Professional and courteous but no help what so ever when it comes to theft/pickpocketing cases. My…read morebag was stolen and I actually caught one of the guys who were running away. They arrested him but when I went to submit a report, they had no record of my case nor did the officer act like anything would be done. I realize my airpods were in my bag so I located it on the "Find My" app and showed it to the officer. He just told me nothing can be done. Pretty much I have to hope the thief has a change of heart, turns himself and my bag in, and only then will the hotel that I stayed at during my trip be notified... Useless...

My passport was either lost or stolen (all I know is that when I looked for it in Nice it was gone,…read moreand I had it in my pocket earlier that day). Given that the US Consulate in Nice is no longer in existence, and the one in Lyon was closed the week I was there, Barcelona was the next best option for me since we were flying out of Madrid. Although the US Consulate doesn't officially open until 9am, I got there at 8:30am, and would recommend that others do the same. When I got there I was 3rd in line, and they started letting us in at 8:45am.By 10:15am I had a brand new passport in my hand. YES, IN UNDER 2 HOURS I HAD MY NEW PASSPORT IN HAND. THINGS YOU SHOULD BRING WITH YOU FOR PASSPORT REPLACMENT: As stated on the Consulates web-page (https://barcelona.usconsulate.gov/citizen-services/passports/stolen.html) you should bring. -- your drivers license or an old passport -- 5 Euros in 1E and 2E coins (to operate the passport photo machine) -- a credit card (to pay the $135 fee), or enough cash (in dollars or Euros) to pay the $135 processing fee -- a filled out version IN BLACK INK of the Application for US passport (if you can't print one out and fill it out beforehand, they can give you one there, but it will probably slow you down a bit) -- a filled out version IN BLACK INK of the Statement of Loss (if you can't print one out and fill it out beforehand, they can give you one there, but it will probably slow you down a bit) -- a police report, if you have one Half of me wants to give 4 stars because: I wasn't allowed to bring my backpack, my water, my cellphone, or my Kindle in with me (security held onto that stuff for me while they directed me to another building). But, given both that their website was very informative and let me know everything that I needed to bring with me, and given that in under 2 hours I had a new passport. and dealt only with very friendly and efficient people, I think that 5 stars is well warranted.

The only thing they know how to do is passports (and apparently they do those well), and have…read moreadmitted, in writing, to a complete lack of competence for other standard services in US citizen services, so they keep trying to push passport applications for everything. Renunciation (removing US citizenship voluntarily and by request of a dual citizen) IS NOT a passport application. They've delayed a basic completed (on my side) and paid for renunciation procedure for over two years this time (8 years in total so far) because they do not know how to send it to the US for processing because its standard form is several more pages than a passport application. That's $2350 I paid, plus all the airfare, visits, documentation (completed to their specifications with appointments attended at their specified times, etc.). They have cost me well over $50,000 (I'm being kind with that number, the cumulative has exceeded 1/4 million in reality) so far in expenses due to their delays that often come with random copy paste emails with a variety of random excuses. I'm actually not rich and this is going to bury me for life. I'm being buried so someone can be lazy and feel that they can be because they have unchecked power over others.