The Office of American Spaces developed11 these standards (PDF 1817) to provide American Spaces, Embassies/Consulates and host organizations with guidelines for the services and programs an American Space should offer, the resources that should be available, and how the American Space should look and feel to a visitor.

The three-level scale (bronze, silver, gold) provides a set of benchmarks for self-assessing where an American Space stands on each of the elements and for setting developmental goals. There is no expectation that an American Space should meet the highest level on any given element, but should strive to continually improve, especially on the elements that are most important to policy objectives in the country. This self-assessment should be conducted once a year, preferably by September.