Assistance in Emergency Situations

If you - an Austrian citizen - are in need of assistance in cases of emergency, please do not hesitate to contact the Embassy in Ottawa (Ph.: 1 613 789 1444 or, if you are calling outside our business hours and on the weekends, please dial 1 613 451 1444). However, the Embassy can neither replace nor substitute for the local police, ambulance, medical aid, and court & legal institutions.

If you call us in an emergency, please have the following information handy:

• Last and first names
• How to contact/reach you (phone, cell, fax, e-mail)
• What did happen when, where, and how
• Whom to contact in Austria

Austrian Citizen Service and Officer-on-duty
In case of an emergency, Austrian citizens may call the Austrian Citizen Service (Bürgerservice) at the Austria Foreign Ministry in Vienna (Phone: 01143 501150 4411) at any time (24/7). Further, if you - an Austrian citizen - need immediate assistance, there is a duty officer at the Embassy who can be reached by phone outside our business hours and on the weekends at 1 613 451 1444.

If you seek advice in legal or medical matters, you may also contact the Embassy's legal adviser or its physicians respectively (please ask in advance if there will be any fees involved):

Legal Advisers:

Reinhart J. Aulinger
Stewart, Aulinger & Company
1200-805 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC V5Z 1K1
Ph. (604) 879 0291
e-mail: sac(at)stewart-aulinger.ca

Physicians:

Dr. Alexander Lang
220 Greenwood Ave.
Toronto, ON M4L 2R2
Ph. (416) 463 6642
Fax (416) 463 6727

Dr. Robert Stopainig
Misericordia Community Hospital INW-15
16940 87 Ave.
Edmonton, AB T5R 4H5
Ph. (780) 735 2585
Fax (780) 735 2588
e-mail: stopain(at)telusplanet.net

If you (an Austrian citizen) are arrested by Canadian police and put into custody, insist on the police notifying the Embassy or a Consulate.

The Embassy or Consulate can then help you both notify your family and friends (in Austria) and find you an attorney (here in Canada). Further, embassy and consular officials have the right to visit you in prison and to write letters to you.

The Embassy, however, can neither represent you nor act on your behalf in legal matters before a court of law or any other legal institution.

If you have been robbed or have lost your money and/or documents, please proceed to a local police station and file a police report immediately. Do not forget to call your bank and credit card companies to report your lost or stolen cards (ATM, credit card).

In general, the Embassy does not have funds at its disposal to borrow you money for financing a continued stay in Canada or a return flight to Austria. Please contact relatives and friends in Austria and ask them to send you money either via Western Union (money can the be picked up at any Western Union branch) or, if this is not possible, via the Austrian Foreign Ministry (the money is then forwarded to you by an embassy or consular official at the Embassy or Consulate).

Emergency Passport

For your trip back home to Austria, the Embassy can provide you with an emergency passport valid for up to a year. It usually takes at least 24 hours before such an emergency passport will be issued.

In addition, we recommend that you make a copy of your passport before leaving Austria and taking this copy with you on your trip. If need be, you can then show your copy to an embassy or consular official.

You must present to the Embassy or a Consulate General a copy of the police report you filed. Plus, you must prove your citizenship and your identity (by means of a friend, relative, driver's license, etc.). Two passport photos and the passport application form (filled out and signed) must also be submitted.

Please note that you must present your emergency passport to the Austrian authorities (in Austria or at an embassy or consulate abroad) to have it cancelled (deadline for cancellation = expiration date of passport).

Further information and the passport application form are available at

If an Austrian citizen passes away in Canada, the Embassy can help you with the administrative proceedings that follow the death of an individual abroad (how to obtain a death certificate, disposition of remains etc.). The Embassy, however, cannot legally represent you (acting on your behalf) in court or before a Canadian institutions.
If the deceased has received Austrian retirement benefits, please do not forget to notify the Austrian Pension Agency of his/her death. 

Austrian and Canadian estate laws are based on different law traditions and therefore structured differently. In addition, estate proceedings fall within provincial jurisdiction which adds another layer of complicating issues.

Effective 1 January 2005, Austrian law now stipulates that an Austrian court handles probate/estate issues in the following instances only:

• Austrian real property of Austrians and foreigners
• Austrian personal property of both Austrians (having resided in Austria or abroad) and foreigners having resided in Austria before their death
• personal property (located abroad) of Austrians having resided in Austria - only upon application by potential heir

Real property (located abroad) of Austrian citizens is never dealt with by an Austrian probate court.

Depending on both where the property concerned is located (in Austria or abroad) and which court (Austrian or Canadian) is charged with handling the probate/estate, different tax regulations come to bear (Austrian and/or Canadian tax laws). Austria and Canada have not concluded a double taxation treaty on estate and gift taxes yet.

In short, estate matters get pretty complicated once probate laws of at least two countries are involved. It is highly recommended that, in such cases, you contact an attorney in both Austria (called "Notar") and Canada. The Embassy is not authorized to legally represent you in probate and estate issues.