The word consulate covers offices with very different powers, and showing up at the wrong one costs a trip. Honorary or Real? is the free checker we built from our most-read guide on this site. Pick an office type, embassy consular section, Consulate General, Consulate, or Honorary Consulate, then pick the job you need done. You get a plain verdict: can do it, with limits, or cannot do it, plus where to go instead when the answer is no.

The verdicts are not guesses. They come from the same office by office research as our guide to the honorary consulate vs consulate general difference, covering 8 common jobs across the 4 office types. Across those 32 combinations, 18 come back can do it, 8 come back with limits, and 6 come back cannot do it, and every single cannot belongs to the honorary consulate. That pattern is the whole lesson of the tool.

How to check your office

Honorary or Real? main screen: pick a consular office type and the job you need done
Screenshot of Honorary or Real?: choose the office type, then the job you need done.
  • Pick the office you are thinking of visiting, by its exact type, not just its name.
  • Pick the job: a visa application, a passport renewal, document legalization, a birth registration, attestation, emergency help, a lost passport, or notary services.
  • Read the verdict and the one line under it. If it says with limits, the line tells you the limit.
  • If the answer is cannot do it, follow the "where to go instead" line; it names the office type that covers you.

Two verdicts a day are free; after that, an email unlocks unlimited checks for the rest of the day, and re-checking the same combination is always free. Your checks are stored on this device only. The official word always sits with the office itself and with sources like travel.state.gov for US services.

Before you book anything, run your office through Honorary or Real?, then read the companion post, 6 ways the wrong office wastes your trip. Once the office is right, find which one covers your address in which consulate serves my state, and check office hours and holiday closures before you travel. Getting the visa photo right is a separate small job: the Visa Photo Maker at eVisaDocuments makes a compliant photo from a selfie.