Narrative:

On flight X to ZZZZ. Weather was marginal with thunderstorms in the area. It's our understanding that an aircraft blew a tire on xxr; which in turn closed down the runway. With weather in the area; ATC began holding aircraft. After a while in holding we were eventually cleared in. My first officer spoke fluent spanish and began hearing that they were assigning the VOR DME xxl approach. We do not have that approach in our manuals at company. We briefed the rnv GPS or ILS DME xxr with a side step to xxl. Upon reaching 12;000 feet; we were cleared to intercept a radial for the VOR DME xxl approach. We advised ATC that we were unable to accept that approach and asked for the rnv or ILS xxr to side step to xxl. There was confusion with ATC with what exactly we were asking. They continued to inform us that xxr was closed; which we were aware of; after many attempts to request the rnv or ILS xxr we were instructed to hold. Meanwhile the entire time this was transpiring we were heading straight into the weather and also worried about the mountains in front of us. After we were given holding instructions; I decided we didn't have enough fuel to sort the mess out; so we requested a diversion to ZZZZ2. After a long and confusing delay on the ground we were able to return to ZZZZ. It would have been a much longer delay and possible overnight if my first officer weren't fluent in spanish.if we had the VOR DME xxl/right in our manuals this entire event would have been avoided.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: After holding for a closed runway and with foreign ATC confusion about available approaches (assigned VOR approach not available in crew's EFB); crew diverted to an alternate airport.

Narrative: On Flight X to ZZZZ. Weather was marginal with thunderstorms in the area. It's our understanding that an aircraft blew a tire on XXR; which in turn closed down the runway. With weather in the area; ATC began holding aircraft. After a while in holding we were eventually cleared in. My First Officer spoke fluent Spanish and began hearing that they were assigning the VOR DME XXL Approach. We do not have that approach in our manuals at Company. We briefed the RNV GPS or ILS DME XXR with a side step to XXL. Upon reaching 12;000 feet; we were cleared to intercept a radial for the VOR DME XXL Approach. We advised ATC that we were unable to accept that approach and asked for the RNV or ILS XXR to side step to XXL. There was confusion with ATC with what exactly we were asking. They continued to inform us that XXR was closed; which we were aware of; after many attempts to request the RNV or ILS XXR we were instructed to hold. Meanwhile the entire time this was transpiring we were heading straight into the weather and also worried about the mountains in front of us. After we were given holding instructions; I decided we didn't have enough fuel to sort the mess out; so we requested a diversion to ZZZZ2. After a long and confusing delay on the ground we were able to return to ZZZZ. It would have been a much longer delay and possible overnight if my First Officer weren't fluent in Spanish.If we had the VOR DME XXL/R in our manuals this entire event would have been avoided.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.