united-states congress
I am a US citizen but have never lived in the US. Who is my Congress member?
<ul>
<li>This seemed like the most appropriate SE site to ask this question. If you can think of anywhere better please feel free to migrate it there.</li>
</ul>
<p>I was born outside the United States to American parents, and am therefore a US citizen (social security number and all). However, apart from short visits, I've never actually lived in the US (nor voted in US elections etc.)</p>
<p>I have a relatively urgent (passport related) issue with the local US embassy. A friend told me it may be beneficial if I could contact my Congressional representative, but as I've never lived in the US I don't know who that would be. The whole &quot;letter-to-your-congressperson&quot; dynamic is also new to me. Should I just pick one? Would they know I'm not actually their constituent?</p>

<p>You would check with the authorities in the state where your parents last lived. Actually, you can write to any congressperson, and they can pay attention to you or ignore you as they like. (This also applies to people who live in the US; if you think a representative other than your own will be more likely to follow your request, you can write to them instead.) The reason it's most common to write to your own representative is that they have a political motivation to consider your request (you are more likely to vote for them if they do what you ask). If you were to vote for a congressperson, that would be in the district where your parents lived (but that is governed by state law).</p>

<p>Although you don’t have a member of Congress, I would recommend that you contact the chair of the <a href="https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee</a> that oversees your area, for example, “Africa, Health, and Global Human Rights” or “Asia, the Pacific, Central Asia and Nonproliferation.”  (You might also try the ranking member of the other party, if you expect their staffers to be more sympathetic.)  You might also have a relative in the United States contact their members of Congress.</p>
<p>You didn’t receive an absentee ballot to vote in the last federal election (or you would know which representative you voted for or against), but as you probably know, you could vote in the Democratic presidential primary, as a Democrat Abroad.</p>
