Terms of reference of the Department of Social Affairs

1-Handeling all the cases of relevance to Iranian prisoner s abroad including:
-Consular, political and legal support in the framework of  Vienna Convention with the view to acquire the inmate amnesty and release. 
- Inquiry about the prisoners trial situation and the courts verdict.
- Facilitating the meeting of the first-degree relatives with the prisoner (obtaining visa).
- Hiring local lawyer to defend the rights of the Iranian nationals in the judiciary courts in other countries. 
-Introducing the prisoners family to local relief organizations. (i.e. Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation) as well as their male child who is at the conscription age  to the Military Service Department for issuance of exemption. 
2- Inquiry about the situation of Iranian nationals abroad. 
3- Handling all cases of relevance to foreign prisoners in Iran and to obtain information about them. 
4- Handling all the cases of relevance to the patients introduced by the High Medical Council to seek medical treatment abroad (obtaining visa, appointment with the physician and hospital in the host country, endorsing the documents related to  treatment costs. 
5- Handling the financial disputes between Iranian legal and real persons with foreign legal and real persons and vis versa. 
6- Holding presidential elections abroad. 
7- Handling all the cases related to clearing personal items of resident Iranians from Costumes. 
8- Channelizing   the cash donations and financial assistances offered by  overseas Iranians. 
9- Delivering the recovered lost items in other countries to their true owners. 
10- Gathering the information required by domestic organs. 
11- Handling all the case related to Iranians travelers in distress.

Terms of Reference of the Department of Scholarship and Students dossier

1- Handling all the matters pertaining to the formation of students dossiers 
2- Declaring the applicability or non applicability of student facilities to the Missions 
3- Matters pertaining to endorsing foreign academic documents belonging to Iranian graduates that are issued abroad. 
4- Matters pertaining to endorsing academic documents of the resident foreigners that are issued domestically. 
5- Matters pertaining to Iranian student abroad ( applying for academic exemption from military service)
6- Matters pertaining to foreign students( issuance of certificate to apply for passport and visa)
7- Matters pertaining to foreign religious students-tolabs- ( issuance of certificate to apply for passport and visa)
8- Cooperation and coordination for holding joint consular conferences.
9- Cooperation and coordination for concluding scientific MOUs. 
10- Matters pertaining to holding entry exams for state universities abroad. 
11- Matters pertaining to Payam -e- Nour correspondence university (distance learning) abroad. 
12- Matters pertaining to holding Azad University entry exam abroad. 
13- Membership in the Council of Foreign Student Admission. 
14- Membership in the working group governing private institutions active in sending students abroad. 
15- Matters pertaining to evaluating and endorsing the competency of foreign universities.   
16- Matters pertaining to long-term and mid-term scholarship granted by other governments.
17- Matters pertaining to scholarships granted to foreigners by the Government of the I.R. Iran.
18- Issuance of verbal notes to apply for visa ( scholarship student either long-term of mid-term)
19- Matters pertaining to scholarship students of other ministries and state organizations.
20- Matters of relevance to transferring Iranian students from overseas universities to domestic higher education centers. 
21- Matters of relevance to transferring the spouses   and the children of the government agents from overseas universities to domestic higher education institutions.
22- Matters of relevance to evaluating the competency of the individuals seeking employment (upon the request by other domestic bodies and organizations)
23- Variety of other matters (i.e. educational performance of Iranian students; complains from the organizations and the instructions dealing with sending students abroad  ...etc.)

Terms of Reference of the Department of Nationality, Refugees and Immigrants

1-Prosccessing all the applications for abandoning the nationality of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran; It is worthy of mentioning that the Iranian nationals are not permitted to leave their nationality unless under the following conditions : having reached complete 25 years of age; the Council of Ministers has authorized their abandoning of nationality; committing in advance that within one year from the date of abandoning the nationality will transfer their entire rights to the properties that are in their possession in Iran or might come in their possession according to the laws of heritage , although the Iranian laws might   permit their possession by foreign nationals, in one way or another to Iranian nationals . The spouse and children of the person, who according to this Article is abandoning the nationality, whether minor or mature, will not lose their nationality other than that such has been authorized in the permit issued by the Council of Ministers and they have completed their military service.  
2- Processing all the applications for acquiring the Nationality of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
3- Processing granting of Iranian nationality to those foreign women who are entering into Iranian nationality through marriage with the nationals of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
4- Processing the cases of Iranian women who receive foreign nationality, or such are imposed upon them, through marriage with foreign nationals. 
 5- Processing the applications to regain the original nationality by the Iranian women who have received the nationality of their spouses through marriage. It is worthy of mentioning that according to the article 987 of the Iranian Civil Law, the Iranian women marrying foreign nationals remain in their Iranian nationality other than that the nationality of the spouse are imposed upon them in accordance with laws of the spouses respective country. However, after the death of the spouse or divorce, by submitting an application to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with the endorsed certificate of death or the document of divorce, the Iranian nationality, with all the associated rights, is restored back to them.   
6- Processing all the cases of restoring the original nationality of those foreign women who have acquired Iranian nationality through marriage and after the death or divorce apply for the restoration their original nationality.  The foreign women, who according to the paragraph 6 of the article 976 of the Iranian civil law have been granted Iranian nationality through marriage with Iranian nationals, after divorce or the death of their Iranian husband may apply for restoration of their original nationality if they wish so. In such cases after receiving the relevant authorization from the respective government,    they submit the filled application form to restore the original nationality to the Department of Nationality, Refugees and Immigrants. However it should be mentioned that in the case of the death of husband if the woman has children less than 18 years of age, cannot apply for the restoration of the original nationality as long as the children have not reached the legal age. 
7- Processing the applications for restoration of the original Iranian nationality by Iranians who, according to the relevant laws, have acquired foreign nationality. According to the article 990 of the Iranian civil laws, those Iranian who, by themselves or their fathers, have legally abandoned  the nationality of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and wishing to restore their Iranian  nationality may submit their application form to the Department of Nationality, Refugees and Immigrants.
8- Processing applications to remain in the fathers nationality (foreign), according to the paragraphs 4 and 5 of the article 976 of the Iranian civil law the persons that are born of foreign parents in Iran are considered Iranian nationals with this difference that according to paragraph 4 those infants that are born of foreign parents but one of them has been born in Iran are granted Iranian identification cards upon their birth but according to the paragraph 5 for the infants  of foreign parents the certificate of birth are issued. These individuals upon reaching 18 years f age in case of wishing to acquire their fathers nationality should fill the application form to remain in the fathers nationality   and send it to the Department of Nationality, Refugees and Immigrants via the General Department of Foreign Nationals affiliated to Police in Tehran or via relevant governor offices in their city of residence in Iran or via Iranian missions abroad.     
9- Processing the applications of the individuals who lack creditable documents of Iranian identity but claim the nationality of the Government of Islamic Republic of Iran.  The claimants of nationality are those themselves or their fathers have illegally exited the country some years back and have mostly taken residence in the southern littoral states in Persian Gulf and are applying for Iranian I.D Cards and passports. 
10- Probing, investigating and establishing the true nationality of those Iranians who have illegally acquired foreign nationality. 
11- Examining and analyzing constantly the law of nationality of the Islamic Republic of Iran with the view to present suitable recommendations to rectify the relevant laws and regulations. 
12- Comparative examination of the laws and regulations pertaining to refugees in different countries of the world in connection with 1951 Geneva Convention which deals with refugees. 
13- Receiving appeals for asylum and gathering necessary information regarding the applicants through cooperation and coordination with other relevant authorities with a view to take final decision and presenting suitable recommendations in connection with refugees and asylum seekers.
14- Observation and attending to the general conditions of refugees and their families in Iran as well as Iranian refugees abroad and to give recommendations through cooperation with other pertinent authorities to improve their conditions. 

Consular Relations

Consular Relations are essentially defined as a bodys initiative to protect the interests of its countrymen inhabiting in a foreign country, and is one of the oldest international relations. Interestingly some institutions claim that Consular relations date back to1300 BC.

 Nowadays, given the ever mounting complexity of the state of affairs in the political world, and the consequent intricacies imposed on the issues and problems of nationals of different countries, communities as well as international organizations, has lead to the realization that Consular bodies are an indispensable necessity of in todays world and must be extensively institutionalized.1963s Vienna Convention was based on this approach, and its statutes and legislation are being largely executed to this day, by 172 countries whom have ratified the treaty.

The duties of the consular institutions of each country have been stipulated in the 
Article no. 5 of the Convention, in a manner so as to provide for the opportunity of activities in the field of economic, cultural, scientific and so on, in the recipient country. The most important of consular officers duties in other countries is, dealing with the protection of their countrymens interests, and the tasks ordered by governmental bodies, institutions and so on. Some of the chief matters that s/he deals with can be listed as follows:

• Legal Affairs (birth - marriage - divorce - death - Set Power of Attorney - certification of papers and documents, and so on.)
• Passport Affairs (Replacement of passports, issuance of entry papers and travel document for returning to Iran)
• Social Affairs (Handling issues concerning prisoners in the country of the Embassy/consulate jurisdiction, commercial disputes and affairs ...)
• Citizenship Affairs (Obtaining and renouncing Iranian citizenship and so on..
• Student Affairs
• Visa Issuance and legalization of commercial and business documents

The reality is that the consular sections tasks are not limited to those mentioned above, and encompasses many other issues that havent been hereby mentioned for brevity.All Consular Section of the IRI Embassys aroun the world are fully committed themselve to ensure the deliverance of the kind of services appropriate with regards to the principles of noble people of Iran,