredited Ambassador

Chancery: what most people mean when they say "Embassy": the offices of the Ambassador

Consul: someone accredited by the host country as an agent of the guest country, and empowered and required to render services to citizens of that guest country, as well as facilitate relations between those countries (eg, public affairs, visa requests, publicity, education exchanges, etc.)

Consulate: the residence and offices of a Consul (for bizarre protocol reasons, these are sometimes upgraded to Consulate General and Consul General)

Sorry for any nit-picking, just seeing a lot of terms thrown around willy-nilly here...

[Laelth]

1. Excellent post--quite useful. Thanks. k&r n/t

-Laelth

[davidpdx]

2. A good list and very informative

Many people have never traveled abroad or had interactions with a consulate or embassy before. Certainly before I was 30 I didn't.

Consuls are generally fairly small. I visited the Korean Consulate in San Francisco to get a visa and it is just a two story building that looks like it may have been apartments when it was first built. The only embassy I've ever been to is the US Embassy in Seoul which is quite large and heavily secured. I try if I can to do things by mail because going there is just a hassle.

One thing to reinforce is not everyone who works at a consulate or embassy has full immunity. The person in question only had immunity over consul activities.

[astral]

3. she WAS cavity searched as I heard before, BTW

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/world/asia/india-moves-to-ban-commercial-activities-at-us-embassy.html?hp&_r=0
wont let me copy and paste an excerpt.