What is a Virtual Presence Post? How is it related to an Embassy?

GPapenburg

San Marino is not located in Italy!
It is the oldest sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world named Republic of San Marino. It was founded in the year 301, 1191 years before Christopher Columbus discovered America. There is no US-Embassy in this country since it has only 31,006 inhabitants. The U.S. Ambassador to Italy is also accredited to San Marino. A Virtual Presence Post (separate website) has been established to provide Embassy information to the citizens of San Marino and the U.S. residents or tourists. Real consular service is provided by the U.S. Consulate General in Florence, Italy.

Source(s):
http://www.esteri.sm/on-line/en/Home/ForeignDiplomaticandConsularCorpsAccreditedinSanMarino.html
http://sanmarino.usvpp.gov/index.html

Darren K

Hi Ron,

Basically, a VPP allows an established post (such as an embassy or consulate) to provide a low but formal level of diplomatic engagement with important cities or regions. Generally, the mission utilizes a three-pronged strategy of regular, targeted visits from mission personnel, ongoing public affairs activities, and â€˜virtualâ€™ engagement by means of web sites dedicated to the environs of the nominal â€˜VPPâ€™ city or regionâ€.

More specifically, VPPs seek to extend the engagement of the U.S. to important cities, regions, or specific communities where the U.S. has no physical diplomatic facilities. VPPs employ a mix of traditional diplomacy (travel, outreach programs, cultural and educational exchanges, etc.) and modern technologies (e.g. branded web sites, electronic communications) to develop stronger relationships with selected locales.

In some cases, these VPPs are in the same country as the physical mission. For example, our VPP in San Pedro Sula, Honduras is run from the capital Tegucigalpa. In other cases, the outreach is to countries where we have no embassy, such as the Republic of San Marino. Other examples of this would be our Virtual Presence Post in Gaza, run from Jerusalem, and Virtual Embassy Somalia, managed from Nairobi, Kenya.

George M

A virtual presence post is essentially a website of the State Department that has detailed Information for citizens living in a certain city of country. As is implied by the word "virtual", there are is physical presence and all communication needs to be made either by email/letter/phone to the State department or to to the nearest real embassy or consulate.

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