ConGen Rosslyn

All entry-level Foreign Service Officers, regardless of their "cone" or career track, are required, during either their first or second tour, to spend at least one year working in a Consular section at a post abroad. This is the section where people come in to apply for a visa to enter the United States, and also the section that provides services for American citizens abroad in the post's "consular district". I am very excited about my assignment in Copenhagen, which is a rotational assignment giving me first one year in a Consular position and then one year as a Political officer (my cone is Political).

The consular requirement makes great sense for a lot of reasons. First, it is one of the largest segments of the Foreign Service, because there is so much work to be done. It's also some of the most important work that we do abroad; American Citizen Services (ACS) is one of the main reasons for having an official U.S. government presence in other countries in the first place, and vitally important to protect the interests of Americans throughout the world, especially as more and more people do travel internationally. Visa adjudication, meanwhile, is of course a vital step in protecting our national security, as well as ensuring that foreigners who are legally eligible to enter the U.S. can do so as easily as is practicable. So it's important to have enough people filling these positions and doing this vital work.

Another good reason for the consular requirement is that it's great experience. After a year of visa interviews, I expect to be much better at figuring out what people are really thinking when they spin me a yarn, in addition to improving my communication and customer-service skills. It's also a great opportunity because, apparently, "consular officers have the best stories" (an oft-repeated phrase).

The most popular training at FSI, then, is the Basic Consular Course, a six-week seminar that teaches the fundamentals of all the skills needed to do all three types of consular work (ACS, Non-Immigrant Visas, and Immigrant Visas Overseas). It's also known as "ConGen Rosslyn", because the course takes place at an actual Consulate-General of the United States in the fictional city of Rosslyn in the Republic of Z. There is an actual visa interview room in one of the buildings at FSI, as well as an actual jail (a small one with just one cell, but with real bars and real plastic rats). Doing role-plays at the visa interview windows was a lot of fun, although it is not easy to keep track of everything - the piles of paperwork, what the applicants are saying, the various things on the computer screen, and the myriad complexities of immigration law that underlie the whole thing and that must be kept in mind at all times.

At the beginning of the course, they gave us each a copy (to keep) of the 9/11 Commission Report. On the last day, which happened to be my birthday, we had a nice little "graduation" in an FSI hallway. I feel like I still won't be fully prepared until I've been in Copenhagen for a while and have gotten a chance to see the real thing in action, but I'm definitely a lot more confident about starting my consular rotation now that I've got this course under my belt.