What to do if I lost my passport before flight in another country?

Question

I'm just asking this question for my info. I will be traveling from India to Amsterdam on a short trip.

What should you do if you lose your passport or the passport gets stolen (especially in a Schengen country)?

As I read on the Internet that if someone loses his passport, the following things have to be done:

• Contact the airline immediately and change the flight date to at least 2 months ahead because it will take at least 2 months to get a new passport.
• Contact the nearest police station and file the report of lost passport
• Go to the embassy of your country to apply for a new passport. This will take 2 months after applying

Until you get the new passport you will have to stay in town for approximately 2 months. So you should have extra money for that.

Is the above information correct? Please reply if you have a more detailed and more accurate answer.

Answer 1

Contact your country's closest embassy. Bring as much documentation about yourself as you can. They will issue a temporary travel document you can use in lieu of a passport.

Answer 2

When preparing your flight, get all your documents scanned (passports, visas, e-tickets) and keep copies with you and people travelling with you. Leave the pdf files on the internet in a place where you will be able to reprint them abroad (a gmail account, or a dropbox directory for instance).

That way, getting new/emergency documents will be easier at your consulate.

Answer 3

Precautions:

• Keep some spare cash, credit card, and ID separate from what you are carrying, if possible.
• Carry a photocopy of your passport and other important documents with you, separate from the originals.
• Leave copies of these important documents with a dependable friend or relative. (Mouviciel's idea of using dropbox is great.)
• Register with your country's embassy/consulate so that they have your info.

What to do if it happens:

1. Report the problem to your airline if you think you will miss your flight.
2. Report to the police and get a police report.
3. Visit your country's embassy or consulate and get help.

Anecdote

Something similar happened to me: I was mugged (jumped) and my passport, money, and other forms of ID were stolen. My backpack was stashed elsewhere, but unfortunately I hadn't left any of these valuable things in my backpack, since I didn't know whether that location was safe.

Losing not only my passport but also my money and ID revealed the problem that it is nearly impossible to get anything done with neither an ID nor any money! To get around this problem, my relative wired money (via Western Union) to someone I had met just a few days earlier in my travel (a trusted stranger).

The day after the mugging, I filed a report at a police station, and then went to the U.S. embassy with my sad story. I had a relative fax them a copy of the identification page of my passport. Based on this, the police report, and my rather convincing black eye, they issued me a temporary passport within a few hours for the usual fee of about $60 and passport photos taken immediately prior. This temporary passport had a validity of 1 year, and contained the restriction that, while it could be used for travel, it could not be used as proof of identity or citizenship.

I was traveling overland, so I didn't have any booked flights to deal with.

Amusingly, I later had this passport validated as proof of identity and extended to a full 10 years validity. You can imagine that I had to tell the whole story every time I crossed a border and the inspectors saw my ridiculous post-mugging photo.

Answer 4

If you lose your passport while traveling, contact your nearest consulate immediately. They will usually be able to provide you with a temporary document that's at least good enough for you to travel back home. Getting a temporary passport might take relatively long compared to a short trip, but a few days at the worst, not the usual delay in getting a normal passport.

The delay may make you miss your flight home. Check your travel insurance (or even your regular insurance) to see if it will pay for the incurred cost.

Answer 5

This is going to vary depending on your country, the country where you lose your passport, and what you lose besides your passport. If your country has a consulate or embassy in the country you're in, you can go there in person and bring things to simplify the issuing of a replacement passport. For example, family members who still have their own passports and are vouching for you, other ID, and so on. This is one reason people suggest leaving your passport in the hotel room - separating your ID makes it less likely you will lose all of it at once.

If your country doesn't have consular services there, things get harder. Maybe it all has to be done by courier. I still think months is an overestimate though. Perhaps a week? And you will spend a LOT of money on rush fees and long distance phone calls.

The worst story I heard, 20+ years ago now, was from a South African. At that time there was little or no consular presence for South Africa outside the country - this was at the time of sanctions. The story was that her friend was in Australia and his South African passport expired. The Australians weren't going to deport him, but he couldn't get a new passport anywhere in Australia, couldn't leave to get one anywhere else, and he had to stay there for seven YEARS until he qualified for an Australian one. The woman who told me the story (in Canada) was explaining why she had to schedule an expensive trip home to renew her own passport because she didn't want to be stranded in Canada. I am still not sure if I believed it.

If you lose your passport (or it's taken from you), your first call should NOT be to the airline. Start with the police and then your embassy. Ask your embassy what to do about your tickets. Only if you discover the loss IN THE AIRPORT would I start with the airline.

Answer 6

My family and I had our passports stolen 2 days before we weres supposed to return home from Portugal to the UK - so we spent a day in the British Consulate (yes, all day) to get emergency passports (good for one use only - to get us back to the UK on our scheduled flight) and then we had to sort out new ones - which took a full day at the Passport Office in Glasgow.

It was a pain in the neck, sure, but you shouldn't be stuck for two months in the wrong country. Each country may do things differently, but one of the services your embassy/consulate should provide is assistance like this.