PRIA Logo™
Title 18, Crimes and Criminal ProcedureRelease 119-102

§3493 Deposition to Authenticate Foreign Documents

Title 18 › PART II — CRIMINAL PROCEDURE › CHAPTER 223 — WITNESSES AND EVIDENCE › § 3493

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

A consular officer who gets an order to take testimony must follow that order. The officer must swear in each witness, question them carefully, and make a written or typed record of their answers. The record must be made by the officer, someone he supervises, or the witness in the officer’s presence, and the witness must sign it. Any foreign document about which testimony is given must be attached and the witnesses who vouch for it must sign. If all lawyers for the parties are present at an examination based on written questions, they can agree to let the witness answer extra oral questions. The officer must have an interpreter when one is needed or asked for by a party or their lawyer.

Full Legal Text

Title 18, §3493

Crimes and Criminal Procedure, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The consular officer to whom any commission authorized under section 3492 of this title is addressed shall take testimony in accordance with its terms. Every person whose testimony is taken shall be cautioned and sworn to testify the whole truth and carefully examined. His testimony shall be reduced to writing or typewriting by the consular officer taking the testimony, or by some person under his personal supervision, or by the witness himself, in the presence of the consular officer and by no other person, and shall, after it has been reduced to writing or typewriting, be subscribed by the witness. Every foreign document, with respect to which testimony is taken, shall be annexed to such testimony and subscribed by each witness who appears for the purpose of establishing the genuineness of such document. When counsel for all the parties attend the examination of any witness whose testimony is to be taken on written interrogatories, they may consent that oral interrogatories in addition to those accompanying the commission may be put to the witness. The consular officer taking any testimony shall require an interpreter to be present when his services are needed or are requested by any party or his attorney.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Historical and Revision Notes

Based on section 695c of title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., Judicial Code and Judiciary (June 20, 1936, ch. 640, § 4, 49 Stat. 1563).

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

18 U.S.C. § 3493

Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102