Foundation

• France was the first other country to recognize the independence of the United States, and Benjamin Franklin established the first American overseas mission there in 1779. Morocco and the Dutch Republic followed suit, and within three years John Adams became the first United States ambassador to the Netherlands. The house he purchased in The Hague became the world's first United States embassy.
  
  

Time Frame

• The first overseas property owned by the United States rather than a private individual and also the longest continuously owned is the American Legation in Tangier, Morocco. This building was a gift from the sultan in 1821. Throughout the first half of the 19th century, the United States refrained from investing in diplomatic missions and owned no other property abroad. In the latter half of the 19th century, both the Union and the Confederacy established diplomatic missions abroad in a bid for international recognition. After America rose to global preeminence in World War I, the State Department established a Foreign Service Building Commission and began constructing embassies all over the world.
  
  

Locations

• The United States has diplomatic missions to every country in the world, save Taiwan and four others. The Kingdom of Bhutan has no American embassy, although the two governments maintain informal and friendly contact via the U.S. embassy in New Delhi. Cuba has not had an American embassy since the two governments broke ties in 1961. As of 1980, the United States has no diplomatic relations with Iran, and American interests there are represented by the Swiss government in Tehran. There are no American embassies in North Korea, and the United States does not recognize Taiwan as an independent country.
  
  

Services Offered to American Citizens

• The U.S. embassies offer a number of services to American citizens abroad. If your passport is lost or stolen while you are traveling or you need new pages because yours are full, the embassy is the place to go. If you give birth abroad, you need to report to the embassy. Embassies also handle the deaths of U.S. citizens abroad. The embassies have notaries on hand in case you have legal issues back home, and if you get arrested abroad they can help you, too. You must visit the embassy if you want to either claim or renounce your citizenship, and you also need to make a trip to the embassy if you marry a foreign national while abroad.
  
  

Visa Services

• Most foreign nationals who visit an American embassy are interested in procuring a visa to visit the United States. The embassies conduct the final processing of immigrant and nonimmigrant visa applications and often conduct interviews with people hoping to travel to America. The U.S. embassies offer several types of visas to people interested in visiting for tourism, study, business, medical treatment and personal reasons.
  
  

Security

• All of the American embassies have tight security. It is forbidden to bring any type of weapon into the embassy. It is also forbidden to bring in any sort of electronic or battery-operated item, including your cellular telephone or your MP3 player.