Usually, it would be a good idea to leave half of your IDs, credit/debit cards in a safe at hotel and bring other half with you. Do the same with cash. What I do is if I bring my ID with me, then I lock up the passport, vice-versa. Print photocopies of your passport and important documents is also a good idea and lock them up in a safe or a separate place from the originals.

Emergency replacements of passports are usually done within same day. I remember a few years ago, a good friend of mine from Spain had his backpack stolen in the sub-way of New York. We were on our way back to Canada as we were going to take the greyhound bus to Montreal. So naturally, a EU National may not enter Canada without a passport so we were stuck in NYC for the night. It was awful and of course I couldn't just left him behind and returned to Canada. So the whole night, we were running like crazy, first filling up police report and other documents - the guy was not so good in English and I couldn't speak for him most of the time though I translated most of it anyway. Thankfully, the police officer, a black male, who took the case understands Spanish somewhat. By the time we were done, it was like 2AM. In our case, there was no good Hilton looking for you when you need it. I realized the next morning would be headache because we would have to get him a replacement passport as soon as possible or he was not going anywhere. So at 2 AM, I called Starwood to book a hotel in NYC. While the SPG reservation located in the west coast still showed today's date, the hotel in NYC is already in the next day, so impossible to book a hotel for tonight on the SPG line. Then, I called the hotel direct, they somehow didn't take me seriously, thinking I am one of those drunk people in NYC calling at 2AM in the morning. I said that when I asked them to guarantee me a room, they said: "Just come, we have plenty of rooms." No asking for credit cards, nothing. While the SPG reservation can quote me a good rate, the hotel charged me Rack rate when I got there. And they looked surprised that I actually went and yes, no upgrade. By now you can guess it's one those god hated Sheratons in NYC. That night was miserable and I ate the cost of the entire bill because my friend was just a University student from a not so well-off area of southern Spain who hasn't planned for this kind of 'accident'. I remember I barely slept even though I was tired. He told me to sleep but he was the one keep asking those 'what if' questions the whole night, arrgggh!

Next morning was hell. Red-eye is one thing. First, we had to find out the Spanish consulate information in NYC which we had the help from the hotel concierge. He called and the consulate told him that they can only offer him a document that allows him to return to Spain, but not a passport. He almost fainted on the spot because his month long vacation in North America was just about to begin. I consoled him and asked him to try with the Embassy in Washington D.C. as I had a hunch that the answer of the Consulate seemed akward to me even though I am not familiar with Spanish regulations. In the meantime, it was a mind game of back-up plans after back-up plans and basically, I had to think for two. On one end, I had to calm him down and said: "Look, worst come to worst, we'll be stuck in the U.S., so be it. We'll figure a plan entirely within the U.S. then. You just skip Canada, that's all." and on the other hand, find a way to get his replacement passport. So once we contacted the Embassy in D.C., they said of course he could get a replacement passport if all the criteria are met. Guess what, when we gave the NYC consulate a 2nd call, asking for an explanation in the discrepency, the person answering admits that his boss tells them to use this answer because there are so many Spanish speaking people claiming to be Spanish nationals lost in NYC for obvious reasons!? You know I can understand the problem they faced but what they were doing was not right and unethical. If that was not enough, the office closed at 1PM and we were like almost 11 AM if I remember correctly. We had less than 2 hours to get to the office on the other side of Manhattan and before that, bring 2 photos for the passport. So it was like participating in the Amazing Race for the next 2 hours - find a photo shop to get the right size photos done, then bring the photos to the Consulate before the cut off time. At the end of the day, everything was done, wow... Thank god, it was taken care of. I did call the Canadian consulte for emergency services the night it happened from the police office to see if there is a way we could get him into Canada without the passport considering this situation as he still has EU/Spanish citizenship ID with him, got a flat no as answer.

I say the moral of this story is be ready that sometimes the Consulate may not be very helpful at times so don't take a first no as the answer, try other ways too.

An additional information, if you need emergency passport/consular services and the Canadian is not available, you may contact the nearest Australian/British office for assistance. Canada has an agreement with them to provide you with emergency passports. Say if the Canadian office is closed and you need to fly out tomorrow and the Australian one is opened, then you can go to the Aussie for assistance.

[This message has been edited by Guava (edited 08-03-2003).]