Lost or Stolen Passport? What to Do in the First 24 Hours
Losing a passport is stressful — especially abroad. What you do in the first 24 hours makes everything after it easier. Here's the order to do things in.
1. Retrace your steps — quickly
Check your bags, your hotel room and the last few places you visited, and call any taxi or transport company you used. Give it an hour or two, not a day: if it's been stolen, you want to report it fast.
2. Report it to the police
Ask for a written report or reference number. Many passport offices, embassies and travel insurers ask for one, and it's much harder to get later.
3. Report it to your passport authority
Reporting a passport lost or stolen cancels it, so nobody else can use it — even if you find it again later. At home, this is usually done online or at the passport office. Abroad, contact your country's embassy or consulate.
4. Apply for a replacement — or an emergency document
If you're at home, apply for a replacement passport. If you're abroad and need to travel soon, your embassy may issue an emergency travel document to get you home or to your next destination. You'll typically need:
- proof of identity and citizenship — a copy of your passport helps enormously
- the police report
- recent passport photos — our photo resizer can size a phone photo correctly
- your travel booking, if you're asking for urgent help
5. Sort out what was inside it
Visas and residence permits in a lost passport usually need re-issuing or transferring to the new one — ask the authority that issued them. Let your airline know if you have a flight booked, and your travel insurer if you're claiming costs.
Make the next one easier
The single most useful thing you can have when a passport goes missing is a secure copy of it. Keep one in Remindon, with end-to-end encryption, and you'll have the passport number, dates and photo page to hand at the police station and the embassy — wherever you are.
Procedures differ by country. Your passport authority's and embassy's websites have the exact steps for yours.
