British Embassy Guatemala: UK Citizen Services (2026)

The British Embassy in Guatemala City works almost exactly the opposite way to the US Embassy. The US model is in-house: passports, birth reports, and notary services happen at the embassy. The UK model is online-first: passports are never issued at embassies, Emergency Travel Documents are applied for online, UK birth registration is optional and online, and notarial services are deliberately minimal. If you’re a Brit in Guatemala, the most useful thing this page can do is tell you which of your needs are online-only, which actually involve the embassy building in Zona 10, and which Guatemala-specific steps come before or after.

Online-only vs the embassy: the service matrix

Source: gov.uk consular services fees (updated 9 Apr 2025) and documents for British people abroad (updated 31 Jul 2025). Consular fees are identical at every UK post worldwide, charged in GBP at the monthly consular exchange rate.

Embassy location, contact, and hours

British Embassy Guatemala City Edificio Torre Internacional, Nivel 11 16 Calle 0-55, Zona 10, Guatemala City

Public access is by appointment only. There is no walk-in consular window.

Consular contact: the FCDO online contact form for Guatemala — it also routes emergency calls. The embassy does not publish a public consular phone line on gov.uk. The number +502 2380-7300 that circulates online is the switchboard listed by the UK Department for Business and Trade at the embassy — it is not a consular helpline.

From the UK (24/7): FCDO London, 020 7008 5000 — the fallback if something happens to a British national abroad and you’re calling from the UK.

Ambassador: Juliana Correa. Deputy Head of Mission: Paul Huggins.

Opening times

2026 holiday closures

Source: british-embassy-guatemala on gov.uk.

Lost or stolen passport: the Emergency Travel Document route

This is the one service where the embassy building genuinely enters the picture — but even here, the application is online. The Guatemala-specific sequence:

1. Get a Guatemalan police report first. If the passport was lost or stolen, the embassy requires the police report before you apply.
2. Apply online at gov.uk/emergency-travel-document. Fee: £125, non-refundable — if your travel plans change, you must reapply and pay £125 again.
3. Collect at the embassy. ETDs are usually ready to collect 2 working days after applying.
4. Replace your Guatemalan entry stamp. After you have the ETD, you must replace your entry stamp with the immigration authorities (Instituto Guatemalteco de Migración). The embassy describes it as usually a quick process — and it can only be done in Guatemala City.

Eligibility for the online route: you’re a British national outside the UK, travelling within 6 weeks, your passport is lost, stolen, damaged, full, recently expired, or with HMPO or a foreign embassy, you can’t renew in time — and you had a UK passport issued on or after 1 January 2006. If you never had a post-2006 passport, you go through the contact-form route instead, and ETDs there are issued only in exceptional circumstances (unexpected birth of your child, urgent medical treatment, funeral of a close relative) — not for holidays, weddings, or job interviews.

What you get: a document valid for one single or return journey through a maximum of 5 countries (check acceptance with the country lookup). Your old passport is usually cancelled automatically when you pay.

Children under 16: a parent or guardian applies; the child attends the appointment with both parents/guardians or a signed consent letter.

Travelling in more than 3 weeks? The embassy’s own advice is to check whether a full replacement passport can arrive in time instead of paying for an ETD.

Renewing your UK passport from Guatemala

You cannot renew a UK passport at the embassy — nobody can, anywhere. All applications go online through gov.uk/overseas-passports to HM Passport Office.

For reference, the current UK-application fees (gov.uk/passport-fees):

Applying from Guatemala costs more than these UK figures. HM Passport Office is explicit that overseas applications are more expensive and that overseas residents cannot avoid the higher fee by applying as if they were in the UK. The exact overseas fee is shown in the online service when you apply.

There is no published processing-time promise for overseas applications: allow several weeks, and do not book travel until the new passport is in your hands. If you must travel within 6 weeks, you’re in the ETD lane above, not the renewal lane.

Having a baby in Guatemala as a British parent

Two registrations exist — one mandatory, one optional:

• Mandatory: register the birth with RENAP, Guatemala’s civil registry. Our guide to RENAP birth certificates covers getting certificates. The Guatemalan birth certificate, translated by an approved translator if needed, is accepted in the UK for passport, school, and GP purposes.
• Optional: register the birth with UK authorities — online through the Overseas Registration Unit at register-a-birth-abroad.service.gov.uk, for children born on or after 1 January 1983. Fee: £150, plus £50 per consular birth registration certificate and £5.50-£29.50 courier return, normally at least 5 working days plus courier time. Questions: Overseas.RegistrationUnit@fcdo.gov.uk.

The key reassurance, explicit in both gov.uk sources: your child does not need UK birth registration to be eligible for British citizenship or a UK passport. Apply directly for the child’s first passport or check citizenship by descent. There is no UK equivalent of the US CRBA embassy appointment — it’s an optional online registration.

Notarial and document services: what the embassy won’t do

FCDO policy for Guatemala (a non-Commonwealth country) is blunt: use a local notary or lawyer first — “usually cheaper and easier”. The FCDO publishes a list of lawyers in Guatemala.

The embassy cannot:

• Legalise or apostille documents of any kind — UK documents go to the UK Legalisation Office
• Translate documents
• Certify copies of non-UK passports
• Issue civil or family-status certificates
• Sign DWP State Pension life certificates (those take a passport-countersignatory-class signer — relevant if you draw a UK pension in Guatemala)

The embassy can, in limited cases:

Getting married in Guatemala

You marry under Guatemalan law — our guide to marriage for foreigners at RENAP covers the local process, and the gov.uk marriage-abroad tool gives the UK-document requirements per country.

If Guatemalan authorities ask for UK-side paperwork: receiving a notice of intended marriage costs £50, and a certificate of no impediment (CNI) or local equivalent costs £50. A consular marriage (£150) exists only where local law doesn’t allow the marriage — it is not the normal route. A marriage valid under Guatemalan law and allowed under UK law is recognised in the UK; there is no separate UK registration of foreign marriages.

Emergencies: death, arrest, crime, crisis

• Death of a British national: FCDO’s Guatemala deaths information sheet and the general what to do after a British national dies abroad guidance. Death registration with UK authorities is optional.
• Arrest or detention: the prisoners pack for Guatemala.
• Victim of crime: gov.uk guidance.
• Crisis (earthquake, volcano, unrest): how to deal with a crisis overseas. The embassy prioritises emergencies and vulnerable people.
• Medical: the FCDO keeps a list of medical facilities in Guatemala City. For how healthcare here actually compares to what you’re used to, see NHS vs private healthcare for Brits in Guatemala — and carry travel insurance.

Travel advice context (updated 17 Jun 2026): the FCDO advises against all but essential travel within 5km of the Mexican border from the Pacific coast up to and including the Gracias a Dios crossing, and to Santa Ana Huista, San Antonio Huista, and La Democracia in Huehuetenango. Current status: FCDO travel advice for Guatemala.

The smaller stuff

• Voting: register as an overseas elector and vote in UK elections by post or proxy through your UK council — the embassy plays no role.
• State Pension: claim and manage via the International Pension Centre; remember the embassy cannot sign life certificates. Details in our UK pension in Guatemala guide.
• Dual citizenship: allowed under UK law, no application needed.
• Guatemalan spouse or family visiting the UK: Guatemalan travellers need an Electronic Travel Authorisation — check requirements at gov.uk/check-uk-visa. For UK visas requiring a TB test, gov.uk lists the approved clinics in Guatemala.
• No STEP equivalent: unlike the US, the UK has no standing register-your-presence scheme for Guatemala. The FCDO channel is travel-advice email alerts.

When NOT to use the embassy

Do not book an appointment (or try to) for:

• Passport applications or renewals — online-only, always
• Legalisation or apostilles — UK Legalisation Office for UK documents
• Translations — private translators
• Certifying copies of non-UK passports — it can’t
• DWP life certificates — passport-countersignatory-class signers, not consular staff
• Civil or family-status certificates — not issued by embassies
• UK birth registration — online via the Overseas Registration Unit, and optional anyway

The embassy’s real role in Guatemala is narrow and important: ETD collection, genuine emergencies, and the handful of notarial acts nobody else can perform.

What’s next

For Brits in Guatemala:

• Moving to Guatemala from the UK — the full relocation guide
• UK Driving Licence in Guatemala — driving on and converting your licence
• UK Tax Residency When Moving to Guatemala — the HMRC side of leaving
• British Expat Communities in Guatemala — where Brits actually live
• Flights London to Guatemala — routes and pricing

American instead? See US Embassy citizen services.

For embassy specifics, the gov.uk embassy page is the authoritative source. Email stu@livinginguatemala.com for general British-living-in-Guatemala questions not specific to embassy services.