Senior Consular Officer (Male, Female or non-Binary)

Are you the client friendly, empathic colleague our embassy needs? Do you like to offer consular services to the public and are you resistant enough to handle difficult clients? Not afraid to visit Dutch detainees in prison? Do you like to be friendly, but also though when needed?
 

The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Santiago de Chile is seeking a Senior Consular Officer (M/F/NB) (37,5 hrs per week), who will be primarily responsible for providing consular services at the embassy in Santiago. Working directly under the Operational Manager of the embassy who also has a lot of other responsibilities, requires someone that can work independently after a few weeks of introduction and internal courses.

General

  • The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands maintains and promotes the bilateral relations between the Netherlands and Chile, represents the Dutch government in Chile and assists Dutch citizens in Chile who need it.  The year 2025 will be a special year for the embassy in which we celebrate 200 years of bilateral relations between Chile and the Netherlands.

  • The main consular services to be delivered consists of passport applications for Dutch citizens residing in Chile, assisting Dutch citizens in case of emergencies, handle visa applications for students that want to study in the Netherlands, and visa applications for tourists who want to visit The Netherlands or the Dutch Caribbean, visiting Dutch detainees and maintaining close contact with our 6 Honorary Consuls in Chile.

  • The Embassy works as a close team, with direct, non-hierarchical, open, responsible and professional internal relations and high integrity.

Tasks

1. Consular Services

Receiving and assessing applications for, among other things, passport renewals, travel documents, naturalization requests, short-stay visas (KVV) and visas for temporary stay in The Netherlands (MVV) and Caribbean Visas. Check compliance with legal requirements and checking completeness and correctness of applicable documents (the decision to grand or refuse is made by a colleague in The Netherlands).

  • Checking incoming documents  for accuracy and completeness, processing in in the systems;

  • Communicating with applicants and other parties seeking information (in person and via email, telephone, social media etc.)

  • Working closely with the relevant actors within the ministry in The Netherlands

  • Ensuring that consular receipts are managed accurately and with integrity;

  • Dealing with emergencies, also outside office hours, for which our consular assistance is called in;

  • The integrity and safeguarding of confidential information.

  • Taking exams to obtain Dutch citizenship.

Support Dutch detainees in prison in Chile (currently 3) by visiting them on a regular basis.

2. Information and knowledge transfer

  •  Advising and/or providing information on: 

    • The interpretation and implementation of consular regulations

    • The application of legal and/or ministerial regulations

    • Guidelines and measures to be taken to promote the most effective implementation and accountability of the consular aid and assistance;

  • Informing (actively) oral and written provision of information, guidelines and advice on various regulations, laws, (policy) measures and objectives of established Dutch consular policy and related regulations to the colleagues at the Consulate;

  • Alerting to irregularities encountered in the course of their tasks and informing the line manager about such issues when necessary;

  • Managing records and consular archives in a transparent and orderly manner, in accordance with instructions;

  • Identifying consular trends and reporting them to management;

  • Visiting consular meetings organized by the EU delegation in Santiago and create and maintain a network of consular officers of EU member states and Schengen partners.

Knowledge and skill requirements

  • Knowledge of the relevant Dutch rules and regulations (consular, visa, chancery fees, etc.), as well as the implementing regulations; 

  •  Knowledge of the Dutch language is an asset;

  • Knowledge of the relevant Dutch Consular Service Department policy, the implementation aspects with regard to international treaties and national legislation and jurisprudence, as well as the applicable rules and regulations;

  • Knowledge of consular processes and skills in their application;

  • Skill in explaining the laws and regulations applicable to the work;

  • Skill in giving advice and preparing reports;

  • Knowledge of relevant Chilean institutions is useful.

  • We do not require the candidate to have all the knowledge and skills required for this job at the start. We will offer training via (online) courses and ‘on the job’ so that the required knowledge with the required effort can be gained within a few weeks.

Personal skills

  • Great communication skills, can easily establish and maintain contact with all kinds of counterparts, client-friendly and service-oriented.

  • The ability to work independently.

  • An excellent command of the Spanish and English language. Written as well as spoken. Knowledge of Dutch, or the willingness to learn a bit of this language, is a valuable asset.

  • Command of Windows-based MS Office programs such as Excel, Word, and Outlook.

  • We do not require the candidate to have all the knowledge and skills required for this job. It is however important to be able to learn quickly and absorb the given information and offered courses. In the first 4 to 6 weeks we ask the candidate to put in some extra effort and time to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills.

  • Can handle stress, keep several balls in the air, knows when to give what priority, able to easily shift between tasks.

  • Flexible and prepared to work occasionally outside office hours.

  • We require a minimum of three year working experience, applying detailed rules and regulations on a daily basis. Please elaborate in your CV on how and where you specifically acquired this skill. Furthermore we will prioritize applications of candidates with experience at other embassies or consulates.


Diversity and Inclusion
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs pursues an active diversity policy and is committed to an inclusive organization. We do this by optimally deploying and utilizing people's differences. And by creating a work culture where everyone can be themselves and feel valued. When composing teams and hiring new talent, we strive for diversity in, among other things, age, gender (identity), culture, religion, background, orientation, (occupational) disability, knowledge and competencies.

Working level and salary
Job level: scale 7.  Gross salary between  CLP 2.119.833.-   and CLP 2.685.122.-, based on experience.

We offer a contract for the period of 1 year with a probational period of 1 month. The embassy has a package of secondary employment benefits, like a lunch allowance and coverage of medical expenses.

Courses are generally offered online in an e-learning environment. Generally once every year, an regional training / gathering or gathering in the Netherlands is organized to be able to connect to the counterparts at the ministry in person and to personally get to know the colleagues in the region. The candidate must be willing and be able to incidentally travel abroad for approximately 1 week per year. Additionally the embassy will set-up a pop-up consulate in one of the bigger cities in Chile. This requires the candidate to travel at least once a year within Chile for 2 days.

If you are interested, please send your motivation letter and CV addressed to the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, to stg-az@minbuza.nl not later than Wednesday February 5 2025. If you have any questions, please send them also to stg-az@minbuza.nl.