PALIKIR, Pohnpei—On September 14th , 2021, the Honorable Teresa Filepin, Consul General of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) based in the U.S. Territory of Guam, sent a request to the Department of Foreign Affairs for the Consulate to be temporarily closed, with Consulate staff reverting to remote-only work. The cause for the request is due to two of the Consulate’s staff testing positive for COVID-19. Follow-up testing confirms that all other remaining staff are negative for the virus. The request for temporary closure has been granted, and so the Consulate is closed until further notice.
The practical effect for FSM citizens resulting from the temporary closure is that essential consular services, such as passport applications, will be indefinitely unavailable. Unless citizens are being directly engaged by the Consulate for repatriation efforts, Consulate staff will be unavailable to them. Conversely, all citizens who are presently engaged in pre-quarantine, or have been in direct communication with the Consulate for forthcoming repatriation operations, can continue to expect the currently scheduled repatriation quarantines and flights to continue unabated.
