How to Backup Your Passport Information When Traveling on Vacation

Whether you are traveling to Mexico or Europe, it's good to leave prepared in case you lose your passport.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Passport
• Scanner
• Internet Access
• Computer

1. Create a scan your passport and print off a paper copy. Keep this copy in your suitcase should your real passport be lost or stolen.

2. Create a digital copy of your scan for your computer, preferably a color picture copy in a file format like .JPG.

3. If you haven't, create an e-mail account you can access from any computer. I use GMAIL but there are others out there. Send your passport picture to this e-mail account. Should your luggage get lost as well, you only need to find the nearest Internet cafe, log on to your internet mail account, and print off a copy.

Tips & Warnings

• You might want to have important phone numbers (as well as a phone card #) saved in your e-mail account as well.
• If you cannot find an Internet Cafe, a police station can help once you explain your situation.
• You should have copies for your entire family- You can even make backups of important papers and send them to your e-mail account as well in case of an emergency like the wildfires in California, etc.
• Even if you have an e-mail account from your cable company or AOL, get one from a service like YAHOO or Google and use that when traveling. I've found that YAHOO and Google load much quicker than AOL or my cable e-mail accounts when I'm in Europe.

[Tramonti]

on 11/19/2007 Thank you for mentioning that. I've never had a problem in Spain, England, Ireland, France, or Italy but you are right- there are some networks that are spotty.

[onehappylassie]

on 11/19/2007 Good points, however some networks won't let you to open your gmail emailbox. Happened to me before. Yahoo is a better choice in my opinion.