Title 22Foreign Relations and IntercourseRelease 119-73

§4223 General duty to account for fees

Title 22 › Chapter CHAPTER 52— - FOREIGN SERVICE › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER XIV— - POWERS, DUTIES AND LIABILITIES OF CONSULAR OFFICERS GENERALLY › § 4223

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Consular officers must record and send all fees they get for official services to the United States Treasury, including notarizations, depositions, legal commissions, estate work, money handling, and property care. Their only pay is the salary fixed by law. Vice-consuls may also receive part of the consul-general’s or consul’s salary as rules allow.

Full Legal Text

Title 22, §4223

Foreign Relations and Intercourse — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

All fees, official or unofficial, received by any officer in the Consular Service for services rendered in connection with the duties of his office or as a consular officer, including fees for notarial services, and fees for taking depositions, executing commissions or letters rogatory, settling estates, receiving or paying out moneys, caring for or disposing of property, shall be accounted for and paid into the Treasury of the United States, and the sole and only compensation of such officers shall be by salaries fixed by law. And vice-consuls, in addition to such compensation as they may be entitled to receive as consuls or clerks, may receive such portion of the salaries of the consul-general or consuls for whom they act as shall be provided by regulation.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Compensation provisions pertaining to the positions of vice-consuls-general, deputy consuls-general, and deputy consuls were omitted from this section on the authority of act Feb. 5, 1915. Section was not enacted as a part of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 which comprises this chapter. Section was formerly classified to section 99 of this title.

Amendments

1946—Act Aug. 13, 1946, struck out “but this shall not apply to consular agents, who shall be paid one-half of the fees received in their offices, up to a maximum sum of one thousand dollars in any one year, the other half being accounted for and paid into the Treasury of the United States.”

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 1946 AmendmentAmendment by act Aug. 13, 1946, effective three months after Aug. 13, 1946.

Repeals

Act Aug. 13, 1946, ch. 957, title XI, § 1131(26), 60 Stat. 1037, cited as a credit to this section, was repealed by Pub. L. 96–465, title II, § 2205(1), Oct. 17, 1980, 94 Stat. 2159.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

22 U.S.C. § 4223

Title 22Foreign Relations and Intercourse

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73